September is here and new mmorpgs are close to launch. One of these is Aion, developed by NC Soft Korea. While usually subscription type Asian mmorpgs don’t do very well in west, NC Soft has gather a lot of experience with Lineage 2, and now they applied what they learned into Aion.

Let’s start with character customization. In the former NC Soft games the customization was weak, but here beside the types we can choose for our character head, hair, face, which are 20-30 each, we also have advanced modification where we can delve into modifying everything, from nose width, eyes distance, etc, a system similar to Oblivion and Mount Blade character editor. Same thing applies to the body.

Aion is powered by Crytech engine and from the moment you step in the game you will be surprised by the graphics and atmosphere, from visual up to music. Don’t let this scare you the version they used is well optimized so it doesn’t needs a super computer. I played on max details with a 8800 GTS(320mega), Dual Core 6750 Intel, and 2gigs ram, with 50-60 frames in 1680×1050 all the time, besides crowded places where I had around 30 fps..

First 10 levels are the way they introduce you to this new game, to learn the ropes, and typically NC Soft style,  this happens on island. Help is displayed in pop up windows with voice over and small movie presenting to the important features, which shows that these guys are aiming for big subs numbers, since everything seem so accessible and easy. Not a bad thing, I guess.

Quest background story is well made, and givers have voice over but they involve the same thing the quests in mmorpg had in the last 10 years, with a few minor exceptions. Creatures are on the planes waiting for to kill them through kill quests, courier quests and so on, nothing special here, disappointed; mainstream all the way, but at least we have campaign quests which involve more storytelling, a background, cut scenes, and good rewards in items.

Combat is entertaining, fast and rewarding. Is an upgrade from Lineage 2, with chain skills which are additional abilities that are related to an active skill, so when you use powerful blow with your warrior, you will get to choose from 2 additional chain skills, for the next 2 seconds, one that is continues the combo with a another powerful blow, or a skill that buffs you character defense, which is pretty good (this is the case with an Elyos Warrior). We also have power shards, which are magical stones that improve your damage when used on weapons like the Soul Shots in Lineage 2.

Developing your character is pretty limited since until level 10 you get like 5 skills, and the differences will come from choosing your class specialization from level 10, in my case Warrior goes Gladiator (DPS) or Templar (Tank).

As in Lineage 2, equipment is limited to a few sets, and some of them look alike, but you get different and powerful items from monster drops, which I almost got a complete green set of chain armor which was way better then the shops, and some nice weapons, but I don’t know how this goes on higher levels. On the other side each piece of equipment are socketed and can be customized at first with mana stones, each can give you + HP, MP, attack, dmg, etc, which gives you a way to customize you equipment to your needs.

Character development at first it done through skills, when you level up, some stats are increased, from hp, mana, physical attack and other, but you can only control the skills you buy from trainers, and equipment you buy and customize to increase your specific stats.

At level 10 after you get off from the newbie island you get to use your default wings to fly for one minute, until they recharge which is main marketing feature for this game, and it feels and works pretty well.

If you liked Lineage 2, or you are looking for a new fantasy mmorpg, Aion might be the game for you. It looks great, runs well, has a few features that are not present in other mmorpgs, but is this enough? Will see in the review, as for you, check out our preview video, to see some footage from the first 10 levels.

Watch our gameplay trailer.

Aion - Preview8.5104 Sunday, September 13th, 2009