Over the history of MMOs and even other genres, there has been a representable and recognizable feature to the graphics and gameplay of games. It comes with being able to distinguish what country/company the makers of that particular game happen to be or being able to come reasonably close to guessing who the man behind the curtain is with just a glance. Another "putting the face to the name" game is Aion for the PC. Made by the well known Korean company NCSoft (Lineage, City of Heroes, Guild Wars), this MMORPG is another sci-fi fantasy fiction MMO but from what I can translate from forums and reviews, contains less hardship and grindy-ness than the typical run of the mill Korean MMO.
The graphics are some of the highest quality above and beyond FFXI, Everquest, and WoW, allowing for excessive video card settings whether it's to be a big time showoff or for visual stimulation. This brings with it the problem of using an older computer to run the game and having to deal with graphical errors besides networking ones if you are still forcing a dinosaur to play with hover-boards and space guns.
One look at the game and there should be some tingling of deja vu occurring in the back of your head. NCSoft has taken what works in games such as WoW and built from those ideas. The interface down to the action bars, chat logs, and menus all look eerily similar to WoW. From what I can tell it is all fully customizable with the ability to resize and move things as you see fit. Fighting and combat text looks much like it's predecessor City of Heroes as does the extremely large character customization feature when doing character creation and item customizing. This allows for people to not fall into the Age of Conan issue of all looking exactly the same from level 1 - 20. Class selection is the usual D+D montage as seen by the video below.
Aion boasts both PvE as well as PvP, also sporting what it calls PvEvP where races can fight along side of NPCs against opposing races. Quick transportation is available by means of metamorphosing flying creatures but a new idea is indulged upon when it comes to close proximity's. Not the water wing kind of your childhood but more like the advertising ploys of Victoria Secret. Missing the laciness and tassel-liness, after completing part of the main quest you are given angel wings to allow you to explore areas in the upward direction and in essence becoming a flying mount. A nice addition to this is the ability to fight foes in the air making for an even larger variety of motion and fighting sequences as well as new challenges with PvP.
What's interesting about Aion is it has already been released in the Far East for over a year now. This will make the release to North America and Europe a far more mature one in terms of bug issues and latency problems that other recent MMOs have suffered from on initial release and should keep more people interested beyond the one month break or make point.
There has been enough time since the initial release of WoW for companies to shrug their shoulders and give in to completely running with everything that works for keeping an MMO fun and easy enough to play. Quests are given to the player with easy directions, such as waypoints, and with the old question mark/exclamation point indicators. English folk that are playing the Korean version now can still accomplish the quests without the ability to read the text. Items when equipped become soul bound and can no longer resold keeping auction house enthusiasts from the ability to hold the market hostage (FFXI). Party play is done with an almost carbon copy interface to WoW showing buffs, debuffs, health bars, etc, all in the same arrangement.
The setting may not be for everyone, a lot of ideas have been done before, and the drudgery of having to start over again make Aion a game for those that can put all that aside. It's probably not the best MMO to start with for those that are new to MMORPGs, but for those looking to branch off slightly, specifically from WoW, may have a good transitional feel with Aion. I can see that this is NCSoft's answer to WoW and I have decided to see for myself if Aion will stand the test of time. Open beta weekends are available to those that pre-purchase either from NCSoft directly or from Gamestop or Amazon.
Andrew Bird - Fitz and Dizzyspells
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