First of all, sorry for my english, Im not much of an expert in it, but i must share these thoughts with you, one way or an other.


Ive been waitin for this game for quite a long time ('06 summer), and my expectations on a 1-10 scale were like 11, could not accept nor believed this game could be a disappointment.

I never really hoped I can play the game till english CB/OB, but on 19th of July, wonders happened:
Mark was incredibly generous and surprised me with his key for this last day of CBT3!!! I was (am) so happy, cant say it with words, cant thank him enough, im forever in his debt!

Weve all seen enough char-creation vids, so i wont detail that, I created an Elyos Cleric. Cant really say much about the class, only killed a few monsters, basically i just explored the world and enjoyed it, sorry 'bout that.

Theres no way someone could ever describe the first steps in this world. No matter how hard you try, you just cant imagine the perfectness and ultimate beauty of those moments. As I mentioned, my expectations were 11, what i experienced was like a 12321313123130. No Kiddin, you guys have to accept the fact that you just cant imagine what it feels like until youve tried it yourself. The graphics, the environment, those incredible ariettas as you're just standing there and inspect your surroundings..I thought i pretty much got it what feelings I will experience in these first moments, but its not even comparable.
Now matter how skeptic you are, if you're just interested in this game even a little, you still wont forget those moments.

"Ive already seen it on vids, on pics, nothing new can happen to me" you may think --- WROOOONG!
Even if ive imagined i can lead my char over the first area blindsided and was prepared that this part will not be that fun since im familiar with it from vids, i was mistaken! Really, its a completely different experience...you will see.

Enough of this, here are some facts and observations of my first 1,5hrs gameplay (which i felt like it was only 15mins, lol) -
And this was a KOREAN version, couldnt understand a word of it..imagine what it will be to have that in english.... or not, it will still be over whatever your expectations were.


After a 10mins ecstasy, the first you will take notice of is the deepness of your surroundings. Everything lives, everything is moving, breathing, incredible.
Also, everything is connected and reacts differently to everything.
Everything is so detailed, every time you step one forward, you will experience different, unique, interesting things.
Everything, everything, every,every,every,every, STOP...ok, sorry.

Heres an example:
Monsters have infested an abandoned farm. There are fences made of bones, skulls, other remains. Sun is shining, the skulls on the fence are burning on fire, like torches. But as soon as it starts to rain, monsters start to freak out, theyre no longer just standing and guarding, but started to run, patrol or just harassing non-hostile bugs. But weather affects not only living things! With the rain, the burning skulls have stopped burning! Its obviously not a big thing in itself, but its really a nice experience to discover such things. Details..content... Aion has them. - well, at least @ these levels:PP


I was afraid (I dont know for how long, for quite some time) that maps will be linear. We were told, that the first one will be really linear, coz its like a tutorial. Truth is, it is linear, but you wont notice that, only if you intentionally inspect the map whether its linear or not. Its wide, its open, you look far away, there are still mountains, villages, mills, the flying mantha creature.. you just wont notice or care it is linear.


Hmhm, ah, yes, computer specs:
Low-medium config..i think:
P4 2,8 Ghz
2GB DDR2,
Geforce 7800GTX
1280x1024, everything on HIGH, stable 30+ FPS...PERFECT.

Ive tried it on a low-end comp too:
P4, 2,1Ghz
1GB DDR1,
Radeon 9600Pro
1280x800, medium settings: perfect, no lags, no swaps, etc.


Three interesting, sorta negative things id like to discuss:

Small characters:
Yeah, was discussed before, still these small chars really ruin the experience when they show up....their anatomy is not of children, not gnomes, not dwarf...instead, like minipets or some bugs due to graphical errors...i strongly recommend to devs to adjust this a bit more. Its okay for me to have small (not that small, but smaller than usual) chars, but then restrict them with normal body-scales or smg.

Controls:
I dont know whether we can change that or not, but at default, it seems that the two version of controlling is together. Right-click+left click=wasd, left clicking on ground=pnc. What is annoying, is that in the usual wasd movement, if you hold left-click, you can rotate the camera around your character while running, and with right-click you can turn with your character. Here in Aion, right-click is the same, but since p'n'c is on left-click, you cant turn the camera around while running!
Hopefully there are options for that, i cant tell you that coz of the korean version. For the same reason, battles can be annoying as well (at last until you're used to it), since when you want to click on the moving enemy, you click behind it instead, and your char begins to run to that point. You just cant click, inspect as freely as you would expect, you need to be careful, coz one misclick can send your char away and precious seconds can be lost while you're trying to turn towards the enemy again.
I thought that these two control methods will become separate, choosable options, not together, so beside the above mentioned things, it was irritating - but again, its just matter of time to get used to it.


Minimap-sonar navigator:
Its too bright, too shiny, the circles are too sharp, cant really see the actual map because of them. They should be removed.


Last thing i want to mention, was embarassing, and a low-point:
In the first village theres a small temple, sanctuary..I stepped in, music changed to: Gloria, in excelsis deo!.....WTF was that? Seriously!
Gloria, in excelsis deo!!...WHAT???!?! How the hell this could have happened?

CMs, please tell those devs to remove this ridiculous thing and replace it with nice, fantasy-lyrics...annoying, embarassing, ridiculous.

First, its latin... not from world of Aion
Second: Deo - from Deus: its a Masculinum....this is the word for a Male God. Aion is a Female, so either that church was a hideout of a secret cult or i dont know..

REMOVE THAT SONG AND REPLACE IT WITH SOMETHING ELSE! HIDEOUS!


Thats it, I probably wont play it until english OB, dont want to spoil it for myself, it's just too precious to me.




by lyankyj (with L as first letter:P)



here are 4 pics as attachments.

Attached Files

__________________