Aion doesn’t reinvent the genre at all.  It isn’t perfect, but what developer NCsoft has done, and done quite well, is taken major elements from other games and improved upon them.  Yes, there is a huge leveling curve involved, and yes, you should be prepared to invest a good amount of time playing it – but underneath the wings, clawed feet, and girly looking characters is an solid MMORPG experience well worth trying if you’re a fan of the genre.  There is something for everyone here – MMO vets and newcomers alike will have no problem finding something to like about Aion.

It seems while most MMORPG games released post World of Warcraft only try to emulate WoWs current commercial success and fail to copy the things that originally made WoW so popular in the first place – easy-to-learn-but-difficult-to-master gameplay, a smooth and usable interface, and meaningful “just one more level and then I’ll go to sleep I swear” character progression.  Aion does all this and more, and aside from the obvious parallels one could draw between WoW and Aion, many a time I have found myself impressed with both the level of polish and the addictiveness of the gameplay, both of which reminded me of the feeling I had when first leveling in World of Warcraft.

What minor gripes I have with the game can be counted on one hand, and I’ll get them out of the way first.  The camera control could certainly use some work – often times, I’ll spin the camera around my character in order to get a better look at the surrounding area, only to have it snap back behind my character in a rather abrupt and jarring fashion.  The combat animations are flashy as well – almost too flashy, and often times in groups I’ve found myself wishing for a way to turn off party animations or at least tone them down a bit, lest I suffer from a seizure from looking at the vibrant colors too long.  The last issue isn’t really NCsoft’s fault, but I’d like to see them take more action against gold sellers and gold spam – although to be fair, the problem has gotten a lot better since I first started playing the game (and writing this review!)

Aion’s combat is pretty standard MMO combat, but it does offer some interesting alternative systems to help keep it from getting terribly repetitive and boring.  Aside from the fact that every character can fly (fighting in the air is much more fun than fighting on the ground), Aion also uses a combo chain system as well as a directional attack system.  With the directional attacks, depending on which way your character is moving, you get a bonus to a certain stat – for instance, moving backwards increases your chance to block an attack.

Visually, Aion is the best looking MMORPG I’ve seen, aside from maybe Lord of the Rings Online.  No fancy DirectX 10 filters or anything, Aion runs on the original Far Cry CryEngine and runs extremely well on my machine, but I’m sure anyone with a computer that can run WoW can run Aion with no problems.  Environments are extremely varied – snowy mountains, volcanic wastelands, deserts, they are all here and they all look amazing.  The soundtrack is fitting, providing unique music for each area, ranging from ambient electronica to heavy rock for the battle music.

End game in Aion is focused on the Abyss, a centralized zone where both Elyos and Asmodians quest side by side.  You gain access to the Abyss at level 25, and up until that point the only PvP you’ll see is when random portals open up, through which either side can travel through and attempt to kill other players (although I’ve only ever been zerged to death.)  In the Abyss, however, you get everywhere by flying – and the Abyss is the best area for grinding cash and gear as well as experience and Abyss Points, the latter of which are used to buy gear and PvP items as well as increase your overall Abyss Rank.  There are numerous objectives, fortresses and artifacts, that can be taken by either side for buffs and control of the various Abyss zones, but the most interesting feature of the Abyss is the Balaur – a third, computer controlled faction which can take the same objectives as players.  From a mechanics perspective, the Balaur are there to keep a semblance of balance to the Abyss – if one side is doing too well, the Balaur might attack them, or if both sides are doing well, the Balaur will attack each side equally.  One thing I should note is that even with hundreds of people and Balaur on my screen at once, Aion continued to run without a problem – well above 40 FPS.

Only time can tell if Aion has the staying power to thrive with World of Warcraft – considering the game has been out in Korea for almost a year and did well enough to launch worldwide, I’d say Aion has the most promise out of any of the post Warcraft MMORPG games I’ve played.  NCsoft did a great job with this game – and there is a lot to do and explore in it.  If you’re a MMO vet or a disgruntled WoW player looking to rekindle the feeling of the original World of Warcraft, you’d be hard pressed to do better than Aion.

[A copy of the game and three month press access was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]