We waited until the last minute, but decided to jump on the bandwagon for Aion.
Contrary to AoC and WAR last year, I think Aion is going to take those 500k+ pre-launch subs and keep them...and keep growing.
In the past few days since we've had a chance to play on the headstart, I can say this:
It's flawless. No glitches. Amazing graphics. Smooth as silk. We get 65+ FPS regularly, dipping down to around 50 in the most crowded cities...and with 1 hour queues during prime time, they are crowded.
Combat is a lot like Fable...very fast-paced, but also very complex. The higher you get, the longer your chains become, and the more branches become available. I can see this being a strategy game at the higher levels, needing to choose which branch to take dependent upon where the fight is, or if you are in a group or not.
Gameplay is easy, a lot like WoW. Very easy to pick up and learn. The storyline and cut-scenes remind me of the single-player storyline in Guild Wars, so it's very easy to get sucked into being "the main hero" of the story. While there is a lot of extra fluff quests to do, the main storyline is very linear, so it's impossible to get lost along the way.
Harvesting reminds me of EQ2. Crafting is fairly complex, actually, but also reminds me of EQ2.
Flying around with wings is...pretty damn cool. The first time I experienced it I was literally giggling like a little school girl with her first Barbie doll. Was pretty epic.
Also, the leveling is fairly slow in comparison to some of the recent games I've played. Took us about 5 hours to get to level 10, which is about twice as long as it takes in LOTRO or EQ2. Hell, in EQ2 you can get level 10 in about an hour, hour and a half.
So far...I'm impressed. It's a nice, new, fresh MMO, and I think it's going to keep us busy for the winter months. LOTRO just kind of grew stale, and the fact they are going to start charging for book quests now on top of the monthly fee just kind of put us off, even though it's Middle Earth and all. We may still play, but...probably only when Rohan and/or Gondor/the major expansions come out.
Anyway, yep...on the Aion bandwagon in our spare time, and loving it.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
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4 comments:
I've heard all this before - for Vanguard.
I'll be honest - I never played Vanguard. I never wanted to, as I'm still played EQ (!). I know more than a few people who had left EQ for WoW and decided to switch over to Vanguard, however, and kept up with them when they made their switch.
It took about 6 months, but it goes from "It's totally amazing" to "I can't believe these quests require this many (insert rare drop here)" to "Why are these classes so unbalanced" and finally the realization that there is no content (yet) for the higher levels that people rush to...Kaboom, subs drop, and the MMO slowly dwindles except for a dedicated few (or worse, SOE takes it over and it eventually dies a la The Matrix Online).
In my opinion, MMO's now need more of a hook than just good graphics (which Aion has in spades) and gameplay - it needs a consistent storyline and background lore that gels the world together in a believable manner. Just throwing out a stereotypical 'good/evil, save the world' just doesn't cut it any more.
Which is why I absolutely love EQ's lore and history (which admittedly has become more chaotic as I don't think SOE cares one way or the other any more - EQ's just cash for them to expand FreeRealms). Decisions you made mattered (factions and race decisions) - and although it was a pain, it made rare events like finding a human paladin being able to walk through Cabilis such a joy to see.
It is good to hear that launch didn't drop their servers or cause a lot of problems (long queue times aside). I'd never wish a "Shadows of Luclin" launch on anyone..
Well, maybe Apple. :p
I figure we'll get 3 months out of it. That's about the length of any MMORPG we've played outside of EQ2.
Meanwhile I'm waiting for Alpha Protocol in October and Dragon Age: Origins in November.
Honestly I think the only game on the horizon that will "change" the way things work is Star Wars: The Old Republic, and that's simply because of it's melding of single player storyline into an MMORPG skin.
Aion is pretty much traditional. It's fun...but I don't expect it to last us more than 3 months or so. We'll wait and see.
On a side note...I loved Vanguard. I still think it's better than EQ1. The game as it exists today (Sony did an amazing job of fixing it) is great, and if it would have launched like it is now, the game would have succeeded without a doubt.
As it was, it launched 3 months too early, and then they rushed people to the cap with 2 double xp weekends in a row. When people got to 40, they found no content from 40-50. Literally empty zones, empty dungeons, mobs without itemization, no quests...nothing. In some cases things weren't even populated.
I went back to Vanguard in February, and it is an AMAZING game. Sadly, the damage is already done...and the population is almost nill. And nobody will touch it with a 10 foot pole after the pooch was screwed on launch. There's no recovery in sight, which is sad, because it really is an amazing game. I've never seen such rich involving lore, and the class and combat system is easily the most complex and original I have ever seen in an MMORPG since I started playing.
I take it back.
EQ accounts are now cancelled.
SOE can go suck a crap sandwich.
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