1) You are bound to be an MMORPG fan or willing to give this genre a serious try. And trust me, Aion will get you hooked for sure.
2) And/Or Aion (Pronounced as Eye-On) F2P has undoubtedly caught your attention.
First things first.. This game is worth a try as it is completely free to start off with and i've seen players who have done it all without spending a dime. More details on:
http://truly-free.aiononline.com/
Now the question arises: Whether it is truly free? Well.. Yes, You can complete the game without spending anything at all although you have to put in little bit more efforts to earn Kinah (in-game currency) that will help you throughout your stay in the game. NCSOFT (The developers) make money via the Store called "Black-Cloud Marketplace" which sells Mounts, Costumes, Pets and other goodies which don't impact the core game a lot but may definitely make your stay in Aion a bit easier. Speaking of Mounts, You really don't need them in this game as the game features flight transporters and teleporters which transport you within and between different zones respectively with a small amount of Kinah. And not to mention the running speed scrolls which rival mounts themselves which you can craft yourself.
So, the bottom line is: "You can have a blast in Aion without worrying about spending cash"
Coming to the Game itself..
The stunning world of Atreia is yours to explore where you get a choice to play as either of the two opposing factions: The "Elyos" or the "Asmodians".
The Elyos are a beautiful race of humans whereas the Asmodians are darker, evil looking versions of the elyos. The game has a very interesting lore. The cracking of the planet into two halves namely Elysea and Asmodae with floating a core called "The Abyss" which is a PvP area.
The intro cinematic explains it beautifully.
There are 4 major professions: Warrior, Scout, Mage, Priest each one of them having 2 specializations which are as follows:
Warrior: Gladiator (Brute Force) / Templar (Tank)
Scout: Assassin (Close-up DPS) / Ranger (Robin Hood)
Mage: Sorcerer ("Kaboom" Guy) / Spiritmaster (Mage with magical pets)
Priest: Cleric (Mainly heals)/Chanter (A priest who can put up a damn good fight)
You can have five characters (only of the same race/faction) per server. The character creation/customization is very deep and can easily take about half an hour to browse through the options and make a final decision. The beginner tutorial is one of the best i've seen and you will be well acquainted with the basics within an hour or so.
There are a wide range of interesting skills for each profession/class along with Stigma Skills which are basically magiacl stones you equip to get skills. This enables you to tweak your build and create your own play style with different skills and stigmas.
The game looks gorgeous as it is based on Crytek's "CryEngine" and it can push older computer systems down to their knees. However the game is well optimised to run smoothly on most systems.
Also, the background sound and SFX create a great ambience and set the mood perfectly.
For Questing, the game offers a good mix of quest types which reward you well with a good amount of Kinah. There is lot of lore to go through if you're the one who reads about the quests you're performing.
Aion boasts a deep crafting system which will single-handedly keep you occupied if you dive into it. Although as far as i've seen, the current crafts you would want to go for are Cooking (Food), Alchemy (Potions, Mage Weapons, Scrolls) , Handicrafting (Accessories, Staves, Bows) and Construction (Furniture) . Its really not worth your time to work on levelling Weaponsmithing and Armoursmithing as no matter how fine your craft is, there will be better instance drops, Abyss gear and the gear which you can purchase with the coins you get from doing the dailies. So avoid them unless you really have to for some reason as you wont be making a lot of Kinah with these crafts compared to the amount of Kinah you ave to pump in to get them levelled up.
As far as PvP goes, This game has an interesting Rift system wherein the Elyos and Asmodians can travel to the other faction's homeworld and engage in war with other faction players (On the same server). Killing players of the opposite faction/race grants you Abyss Points which can again be traded for gear and stuff and give contribution points to you and your Legion/Guild which adds up to its standing on the server.
There is also a Fast-Track server which is available to players below level 50 which offers double experience. On the down side, this server has no Trade Broker, Mail and some NPCs and you will find players from different servers here. However you can shift from your standard server to the fast-track server and vice-versa at will.
With ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2 out recently, You will rarely face lags on Aion servers if you have a decent enough internet connection.
Aion is definitely worth your time and definitely worth a try.
I would summarize the game on the following parameters:
Gameplay: 9/10
Immersion: 10/10
Replayability: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
P.S. If you have any questions, criticisms or would like to add to this review.. You are welcome :)
My Toons:
Saif (Sorcerer), Noztro (Assassin), Javez (Gladiator), Ignia (Ranger)
Server: Siel - North America
About my Gaming experience: I've lost count of the number of game titles i've played across all genres across multiple platforms and as far as multiplayer goes, I'm a Runes of Magic, League of Legends and Aion Veteran.
