(*2*)
My first MMO was Ultima On-line, and regardless of the incontrovertible fact that my pc may barely run it, UO kicked off an extended love affair with the style that included time with video games like EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies, The Matrix On-line, Metropolis of Heroes, FFXI and FFXIV, World of WarCraft, and much more. However I by no means actually received into the Korean facet of the scene, so after I received the probability to see Aion 2 at Summer time Recreation Fest, I used to be each and knew I had some studying to do. My time with Aion 2 wasn’t hands-on, however I received to sit down down with a number of members of the Aion 2 workforce – together with Chief Enterprise Officer Seung-Uk Baek, Director of Operations Daniel Lafuente, Government Publishing Producer Merv Lee Kwai, Publishing Producer Scott Choi, and Senior Dwell Ops Producer Andrew Lengthy. It’s uncommon for therefore many individuals from a studio to be current for a demo, but it surely helped me perceive what Aion 2 was. By the time I walked out of that room, I got here away with a a lot better appreciation for what it was and why you would possibly need to test it out when it hits the West in September.
My demo began with a have a look at the character creator, which is… intensive, to say the least. You could make the most stunning individual you’ve ever seen or a bizarre little gremlin, and that’s rad. There’s a ton of hairstyles and faces and pores and skin tones and eye and mouth shapes and sliders for completely all the things. Again when my dad began taking part in MMOs for the first time, he’d get caught on World of WarCraft’s character creator for hours. I needed to sort of remind him there was a recreation that got here with it. Now, that’s a stable character creator, but it surely wasn’t precisely dripping with choices at the time (and actually it’s nonetheless pretty restricted). I feel if I gave him Aion 2’s, his head would explode. The workforce emphasised that this degree of element was intentional so gamers may create whoever they needed, and based mostly on what I noticed of the demo, they succeeded.
As soon as in the world, I received to see what Aion 2 has to supply. It’s an completely beautiful online game, however the first place my eyes went was our demo character’s wings. See, your character is a Daeva who fights for one among two factions – the Elyos, guardians or gentle, or the Asmodians, who have been cast in shadow. You don’t begin off together with your wings, the workforce advised me; it’s important to earn them. However when you do, you possibly can take flight any time, which appears to be like each quick and unbelievable, so for those who see one thing in Aion 2’s world, you possibly can in all probability go there. However flying isn’t the solely option to get round. There are additionally pets, which double as mounts. One in all them was a very cute cat. Fairly common sized, at the least as a pet. However for those who wanna journey that factor round, it turns into this huge, cute mount, and that appears to be commonplace in your mounts.
A part of that speaks to one among Aion 2’s core parts: amassing stuff, whether or not it’s pets or wings or no matter else. And the workforce tells me there are many methods to do this. You would possibly get gear by defeating sure bosses, finishing quest chains, taking part in mini-games, or repeatedly killing a monster in the world and buying its knowledge.
Upgrading your character works in an identical method. Clearly, you’ve ranges and expertise and loot and a narrative to progress via and all that good things, however there’s additionally stuff in the world to seek out, too. Whereas the workforce was exhibiting me the demo, I observed that there have been feathers on the map and in the recreation world, and I requested about them. Seems these are collectibles scattered all through the world that energy up your character’s means to fly, and there are numerous them to seek out. You may simply spend a day chilling and monitoring them down for those who needed to, and that guidelines. And since there are not any loading screens in Aion 2, the world is your oyster.
However after all, that’s not all there’s to do. You’ve additionally received instanced content material known as Nightmares in opposition to large bosses, and it’s there I received to see a few of Aion 2’s fight. If you happen to’ve solely performed the extra widespread MMOs, you’re in all probability used to slower fight from the style. That is just not how Aion 2 works. That is quick and flashy and responsive. The character used for our demo was extremely juiced so we may get via the content material extra rapidly, however I may see the place the problem would come from as they dodged assaults and labored via their expertise.
I additionally received a glimpse of four-player party-based content material, which appears to be like equally fast-paced, and the workforce advised me that there’s additionally more difficult eight-player raids, although I didn’t get to see them. These items was much less conventional “navigate a bunch of eventualities and common enemies and then do some boss fights alongside the method” and extra “right here’s a cool battle in opposition to a boss, go nuts,” but it surely did look cool.
Lastly, we additionally talked briefly about the world. There are many massive cities to vibe in (and they’re not instanced, so that you’ll see loads of different gamers). However what actually me was Aion 2’s PvP, which I sadly didn’t get to see. It’s totally opt-in, however there’s numerous totally different varieties. There are 1v1, 4v4, and 8v8 modes, in addition to realm vs. realm PvP that places you in opposition to a big group of the enemy faction and duties you with finishing aims. The true sicko stuff, from the sound of it, although, could be Rifts. Rifts open each three hours, and take you to the different faction’s map for some good old school brawling. Sounds fairly neat.
Aion 2 appears to be like fascinating, and there’s no query the workforce behind it’s passionate. MMOs, finally, are about connecting with different individuals. The Aion 2 workforce advised me that they hope to draw individuals new to the style and present an area the place they may create memorable experiences. Oh, and the flying and fight don’t appear too shabby, both. That is, for those who can pull your self away from the character creator. Sorry, dad.
Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You can discover him on Bluesky @edgarallanbro.