Aion impressions...

Nice fashion review Nursey! (grin) I personally dislike the Elyosian tails or manes or tailmanes what ever you want to call that hair growing out their back. The cool red glowing eyes are nice though.

Actually I played a few times. These are my thoughts:

Comparing maps between the Asmodians and Elyosians they come up quite similar, but we have seen that in Guild wars (where one dungeon looks suspiciously like another). I was disappointed in the lack of originality. I would have thought a more diverse layout especially at the beginning. The landscape was diverse tbut the layout wasn't. When on the Asmodian forest ran out into the deforested area so does the Elyosian, but for different reasons. The lakes are in the same place in both hemispheres, as is the shoreline. The wildlife is a lot different on both sides.

Spells are like wise similar but enough difrent that you must pay attention. Monking (or priesting as it is called in Aion) is much easier. I got a kick out of just going along and healing anyone that seemed to be in trouble. Only got 1 thanks out of many many heals.

Game play seems more ramped toward single player. I played a mage to level 11 and a priest to level 10 (almost 11). At level 9 priest you are finally able to rez others but no one waits the allowed time for a rez, I tried several times to rez anonymous players but as soon as they die they opt to rez them self at the shrine thus having to fight their way back to where they died at. I suspect as in Guild wars that later levels will be easier done in a group.

Thge interface is nice, you can opt to display your quest and the progress (or lack of) on screen as you game. I liked that. It is not as customizable as GW, I didn't like that.

I have mixed feelings about seeing every other player on the server while questing. Many time I had to compete for monsters to kill, so many players were there doing the same quest that you had to wait for them to rez. Several times people would come in and snatch my goal while I was fighting the monster guarding it....really did not like that.

The builds are no where near as complex as Guild Wars. Skills become available every other level from your class trainer, plus once I ascended I started getting drops with skill books that I can use in the next couple of levels. Plenty of storage once you ascend also, plus you can expand your backpack as you progress.

Flying was awesome, but you start with 60 seconds of flight time, you do not want to wait for the warning if you are in the clouds before starting down, trust me, I learned a new way to die! But flying just above the ground sppeds up your travel and cetain ground critters are easy to hover above and kill, not very effective as a spell caster since you only have 60 sec. Flight time does have spells to boost it and well as tonics. Plus it will extend as you progress. There are also no fly zones so it is not a tactic that is always available. Asmod wings are white (they are the Light side) and Elyos wings are black (from the Dark side).

The Asmod story line was better presented than the Elyos side, as far as explaininjng Ascension (level 10). The entire Elyos side of the beta seemed rushed and hurriewd rather than thoughtful and preplanned (my opinion).

I will try it but as with anything it will be more fun with a guild than doing so alone. I will always be partial to guild wars so I do not see myself as a Aion addict or likely to become one. My second forray into online gaming seems to be a positive experience and I will pay the monthly fee for a while, mostly it will depend on finding a group like yoose guys to play with....not likely to happen.

Ok my turn. you guys hit on a lot of the things I already noticed so I will only make brief comments on those.

I did not get to far in a few hours of latenight playing. Yummy got to level 10, Sadwitchy level 8, and Dark Pammie 10.

1. Character design: I loved all the options. I thought nothing about spending 20-30 minutes designing my toon. YummyTreat is a delisciously pouty lipped blonde elf eared doll with a sweetly vixenlike expression. SadWitchy is a well rumped darkskinned beauty. Dark Pammie is sultry and dark with doe eyes. Pampered was the only one that missed the mark in my intent. It is a lot of fun designing. the only thing that left me scratching my head was the 3 buttons below your toon that outfitted them in differing armor. Did not seem to matter which you chosse...they all outfitted the same once you logged them in. i guess it was just a generic armor model for you to get an idea of how they will appear later in the game.

2. First 5 minutes in the game....This game is gorgeous. A lot of time was spent in the graphics department and I was impressed. The game play....well it felt like a really pretty Runes of Magic to me. The layout and mechanics were nearly identical. That was my first dissapointment. I made Ann create a toon and after she played a few minutes I asked her what she thought. she said "Runes of Magic-like". Impression confirmed.

3. Quests. I agree. Kind of boring and not too exciting or funny. Again....not unlike Runes of Magic. Infact the quest dialogue windows and repetitive quest window answer tabbing is almost the same. Would have been nice to see more dialogue options.

4. Ascension: Wow what a disappointment this was to me. I was at first surprised that at level 10 you were faced already with a class change option. So I made sure I had a good block of 2 hours figuring it would be a difficult endevour. So I embarked on the quest and 10 minutes later I'm in a gorgeous cutscene that was basically the end of it all. I was majorly let down. It was even more disappointing then factions where all you had to do was finish one mission midway thru the city. Gahhhh...hope later changes are more of a challenge.

5 Sounds: Loved the sound effects. Liked the ambient sounds. Hated the music but I usually hate all games music and turn them off always. Voices sucked. My Mage sounded like she was squeeking out the phrase "A little bit of hot" when she cast one spell. It was funny....for a while. I guess Asian voiceovers don't believe in the sulrty low voiced woman. Or even an alto voice. Minney Mouse on estrogen would be my descriptions of the voices. Tried all 4.

5: Starting areas. Dan nailed it. they were dang near identical. What a bummer. When I got to the first lake I was like "I've been here before". Then I realized that no, I was now on the dark side but it was patterned so similarly. If this is going to be a game about race wars and differences, then I think starting in the same bedroom with a different coat of paint was a weak way to start this feeling.

6: Quest display: This was an awesome touch for me. I like to run a block of 3-7 quests simultaneouly and this made it easy. Not only could you see the quest on the screen, but you had a little arrow that opened up a screen of the quest particulars. From that screen you could even click on certain key words to pop up a map location. All this could be done without having to stop moving or hunting. Nicely done.

7. Flying. i only did it briefly before moving on to working my next class toon. It was ok but did'nt seem all that usefull at that stage in the game. Hopefully it will be better later.

8.Interface. Not very customizeable. Bummer. Key customization is ...well wow. So many commands it was a little overwhelming to redo keys. I only did those that I knew I would use constantly. But for those that do a lot of key manipulation and binding...you're going to love this.

9. Story: So far it sounds interesting. i like that I have a mysterious past to be opened in parts. I am interested to see where it is going to go...though maybe they have already showed me too much at level 7-10. We'll see.

10. all the people....just as rude and mobstealing as anywhere else you play. thats the nature of the beast. Any game that is not instanced like GW is going to be a struggle in certain areas. The positive side is...when you got several people waiting around for the same quest mobs....they respawn quickly and you will get your chance. Since people are moving along so quickly levelwise...there is no one really camping an area and working it for long periods of time. I don't think you will ever see anyone camping an area for any longer then 2 or 3 levels...so maybe 30-60 minutes tops. Also, I do not see any point in farming in this game so far. The drops seem truly random and there is no point in hunting the same ones over and over. That will alleviate a lot of the problems you see in other games where certain mobs drop certain things. I like this. Also...you can change your zone to find a less crowded one.

OK lets try to sum this up...

Sound: 7 out of 10.
Mechanics: 8 out of 10
Visuals: 10 out of 10
Character Creation: 10 out of 10
Interface: 8.5 out of 10
Mapping/Design: 7 out of 10
Interest Quotient: 8 out of 10
Questing: 6 out of 10

total average score: 8.1

A good game...not a great game. I have enough interest to continue the Beta weekends. At this point it is not enough of a game for me to want to fork out 50 dollars and another 180 dollars per year to play.

I will re analyze this after the next Beta weekend.

Gunter