A review of CBT 2 from ThisIsGame.


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한낮

The second phase of Aion's closed beta had come to an end on the 27th of April last month. The game had brought many anticipated improvements such as expanded character customisation and new zones.


The reception, however, was not as welcoming, for the game still failed to address the most fundamental issues and lacked in 'content,' which the game was so praised for in the last test.



Perfected visuals




Aion's graphics have become even more perfect since the last test. To start off, 'Glowlight Effect' was removed from being active by default, which removed the dreamlike feel but gave it a much more detailed and clean-cut look to the environment. Many awkward character movements have been partially addressed as well, and the user interface managed to obtain its own Aion-look.


The new zones, Eltnen and Morheim, simply looked spectacular, how the zones managed to combine the snowy terrain and volcanic wasteland together in perfect harmony was simply an amazing sight to behold. On graphics alone, the game could have been given the title of 'nation's best.'




However, the game's stunning visuals also came with a lot of things to be desired in the optimization department. The graphics often became buggy when played for a prolonged time due to inefficiency in managing system resources.


Lowering the graphics setting by one tier dropped the amount of details significantly, but didn't seem to improve the performance noticeably. This issue was mentioned in many of the players' complaints, and it seems like the optimization may still need work.





Also, the separated motions of the top and bottom halves of the character's body still didn't seem very well coordinated. More on this will be discussed below.




Great Fishing? The battle goes on through the Rifts of Time



The Rifts of Time, which have been showcased for the first time in CBT 2, is a system which allows players from the opposing factions to enter each others' territories. Some may ask what the big deal is in allowing players to do this, but the system also comes with a few baits to make sure that the players make a good use of this system: The Named Monsters who drop rare items and the chance to improve the Legion's standing.






To facilitate the understanding of the concept, let me briefly explain how the items are categorised in Aion. Aion's items can largely be divided into Normal, Rare, Exceptional, and Unique. Putting Unique items, which are near impossible to obtain, aside, Exceptional quality items are probably the best a player can afford to use.


However, Exceptional items can only be obtained from Named Monsters, and these monsters only spawn at certain times in designated locations. I believe no further explanation is needed beyond this point; players who wish to obtain items that are even slightly better than their own will venture into the realms of their enemies in hopes of maybe encountering a Named Monster. This will naturally create small-scale conflicts, which is an aspect of PvP on its own.





The conflicts are then followed by accumulation of Abyss Points which are applied real-time. It is therefore possible to have conflicts to accumulate points for the Legion of your allegiance rather than for the items from the monsters. In CBT 2, cases such as this were commonplace, the rewards playing the roles of 'baits' to get players into conflicts.




Temporary advance, temporary retreat. A futile war nontheless.



The combat system's been revamped as well. For starters, the combo activation rate has been greatly improved. Especially since most class-specific combo activation rates have been upgraded to 100%, players were now able to activate the chains of combo they wished to cast at the desired timing.


The combat pattern has seen a change as well. Depending on the combo, the supplemental effects that were granted as a result allowed players to interrupt and override the opponent's combo. This improvement was significant enough to determine how quickly you could kill a mob.


Finally, Aion had something to call a 'strategic element.'







However, the problem with awkwardly separated character motion into top and bottom halves that hindered a smooth animation showing naturalistic combat and movement has still not been addressed.


As mentioned earlier, many players including myself have pointed out the problem with separated animations for top and bottom halves of the character's body. CBT 2 did not fix the problem, but made it so the character could not move while the animation for the bottom half of the character was already executed.



For example, the initial skill for an Assassin combo can be used while the character's in motion, but since the second skill in the same combo cannot, a difficult situation is created where the player must stop moving after the first step in order to deliver the full combo.



This effectively defeats the purpose of having improved the combo system, and it makes absolutely no sense to trade in a gameplay element for simple visual glitches.





Shapeshifting allows freedom in both movement and combat since the character no longer has a 'bottom half.' The only thing I cannot understand is why they won't just fix the animation instead of having to go the long way around it.



Frustrating zones and insufficient content


The new zones were also problematic. For starters, the zones were tiny. Taking the Asmodians for example, a character will spend the first ten levels in Ishalgen, and from 10 to 20 in Altgard, which is several times larger. The newly added zone, Morheim, is supposed to house characters from 20-40, but the actual size of the map was small enough to explore all of it in about thirty minutes.


In fact, the area in Morheim that's supposed to be for characters from 20 to 25 consist of all but a single road. I myself have spent several days on this 'narrow path.'




Along with the tiny areas came the minuscule amount of content. The required experience multiplies exponentially after level 20, and each level only gets about three to four quests. I've completed about 100 quests up to level 20, but only about 60 from level 20 to 34. Maybe about 2/3 of them were repeat quests that could not have been completed without collecting skills.


In other words, there were no other ways to level up after level 30 other than killing monsters by the thousands.


It is true that the Abyss is not available yet, but it's a given that the game seriously lacks in content the way it looks now. If they don't want a game where players must 'follow the path until level cap,' they should seriously consider preparing a few maps and a good amount of content.






World of Lineagecraft?


I know it's not a good comparison, but Aion is resemblant of World of Warcraft.

The fact that a player can get killed by other players in the middle of leveling up as well as the monsters using a diverse range of skills to drive the player nuts makes the game comparable to WoW. Even the part about a party wiping just from aggroing one additional mob resembles WoW.




I'm not trying to criticise for its resemblance. The problem is that Aion's "true form" does not get along at all with WoW-style content.

Let us take an example. Aion's mobs bug the crap out of players using a myriad of different skills. Among them exist mobs that do damage in the thousands, and those who bring friends along with them.

Of course, being hit by the said skill will surely result in death. This is fine. The element of surprise provides a good depth to combat.


The problem here is, upon death, the player will lose about 5% of the total experience for that level. For a level 30 player, that's about 30 minutes' worth of experience. Being killed by a member of the opposing faction also results in an experience loss.

It's not easy to get experience either. The amount of experience a level 34 player will have to accumulate is 10,000,000. Based on experience yield from mobs of the same level, the player will have to kill about 1,200. Completing the three to four quests given per level gives about 40,000-60,000, about 0.5% of total experience. Note that dying while working on the quest will actually be a loss.

Aside from the leveling aspect, the difficulty still prevails. You can barely get by after spending all the money you've earned from grinding mobs on skill books and consumables. Who would be able to enjoy the adventure and the content in the midst of all this chaos?


What's left of the options now is to grind the mobs Lineage-style. But since Aion's world is designed to look as natural as possible, hunting grounds are not found everywhere like it is in Lineage. In a nutshell, playing Aion is like enjoying WoW's content in Lineage-style hardcore grind.

In the end, trying to combine the elements from Lineage II and WoW only ended up in a game that plays like WoW and grinds like Lineage.



Listen to the players!

It may look bad the way it is now, but there is hope. The graphics, sound, combo system and many other qualities that define Aion are there, and many of the problems addressed above can easily be solved.

The character models are already divided into two halves to facilitate movement and attack at the same time. New quests can be created. Grinding can be solved by reducing the death penalty and doing what is necessary by looking at the monster drop table.

Let me also point out that Aion's main content, the Abyss, has not even been revealed yet. It will be difficult to ease the leveling-up process with the introduction of the Abyss, but it should provide the players with enough things to do to kill the time.


Aion's developers will need to take a more definitive direction and consider the development from the players' point of view.

The most heard complaint from CBT 2 was the ambiguity of the game's direction and the unusually high difficulty. Hopefully they'll take heed to what the players want and show a more complete game with a more developed stance by the time CBT 3 rolls around.

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