Aika Closed Beta Review

Aika Closed Beta Review By Aeskor Aeskor is a games enthusiast with a strong opinion. He has previously worked as a freelance games journalist writing articles.

Sadly, I hadn't heard about Aika until the closed beta keys were being handed out, but as soon as I began to look into what it was like, my excitement grew.

Prans, babes, guns, great visuals. Sure, count me in.

And so came the closed Beta launch. I logged in and created a character. My class of choice: the dual gunner. Usually I play as a male character (given that I, myself, am male) but, honestly, it was a nice change to play as a female character for once. In fact, it gets so much better when you realise that the emotes for your character are sexy, the armour is sexy, the boob jiggle physics are sexy et al. And so, as you can tell, I was quite happy with my dual gunner.

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AIKA Gallery

The other classes and their gender restrictions are as follows:
Male – Warrior, Rifleman, Warlock
Female – Paladin, Cleric, Dual Gunner

Some may find these gender restrictions restricting. I didn't, but that is most likely because of the boob physics.

One thing I did find a little restricting, however, was the level of customisation of your character. Having recently played games like Aionand Champions Onlinethe bar for character customisation has been set quite high. In those games it was almost limitless, here though—quite the opposite; very limited.

Once your character is created you must allocate them a pin number which you must type in each login, I suppose so as to avoid the chance of hacking.

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Now, as soon as you enter the world, or more precisely, as soon as you can tear your eyes away from your characters hind quarters, you'll notice the world of Aika looks great. The environments are lush and varied and, the music is great; it all feels very alive and welcoming.

Environments go a long way in games lately, and a lot of people base their judgements on the game on how the visuals appeal to them. For instance, Aion, to me, felt dull, like the world was clouded. This could have had something to do with the fact that I played Asmodian, but back to my point: Aika feels like Aion but drenched in sun and with a smile on its face; a welcome, needed and refreshing change.

The art style isn't anything groundbreaking (again think Aion) however it's still a very original style, full of cute fighting women and charming adventurer lads.

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AIKA Gallery

The user interface is simple, and from what I could tell, bug-free. It's your basic skills-on-the-number-keys-down-the-bottom deal, and it works quite well with the fast-paced combat system.

There were certain connection issues that prevented me from being fully immersed in the game and some other minor glitches here and there, but I'm sure that they will get fixed before release.

Another thing that bugged me (excuse the pun) was the fact that you can't jump over a lot of knee high fences and other obstacles, making them quite the nuisance on occasion. It is an especially annoying problem in the cities, forcing you to take the long way a lot of the time. Again, not a huge issue, just an annoyance I found. Whether or not they plan to deal with this is yet to be seen.

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AIKA Gallery

The combat system itself it satisfying, and as I said, it follows the tried-and-tested formula above. It has a certain flair about it though, it's doesn't feel as static as World of Warcraft, and this is mostly due to the quality of the animations throughout the combat. Every attack has a very smooth animation, and coupled with the great sound within the game, each attack has a certain kick to it, which adds a tonne to the experience.