Aion, the MMO from well known MMO publisher NCsoft, has already enjoyed a successful launch in Korea and China. Now it is set to come to Europe and the USA, and as a fantasy MMO, it can’t help but get compared to World of Warcraft, the all-conquering MMO, but is that fair?

In short, Aion is never going to be as large as World of Warcraft, but NCsoft isn’t expecting it to be, nor does it need to be in order to be considered a success. It needs to generate a reasonable following prepared to stick with it, thus generating a reasonable playing and social environment that’s essential for an MMO, and essential for the revenue to sustain it. And the good news is that Aion has enough gameplay and new ideas to generate that critical mass.

Aion may be high fantasy, and so it will draw comparisons with World of Warcraft, but its setting draws on mythology from around the world, although most heavily from Korea. This makes it very different in feel from World of Warcraft, and the visuals that go along with it are different too.

Graphics and environment alone though are not enough to set a game apart, and Aion knows this. The principle addition in gameplay terms is that of flight. When you reach level 10, after a brief in-game ceremony, you are given a set of wings and the action starts to occur on more than just the ground. Quests may require you to fly around and even combat can start to use the third dimension. There’s something entertaining about hovering our of reach while you blast a target. Flight is limited of course, otherwise you would become invincible. So you can only fly for a period before landing in the main game area, although PvP has this limitation removed. Flight does add to the fun of Aion, but it’s not the only new idea.

The classes in Aion might look a little slim on first glance - choose between Mage, Fighter, Scout and Priest when you create your character, but again level 10 holds the key. At this level you get to choose a sub-class or specialism. The good thing about this is you’ve had ten levels to hone your style of play before you have to choose what exact skills you will pursue. As an example, a Priest might opt for the buffing route or the out and out healer route.

Level 20 introduces another way to customise your character - Stigma Stones. Instead of having the abilities of your character fully defined by your class, you can use Stigma Stones to allow your character to do something that the class doesn’t normally permit. For example, Cloth Armour too lightweight for your melee loving Mage? Not to worry, a Stigma Stone will allow you to wear metal armour. This way you can create a set of bespoke skills that mean your character is actually quite different from someone else’s playing the same class.

It’s not just the big gameplay additions that will warm you to Aion either. It’s little touches that let you know this is a well rounded MMO, like the semi-transparent map that makes it easy to navigate, the built-in Locate feature that makes following quests easier, the Private Store option to allow you to set yourself up as a vendor.

Nitpickers will want to know what’s wrong with Aion. Well, although NCsoft has very successfully localised the game, some might feel it retains too much of an Eastern feel - the Talking Weasels can feel strange even in a fantasy setting. Also, you can’t help but wish that Aion had taken a leaf out of World of Warcraft’s book and opened up the UI to third party extensions. These are, however, quibbles of a minor nature with what is clearly a polished MMO.

PC gamers have only to wait until September 2009 for the release of Aion. It will require a monthly subscription as do other MMOs.

Tags: World of Warcraft