Aion is all the rage this week, with record-breaking sales for 2009. ZAM takes a basic look at starting Aion, from a World of Warcraft player's perspective.
Earlier this week, the highly-anticipated Aion finally launched in North America and in Europe today. Developed by NCSoft, Aion's release was just as successful as many predicted; selling 450,000 pre-order copies, making it the best-selling MMO of 2009. Much of that success is probably because Aion isn't technically a brand-new MMO; it has a proven record of accomplishment in Asia, where it's had enough time to be polished and primed for its Western release. For more information, check out our Aion preview, which we published earlier this summer.
As a long-time World of Warcraft player, I was more interested in the new MMO's playability from that specific standpoint than anything else. For example, many players found a steep learning curve in the transition from WoW to an MMO like Champions Online. If WoW is your earliest or "primary" MMO, it's probably the benchmark you compare most new games to. As a hardcore WoW player, will Aion's gameplay come naturally to you? Regardless of its merit, what familiarities are you guaranteed to find in Aion, and to what extent?
THE CHARACTERS
If you've been reading all the hype about Aion, you probably know that wing-based flight is a big part of the game, and that every player gets a pair of wings at level 10, when they "ascend." Before then, you'll spend your first nine levels playing throughout your faction's starting zone, similar to WoW.
There are three factions in Aion; the Elyos, Asmodian and Balaur. The Balaur are an NPC-only faction, which leaves the Elyos and Asmodian to choose from. Although it's a really crude analogy, the WoW player could think of the Elyos as the Alliance, and the Asmodian as the Horde. Aion's world of Atreia was essentially split in half after a cataclysmic event, and both races live on the inside of each half of the planet's hemispheres. Check out Aion's lore for more info.
The human-looking Elyos occupy the bottom half of the planet, which is still vibrant and lively. The darker, almost demonic-looking Asmodian live in the upper half of the planet, shrouded in darkness after the sundering left it out of the sun's reach. Both races are able to play all of the game's classes; the only differences are slight variations in certain spells and abilities.
Compared to WoW, Aion's character creation is superior in almost every regard. As we mentioned in a recent editorial, Aion's creation system isn't quite as detailed or complex as Champions Online's, but it offers much more flexibility than you'll find in WoW. You're able to tweak dozens of physical attributes with sliders, allowing you to change things like your character's height, weight, muscle mass, appendage length and many other facial features, as well. Coloring wasn't left out, either; you can pick custom colors for many attributes like skin, hair, lips and eyes.
THE CLASSES
Your average WoW player will find familiarity in Aion's class system, which includes eight total classes based on four starting archetypes. When you create a character, you'll choose between the starting archetypes; Warrior, Scout, Mage and Priest. These four archetypes are similar to what you would expect from playing WoW (in the beginning, at least).
Once you get to level 10 and ascend, becoming a "Deava," you'll have to choose your actual class. In WoW terms, think of it like a Warlock starting out as a Mage, before choosing to refine his class to become a Warlock. Each of Aion's four starting archetypes branches off into two classes, and you'll make that choice at level 10. Here is a quick chart from aion.wikia.com with links to each archetype and class:
School of Warrior
School of Scout
School of Mage
School of Priest
You'll see that each class is a refinement of its archetype, or "school." To some extent, you can liken certain WoW classes to Aion classes, but not all; some classes, like the Chanter and Gladiator, don't have an obvious WoW counterpart. But for a rough idea, from the WoW perspective, let's take a look at the Warrior archetype first. Gladiators are like off-tanks that specialize in AoE DPS, similar to Fury Warriors in WoW. The Templar is the classic shield-wielding tank, able to produce more threat and mitigate more incoming damage than Gladiators, but unable to dish out as much DPS.
Assassins are similar to WoW's Rogues, and Rangers most resemble WoW's Hunters, with the exception that in Aion, Rangers don't have pets, as Hunters do in WoW. The Sorcerer is strikingly similar to WoW's Mage; a glass canon with an array of utility spells like crowd control and teleports. Likewise, the Spiritmaster is most similar to WoW's Warlock; a summoner class that relies on elemental spirits to fight for him, while he hangs back, casting debuff and DOT spells. Lastly, Clerics are most similar to WoW's Priest class; the primary healers of the game. Chanters are a jack-of-all trades class; a melee-staff fighter that relies on buffs and support heals to help its party.
THE GAMEPLAY
As a WoW player, the gameplay in Aion will probably come more naturally to you than many other modern MMOs you've tried within the last year or two. From the minute you take your first step into your starting zone, you'll see a familiar UI that any WoW player would easily be able to understand. Unit frames, action bars, the chat box and mini-map are all similar to what you're used to using in WoW.
Although keyboard and mouse movement can be customized to great extent in the gameplay options, a veteran WoW player is able to run off and start killing his or her first few mobs within seconds. It's a smart move on NCSoft's part, regardless of what you might hear from all the "WoW clone" proponents out there; accessibility is key to a game's success, and by not trying to reinvent the wheel, the transition from WoW to Aion is much less painful than with other MMOs.
You might find yourself stumbling with some of Aion's initial keybinds—like "J" for your quest log or "P" for your character info window—but you can change the key setup if you find yourself hitting the wrong buttons too often. And sure, you'll find your fair share of unfamiliar gameplay aspects like "power shards" and "manastones," but your experience with WoW makes it a lot easier to comprehend these new gameplay elements early-on. For example, your experience socketing gems in WoW makes it fairly easy to learn the"stone socketing" system in Aion.
FLIGHT
There are no mounts in Aion; as previously mentioned, you'll ascend to become a Deava at level 10, earning the flight ability. Your wings will serve as both your "mount," or travel system, and as an important PvE and PvP gameplay element. You can't fly in every zone, however; just like in WoW. In zones where flight isn't allowed, you are able to "glide" though, which serves as a sort of equivalent to a "ground mount" in WoW. Gliding is simply a mechanic that allows you to spread your wings after you jump off a hill or mountainside; you'll travel faster than walking, but you can't actually fly on your own lift power.
You'll start out with the ability to fly for 60 seconds, which you can track by looking at the flight timer to the right of your action bars. Later in the game, you'll come across a variety of items and other means by which to enhance your flight durations and speed, including new pairs of wings.
THE CLIENT
Aion was developed with a modified version of the CryEngine, originally used in the FPS game Far Cry. It's a highly-scalable engine that allows great-looking graphics and performance. Visually, the average WoW player will find Aion's graphics superior in almost every way. One of the largest recurring pieces of feedback we've heard from players is describing Aion as "prettier" than most other MMOs. Whether you're a fan of Aion's art style or not, it's hard for any WoW player to deny that Aion is pretty damn sharp, comparatively speaking.
Performance-wise, the CryEngine is a bit more demanding than the WoW client. Most modern PCs—produced within the last two years—should be able to run Aion just fine, but if you currently struggle getting more than 30 FPS in WoW, Aion might be too taxing for your system. You can find the official system requirements listed here. Unfortunately, NCSoft probably won't release a 10 or 15-day free trial of Aion for some time, so there's currently no way to try out the game before you buy it. If you constantly deal with 15-20 FPS in WoW during raids or in capital cities, you might want to do a little research and forum-hunting before you buy Aion. That being said, the CryEngine is optimized better than most MMOs on the market, so it's able to scale down to lower-specced systems quite well. There are many ways to tweak its graphics rendering, and you can scale back pretty far while still enjoying a visually-appealing gameplay experience.
IN SUMMARY
The hardcore WoW player will find that Aion has a lot in common with WoW, especially as it relates to the MMO's core gameplay and leveling experience. The quests in Aion might not be superior to WoW's, but the writing and presentation is decent, and the "Campaign quests" are an easy-to-understand, linear progression system. You won't necessarily find yourself "grinding" through Aion's content any less or more than WoW's, but the Aion leveling experience isn't that revolutionary compared to WoW, either.
PvP is a big part of Aion as well, but it's executed differently than in WoW. First of all, flight-based combat is an important element of Aion PvP; something new that WoW players will find either refreshing or annoying, depending on their preference. Also, the majority of PvP in Aion revolves around The Abyss; the area between the two broken halves of the planet. You won't be able to get there until level 25, at which point the whole "PvPvE" experience begins. It's a mixture of PvP and PvE, fought against both your opposing faction and the NPC faction, the Balaur. Players earn "Abyss Points"—similar to WoW's Honor Points—used to buy gear and item rewards. More interestingly though, this PvP zone ties into a lot of Aion's lore and high-level PvE content, which is where the term "PvPvE" came from. Fans of WoW PvP will probably enjoy this aspect of Aion to no end, while those who hate PvP probably won't appreciate that it ties into so much of Aion's gameplay.
From the standpoint of a hardcore WoW player and newbie to Aion, the technical end of the transition isn't too difficult at all. In fact, many WoW players will find they have a natural propensity for Aion's gameplay, and that they're able to "pick up and go" relatively quickly. It's probably the most obvious "next choice" MMO for many WoW players, which falls in line with NCSoft's prediction that Aion's North American sales will fall second only to WoW, eventually.
