An MMO that gives you wings.

The website of IGN has released a progress report of MMORPG Aion: Tower of Eternity at Games Convention 2008. NCSoft's Aion offers players a colorful, stylish visual presentation, and a few mechanics that sound interesting.

The details are as below:

There are certainly a lot of choices out there for players looking for an MMO experience, all with their own takes on PvP and PvE gameplay. NCSoft's Aion offers both types, a colorful, stylish visual presentation, and a few mechanics that sound interesting.

Like most games in the genre you start out with character creation and class selection. You play as either the light-skinned Elyos or more menacing Asmodians who occupy opposite sides of Aion's game world. They happen to hate each other, and so PvP contests ensure in the Abyss, a zone located between the races' home territory.

The games classes appear to be the same for both sides: a warrior, scout, mage, and priest. At level 10, you get the opportunity to specialize your class. So, for instance, a warrior can specialize as a damage-dealing gladiator or a templar, which functions more like a tank. During the character creation process, you can tweak the hair syles, face, and colors of your male or female character model on a general level. For the more discerning player, it's possible to open up an extensive number of sliders to change all sorts of features like whether your character is smiling, waist width, and neck length. Then you can preview how your character would look in low-level, mid-level, and high-level armor.

click here for full image

Combat centers on combo chains. You unleash one skill that, if it hits, opens up several others. Then you make a selection how to proceed forward and if your attacks continue to be successful, your chain will continue. From what we saw of the game being played, the skill icons would pop up right next to the target, making it easy to tell what options were open for the next step in the combo chain.

In addition to the skills you get as your character levels up, there's a stigma system that allows you to, whether through drops from mobs or trading with another player, equip a limited number of stones that give you access to other classes' skills. While in combat you also build a divine points gauge which can be used to activate special attacks.

Read More Here.

Resource: IGN

More screenshots on next page.

Related Stories: Aion's Associate Producer Talks about Aion

Aion: The Quest for Wings

Aion First English Trailer

Aion: Perfect Combination of Two Styles

Aion Going to PAX 2008