Aion—the next big thing? Part 2

There was so much to cover in my initial look at Aion during their 3^rd closed beta that I simply couldn’t fit it all in last time.  Instead, I went with a general overview of my initial impressions.  However, with the next closed beta event coming up next weekend, I wanted to go ahead and get the rest of my “initial” impressions out of the way to make room for a more detailed look at the game after my next experience.   Believe me, I’ll be paying close attention and giving the game a thorough going over.  I’ve had too many disappointments with MMO releases to ever really be wide-eyed and optimistic about a new MMO ever again.

The Class System.  Aion uses what I feel is a return to a “traditional” way of choosing a class.  They provide you with four archetypes: warrior, scout, priest and mage to choose from when you first create your character.  NCSoft’s argument for doing this is to allow the player to spend time to get a feel for the class archetype before making a permanent decision.  At level ten, you select your permanent class type.  Warriors can become gladiators or templars.  Scouts can become rangers or assassins.  Priests can become chanters or clerics, and mages can become spiritmasters or sorcerers.    

Bleh.

Personally, I don’t agree.  Many MMO gamers are experienced enough to know what class they want to play at the outset—whether that be scout, tank, priest or finger-wiggler.  I don’t need to spend ten levels learning a “general” style of play before choosing my final class and receiving the abilities that will set me apart.  Instead of getting those at the outset and letting me make a decision as to whether or not it’s a class I’m going to enjoy playing long-term, I have to wait until I’ve slogged through the first ten “general” levels, then spend another 5-10 levels getting a feel for my specific class.  There’s nothing worse than realizing after you’ve spent a lot of time leveling up a character that you don’t like it and having to start over again, which with this system, you’re going to have to do.  Instead of 10-15 levels of repeat, you’re looking at 20-25—half the level cap.  This can take a good bit of time, which brings me to my next point.

The experience pace in Aion is a bit slower than many games I’ve tried.  One word that I hear tossed around a lot when discussing Asian-produced games is “grindfest.”  Is Aion a grindfest?  Well….that depends on your definition.  There IS a level of grindi-ness to the gameplay.  You are not going to zoom through levels to level cap without having to be thorough, do lots of quests and kill lots of mobs.  Crafting as well requires a bit of a grind to advance your skills, by doing work orders, harvesting materials to raise your harvesting skill, etc.

I don’t see this as a negative to this game.  I don’t mind a slower leveling pace.  I enjoy experiencing as much content as possible when playing, and I think a slower experience gain encourages people to actually get out there and experience the game—quests, new zones, mobs, etc.  The vast majority of us will spend our time at level cap, once we’ve reached it, so I’m never in any hurry to get there.  Boredom tends to strike once you’ve seen it all and done it all, so I like to delay that as much as possible in the event that the endgame isn’t fully in place yet.  There is a different mindset out there which seems to believe that a game doesn’t start until you hit the max level, and people race to level cap within a matter of weeks or even days.  I understand the point of view, but I don’t necessarily agree with it.   A well-rounded game gives you content the entire time you are leveling—not just at the beginning, and not just at the end.

Personally, I –like- having to quest to level.  I don’t mind killing lots of mobs, as long as the fights are fun and the zone is exciting.  It’s satisfying to me to watch my harvesting skill tick up a point.  I like feeling like leveling is really an accomplishment—not an entitlement.  There’s a fine line to walk between making something feel impossible (oh my god, I can’t believe my xp bar only moved one bubble after that) and too easy (dude, I finished three quests and dinged).  In my experiences in leveling my Templar up to 15 this past beta, I got the impression that Aion’s struck a good balance thusfar.  It’s when there is no variety, no feel of “new” that a grind becomes, well…a grind.

Now, back to those classes. *shifty eyes*

Only eight classes does seem slightly limiting to me, however, I think NCSoft got it right in that the classes are identical for both factions, Elyos and Asmodean.  After playing WAR for six months, I got to where I hated the “mirror” system, where there was a mirror class for each faction—not identical, but with different abilities that supposedly balanced each other out.  To quote my dear grandmother, rest her soul, “horse hockey” (and she didn’t mean the weird Canadian sport played on ice rinks).  It never worked that way.  Players on either faction end up screaming that their counterpart is over-powered and that the classes are seriously unbalanced.  Sometimes they even were.  Having identical classes will diminish this somewhat, even if it doesn’t eliminate it entirely.  You’re always going to have folks screaming about class imbalance—“I’m a mage and that tank shouldn’t be able to 2 shot me!” or “I’m a scout and that mage shouldn’t be able to nuke me like that!” NERF NERF NERF!!! *ahem*  You get my point.  What I’m trying to say is that in this case, I think that Eight is Enough.

I can’t speak knowledgeably about all of the classes, as I haven’t tried them all yet.  I created a Templar, which is your typical sword and board tank class, and played her to fifteen.  I have to say, I’m satisfied with my character, even if it does seem that the skills are a bit slow in coming.  Combat for my Templar was meh the first few levels, but as I gained more skills and was able to start putting the combat chaining system (see my previous post) in play, it became more entertaining.  The Templar’s survivability is adequate, though I found it odd that my priest buddy seemed to be nearly as tough at the lower levels.  He died a lot less than I did.  Or I could just suck.  Who knows? *wink*

Stay tuned for a more in-depth look at crafting!