Thursday, November 5, 2009

Aion Review - Final


I REALLY wanted to like Aion. I really did. Not that I was bored with WoW, or felt I needed something more from my MMO. I just wanted to have something new and exciting. I wanted a new world to explore while waiting to re-roll a Goblin in Cataclysm. Unfortunately I just could not get into Aion. Sure the world was beautiful, the character customization options were phenomenal but there was just something missing. My first month expired yesterday, and I let my account close.

Frankly I could not get a character past level 20. There was just too much "grinding" involved in the leveling process. I found I would complete all the quests in a given area and be forced to kill mob after mob just to gain that next level so I could safely move to the next zone. The quests that I did complete were just standard MMO fare. There were no lore driven quest chains that ended in a "whoa" moment, like the Wrathgate (I know it is not fare to compare a near endgame event by a company known for incredible lore, against 20 levels of a new game) But there were plenty of events early in WoW that were minor, like Thrall tasking you with clearing a cult from the heart of his city at level 12 that I just didn't see in Aion.

In the end I went back to WoW about 1/2 way through my Aion subscription and started working on leveling my Warrior to 80. Something I thought I would never do, since I shelved being a tank in the early days of BC. But you know what. I had more enjoyment leveling my 3rd toon through Wrath than I did exploring all of the new world of Aion.

Having said all that Aion is not a bad game, and if I had to break it down to a plain number scale rating it would probably score pretty high. If you are feeling burnt out on WoW or whatever your game of choice is, I would recommend you try Aion, I just hope they start 10 day free trials sooner rather than later. I would hate to think someone drops $40 on this game based on my reviews.

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