Experienced MMO Player's "No Bullshit" Review of Aion

//\//\oo · October 2009

Credentials

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,

CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

Visual/Aural Appeal

Graphics (Awesome):

Some of the best character models of any MMO to date. Textures

can be bland, however.

Visual Character Customization (Awesome):

One of the best to date; on par with AoC’s.

Performance (Good):

2 gb ram, 2 ghz processor, 256 MB card, 15-60 fps depending on player density.

Audio (Good):

Ambient music is good quality; some combat music might be too anime-like.

Visual Content (Average):

There is not much visual diversity in the world of Aion; the variation among armor and even weapons is mostly based off of their quality (white, green, blue, orange).

Game Play

Content (Poor):

About half of WoW’s vanilla quest content as can be verified through aionarmory.com and wowhead.com. Few races, but about the same number of raids/dungeons total in vanilla WoW. However, it must be stated that most begin at 40+, so there is not much for the 1-30 player to see in terms of dungeon content.

Exploration (Horrible):

Although there are three degrees of freedom, the zones are generally very confined and linear. Swimming is not possible and landmass is much smaller than that of other popular games.

Immersion (Awful):

The story is not well written and seems tacked on. There is not much attention to detail when compared to other games and there is little to accommodate RP (i.e. lack of RP items).

Combat (Good):

Additional cool down in the form of animation, but generally fluid. Some classes are trivial to play, while others are more complex; those that are more complex (sorcerer, spiritmaster) are nearly WoW templates (mage, warlock). CC is present and plays a major role; twitch is not much of a factor for most classes, except for a couple. Generally there are a lot of buttons to push.

Character Skill Customization (Awful):

Can only select from a small pool of skills and requirements usually constrain to a couple choices. Choices do not influence class play style.

Crafting (Average):

Take basic crafting, add more randomness, add quests and you have Aion crafting.

Player vs. Player (Subjective):

Good rewards and significant disparity between PvE/PvP items in the form of PvP damage bonuses. Rifts are few and randomly allow access to SOME PvE areas of the opposing faction. Most PvP confined to Abyss, which is a large area with different tiers that has PvE advancement and fortress sieges. Consumables play a MAJOR role.

Character Advancement Pace (Poor):

There will be gaps while leveling where the quests run dry (only repeatable ones remain). New skills are gained every 3 levels or so.

DaPrinz · October 2009

Brief and to the point. Thanks!

Sovrath · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Credentials

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,

CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

//\//\oo · October 2009

Originally posted by Sovrath

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

What, you want my education too? If that's the case, then let's compare and go right to dick size while we're at it!

Xfire, aionarmory.

I don't give a shit.

Some people like to swim and almost every game on the market has swimming in one form or another. Maybe there's a reason for that?

Grunty · October 2009

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Credentials

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,

CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

Actually the lack of swimming does matter. In PVP you can knock a person into water by various means and cause them to drown. And I don't play the game.

RavZterz · October 2009

Mostly agree with your review aside from the two awfuls...I'd make them poor.

Immersion isn't great by any means but for me that has to do with the linear path in early levels and the standard, "kill 10 wolves," quests. I felt the story is above average compared to other MMOs and the first 10 level "tutorial" was a nice character background for a MMO as well. Personally I would have liked the world to open up more after those ten levels into the RvR kinda like L2 but they make you continue in the linear path...Still, it could have been much worse.

Character Skill Customization would be poor as well since it is so generic. Each class has their own skills with no customizable stats to raise as you level. It is extremely basic but it has been done worse before. Sigma stones also offer limited customization.

heartless · October 2009

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Credentials

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,

CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

Actually, the swimming thing is super annoying. I know that Aion developers used water a a boundary but it only serves to cheapen the feel of the game.

For example, the other day I was crossing a bridge and looked down and to the left and saw what looked like shipwrecks in the distance. Being the inquisitive sort that I am, I jumped off the bridge and glided down to where they were. Which brings me to another annoying thing, I glided down because I have wings but can't actually fly outside of the town. I know, I know, flight limit is used so that people don't bypass the content. Which is complete bullcrap, if you ask me because there is a simple way around that problem: if your game is going to have flight, implement flying content, and I don't mean farming Aether nodes (which is actually what I'm doing as I type this). Anyway, I digress.

After I glided down to those cool looking shipwrecks, guess what happened? I drowned. My bad ass Warlo... err I mean Spiritmaster, Legendary Hunter and Protector of Altgard can't even float on water...

For me, this is basically another nail in the coffin as far as this game goes. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, I really do but the bad things outweigh the good.

garbonzo · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Some people like to swim and almost every game on the market has swimming in one form or another. Maybe there's a reason for that?

The lack of swimming did bum me out. It kills the immersion when you can't do something as an adult superhero that any 6 year old can do irl. Just saying.

sijmister · October 2009

Excellent review. Addresses all the points as to why I am still reluctant to try this game even though I have been looking forward to it for almost 2 years now. NO SWIMMING? That is just crazy. I hope it isn't because they didn't want to design the underwater environments and creatures. Oh well, if it eventually proves to be worth the money, I will shell it out. Which is probably soon...

Goob · October 2009

I glanced at the review, all I saw was that it was full of arrogance. We don't care what games you've played. Prove your worth by fairly discussing all aspects of the game and how it does against the rest of the genre, comment on what you don't like but can respect, (give the game credit for its worth even if you don't like it). It doesn't take much to list a bunch of MMO's you have tried for less than a month. I could tell you that I have tried over 20 different MMO's, but then again, who would give a damn? Read my sig, my games list is there like a big ePEEN.

Oh wait, no its not.

luciusETRUR · October 2009

Originally posted by Goob

I glanced at the review, all I saw was that it was full of arrogance. We don't care what games you've played. Prove your worth by fairly discussing all aspects of the game and how it does against the rest of the genre, comment on what you don't like but can respect, (give the game credit for its worth even if you don't like it). It doesn't take much to list a bunch of MMO's you have tried for less than a month. I could tell you that I have tried over 20 different MMO's, but then again, who would give a damn? Read my sig, my games list is there like a big ePEEN.
Oh wait, no its not.

Then.. why not skip that part and read the review?

heartless · October 2009

Originally posted by Goob

I glanced at the review, all I saw was that it was full of arrogance. We don't care what games you've played. Prove your worth by fairly discussing all aspects of the game and how it does against the rest of the genre, comment on what you don't like but can respect, (give the game credit for its worth even if you don't like it). It doesn't take much to list a bunch of MMO's you have tried for less than a month. I could tell you that I have tried over 20 different MMO's, but then again, who would give a damn? Read my sig, my games list is there like a big ePEEN.
Oh wait, no its not.

I think that you missed the point of why the title has "No Bullshit" in it. He basically stated the facts as he sees them without sugarcoating them with empty words.

Edit: by the way, in the time between my first post in this topic and this post, i went from 45 to 49 in Aether gathering. Go me!

Sovrath · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Originally posted by Sovrath

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

What, you want my education too? If that's the case, then let's compare and go right to dick size while we're at it!

Xfire, aionarmory.

I don't give a shit.

Some people like to swim and almost every game on the market has swimming in one form or another. Maybe there's a reason for that?

No what I'm saying is none of that should matter. Just reasonable arguments for your point.

I believe I said this:

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

I would rather see compelling arguments over "I've played some games and therefore my opinion matters"

I believe I stated that. Goob seems to share my opinion.

And as far as swimming, currently it doesn't matter. Yes that's right. It doesn't Because as far as I can see, there is very limited water in Aion. Not enough to make any difference whether they put it in.

The abyss has no water that I can see and the only place with a decent amount is around the second area that the players go to. No pvp there.

Goob · October 2009

I assure you I read the review (lol). I was just saying that upon a glance, thats how I saw it. I still read the whole thing, it still felt arrogant. I was just speaking like that for dramatic effect, I apologize for not being clear.

My beef, besides the first section which is just laughable, was that he can so easily say aspects of the game are AWFUL.

The fact that I disagree with him on some of his points is irrelevant. It's just frustrating to see so many decent works of game development get thrashed to nothing by people with who don't like them. This and the painfully rude 6.9 that FE got today..... Cman guys, think of the devs working their asses off to get make these games as best as they can. We need be more respectful. I noticed he used the word "Poor" elsewhere, which in my opinion would've sufficed in these other sections that he found to be rather abysmal.

You want to see some AWFUL immersion in a game? Go play minesweeper.

Rondo · October 2009

Overall the MMO is not groundbreaking; however, the Fighting-while-flying does leave me wanting more.

There is one deal breaking caveat to the promise of this MMO: A memory leak that is wreaking havoc with higher end machines for the most part ( but some of my friends with lesser machines have also had DCs) in the large scale pvp in the Abyss.

Whereas, large scale pvp is a cornerstone of how the pvp zone of the Abyss works. So if you like to group up and defend your forts in large scale pvp with your Legion/Alliance, this common crash-to-desktop issue, which has been heavily speculated to be a serious memory leak, is one negative aspect of this MMO for which I cannot get around.

I can cut em slack on gold farmers, botters, small Interface snags, etc, but excessive CTDs in anything that comes close to a good size battle in the PvP zone is a deal breaker.

Just a heads-up to any potential subscribers...the bestter then rig you have the more this CTD will affect you in AION.

Hopefully they fix this memory leak but that leads to the next problem: There is no communication from the Dev team on this issue, no sticky letter to players, no forum admins saying the "the devs are aware and working hard to fix", no in game messages saying "Players we are aware of the CTDs" etc etc. Just /silence. This is a bad sign imo.

heartless · October 2009

Originally posted by Goob

I assure you I read the review (lol). I was just saying that upon a glance, thats how I saw it. I still read the whole thing, it still felt arrogant. I was just speaking like that for dramatic effect, I apologize for not being clear.
My beef, besides the first section which is just laughable, was that he can so easily say aspects of the game are AWFUL.
The fact that I disagree with him on some of his points is irrelevant. It's just frustrating to see so many decent works of game development get thrashed to nothing by people with who don't like them. This and the painfully rude 6.9 that FE got today..... Cman guys, think of the devs working their asses off to get make these games as best as they can. We need be more respectful. I noticed he used the word "Poor" elsewhere, which in my opinion would've sufficed in these other sections that he found to be rather abysmal.
You want to see some AWFUL immersion in a game? Go play minesweeper.

I'll tell you one thing that I found AWFUL. Certain ground and mountain textures. I've spent a lot of time looking for a fan made high-res texture pack, which I know exists but was taken down because it's not supported by NCSoft. I've found 2D mushrooms on trees to be quite AWFUL as well. I've also found animations which freeze my caster in place to be somewhat AWFUL. Another thing I found AWFUL is the fact that the camera snaps back behind my character as soon as I let go. It's really annoying and it's fast enough to get someone dizzy. The AWFUL part is that you can't change the settings.

EDIT: but the most AWFULEST (I don't think that it's a word) thing about Aion is the community itself. It's much, much, much worse than WoW.

//\//\oo · October 2009

Credentials were added to show that I have a basis of comparison as comparisons are made relative to other games in the review.

@ Sovrath

It's a no bullshit review devoid of flowery, poignant drivel that otherwise clouds facts. It's a GAME; there's nothing compelling to be said about a VIDEO GAME. If you want to engage in debate try it in a different forum. I did my best to limit the subjective.

@ Goob

LOL QQ MOAR UR AWFUL LOL

Teala · October 2009

Straight and to the point. Good review over all - I mean in the no BS that you said you'd give. I wish it had a little more emphasis on and info on those parts of the game you liked and those you disliked and then maybe give some suggestions onb what NCSoft might do to fix them. Good review though - well done.

Cammy · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Credentials were added to show that I have a basis of comparison as comparisons are made relative to other games in the review.
@ Sovrath
It's a no bullshit review devoid of flowery, poignant drivel that otherwise clouds facts. It's a GAME; there's nothing compelling to be said about a VIDEO GAME. If you want to engage in debate try it in a different forum. I did my best to limit the subjective.
@ Goob
LOL QQ MOAR UR AWFUL LOL

Im not even sure why Im bothering but anyways...

I've played even more MMO's than you, all the way back to the UO days... ya that's right... my epeen is This |----------------------------| big! Does anyone care (I should think not...)

Sorvath's whole point was it doesn't mean a difference at all what games you have played or anyone has played. Do you know why? Because I can make an exact same review as you, post a thread about how awesome Aion is...give it a really good "score".... only it will put it into a completely different context for people reading. Instead of "awful" - I can say its "brilliant" and there will be a bunch of people agree/disagreeing with me depending on what side of the fence you are on. Are you following at all? It doesnt make ANY difference what games I / or you have played, the ONLY thing that matters is the people who play it and like it will continue to do so, and the people who hate it should just STFU and stop talking about it. You have obviously quit - so why are you still discussing it?

//\//\oo · October 2009

Originally posted by Teala

Straight and to the point. Good review over all - I mean in the no BS that you said you'd give. I wish it had a little more emphasis on and info on those parts of the game you liked and those you disliked and then maybe give some suggestions onb what NCSoft might do to fix them. Good review though - well done.

Ty. Reason I didn't elaborate much was because I was trying to constrain it to as much factual information as possible without going on in detail that would be too specific to my own preferences. A lot things can be researched/googled, so I tried to bottom line without omitting everything.

//\//\oo · October 2009

Originally posted by Cammy

Im not even sure why Im bothering but anyways...

I've played even more MMO's than you, all the way back to the UO days... ya that's right... my epeen is This |----------------------------| big! Does anyone care (I should think not...)

Sorvath's whole point was it doesn't mean a difference at all what games you have played or anyone has played. Do you know why? Because I can make an exact same review as you, post a thread about how awesome Aion is...give it a really good "score".... only it will put it into a completely differhttp://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3171198/postAction/reply/quote/trueent context for people reading. Instead of "awful" - I can say its "brilliant" and there will be a bunch of people agree/disagreeing with me depending on what side of the fence you are on. Are you following at all? It doesnt make ANY difference what games I / or you have played, the ONLY thing that matters is the people who play it and like it will continue to do so, and the people who hate it should just STFU and stop talking about it. You have obviously quit - so why are you still discussing it?

Your fanboi e-tantrums sustain me.

Ramones274 · October 2009

Thank you for this review!

My kind of talk.

Greymantle4 · October 2009

Your review was awful. I know this because I have been gaming since Pong.

//\//\oo · October 2009

Originally posted by Zeppelin4

Your review was awful. I know this because I have been gaming since Pong.

Your review of my review is shorter than other peoples' review of my review, so it's not as long as their reviews.

kilun · October 2009

Originally posted by Cammy

Im not even sure why Im bothering but anyways...

I've played even more MMO's than you, all the way back to the UO days... ya that's right... my epeen is This |----------------------------| big! Does anyone care (I should think not...)
Sorvath's whole point was it doesn't mean a difference at all what games you have played or anyone has played. Do you know why? Because I can make an exact same review as you, post a thread about how awesome Aion is...give it a really good "score".... only it will put it into a completely different context for people reading. Instead of "awful" - I can say its "brilliant" and there will be a bunch of people agree/disagreeing with me depending on what side of the fence you are on. Are you following at all? It doesnt make ANY difference what games I / or you have played, the ONLY thing that matters is the people who play it and like it will continue to do so, and the people who hate it should just STFU and stop talking about it. You have obviously quit - so why are you still discussing it?

I can say the same thing, why even bother. This is a public forum to where anyone can give a review. I review is subjective to the user and his/her playstyle. Why list his games played? Why not I ask, he has played a few games and it gives him a comparison on what is good or bad in a game in thier point of view.

Its like reviewing anything, if you have zero experience in tha field, be it sports, shoes, some scientific gadget, or a damn game if you have no experience in that field no one will think you know what your talking about. If the dude said this is the first video game I ever played and wrote it, you would damn him to hell in back and call him a complete moron, and it would be true. Now he played various games, and liked something and didn't like others now he has a basis for what to him is good and what to him is bad. Get the picture? You can't successfully review something if you've never had tried something else similiar before without coming of as a complete tool.

Did you read any reviews from any articles, because if you did its the same damn thing, except this dude isn't paid.(assuming he isn't)

Sovrath · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Well, I've cut out your credentials because as I said they don't matter to me. What does matter is that you have a head on your shoulders and can review the game in a way that resonates with players. If you say that something is good and explain why and that something is horrible to another player then you've done your job informing someone. Same can be said of the converse point.

Visual/Aural Appeal

Graphics (Awesome):
Some of the best character models of any MMO to date. Textures

can be bland, however.
I agree here however if one hates anime influenced games then they will find a problem.
Visual Character Customization (Awesome):
One of the best to date; on par with AoC’s.
I would go so far as to say better than AoC's because one can actually change the look of the character as opposed to AoC where I still look like the cousin of the original face I was altering. However, in some ways it is not as powerful as something like Oblivion's, even with some of the wonky things that the Oblvion tool does. Otherwise I agree.
Performance (Good):
2 gb ram, 2 ghz processor, 256 MB card, 15-60 fps depending on player density.
I also agree. Part of what the devs had said was that they were trying to create a game world where the game would run find on lower end machines because they realized that there are a good many machines out there that just won't run a high end game. To that point, given the amount of players that the game will have on the screen at the same time, anything too extravagant would just not do.

Audio (Good):
Ambient music is good quality; some combat music might be too anime-like.
Not sure if it's too anime like but it might be too "something" as some of it sounds like club music. This could be a game breaker for many but in some way it works yet I can't put my finger on why.

Visual Content (Average):
There is not much visual diversity in the world of Aion; the variation among armor and even weapons is mostly based off of their quality (white, green, blue, orange).
It seems that you are strictly going off of the equipment and not area diversity or even mob diversity. Since that is the case I would say that average is on the money. If you were to say Visual content included areas then I woudl say there was a lot of diversity. If you were to say Visual content as far as mobs then that is a tough call. There are many diverse types of mobs and a lot of imagination is used. However, you will start to find copies of mobs but with varied colors.

Game Play

Content (Poor):
About half of WoW’s vanilla quest content as can be verified through aionarmory.com and wowhead.com. Few instances, few races, nothing but the usual, but with less of it.

My problem with this is that you don't consider the "why". I can't say if you are correct or not but I'm not going to call you a liar as I don't think you are one. So let's look at the why. No one does this they just take things at face value.
With a game like WoW you have several starting areas. These areas have to eventually get you to some of the same places as your fellows. However, with Aion everyone of a faction shares a starting area. That alone is going to cut down quite a bit on quests.
the other thing is that there is a decent amount of the game that revolves around pvp. PvP is its own content with the exception of the pvpve instnaces and the sieges.
My take on the content is that it's poor to average to great. But it's inconsistent. Some of the quests are very well written and have a nice bit of story behind them. And some of them are abhorrent (if one doesn't like this type of quest) in that someone will say "hey, the creatures around here are going nuts, see you can thin them out". And then you get the task of killing (no exageration here) 25 of one mob and 15 of another. Essentially, the quest is telling you to grind a bit and then after a while come back for an exp and money award. I would say that overall the quests are average but that you will find some gems and some quests that are just excuses to grind.
The other complaint players have is that there aren't enough quests. My own experience shows that there are quests but that people aren't finding them because they aren't revisiting older areas. Personally I like this because I hate the idea of areas being for one level range and moving on. having a broader range for players allows an area to be a little less throw away. However, having said that I will iterate that some of these quests are just excuses to grind. If one hates that then there are issues.

Exploration (Horrible):
Although there are three degrees of freedom, the zones are generally very confined and linear. Swimming is not possible and landmass is much smaller than that of other popular games.
I'll agree and disagree. I've already stated that swimming is not needed because there are very few areas to swim. The only places I can tell that have any significant water is the second area that one goes to. And that water is knee high. If there is no place to swim and no place that pvp takes place for swimming then it's almost a non-issue. As I pointed out, LOTRO has no diving, just swimming on the top of the water. It's becuase it's not needed.
But you are correct to a certain degree. This is not Vanguard as far as exploration. The game world is completely used with the idea that if a player is going to go somewere then there is a guided reason.

Immersion (Awful):
The story is not well written and seems tacked on. There is not much attention to detail when compared to other games and there is little to accommodate RP (i.e. lack of RP items).
I somewhat disagree with this. Other than the Lord of the Rings, the story is just as good as any other I've seen. A nice touch is that the story for the Asmodians is a prophecy but the story for the Elyos is something that has happened in the past. As far as roleplay items what would you like, birthday cakes? There are outfits for outfits sake in Aion. Including some holiday outfits.
On top of this throw in some beutifully designed areas (not talking about some bad textures, I know they exist) and the world at first glance is exotic and interesting. The thing is that the world feels like a set and not a world. I would say poor to average if one is to delve deeply. Above average if you can accept it as a set.

Combat (Good):
Additional cool down in the form of animation, but generally fluid. Some classes are trivial to play, while others are more complex; those that are more complex (sorcerer, spiritmaster) are nearly WoW templates (mage, warlock). CC is present and plays a major role; twitch is not much of a factor for most classes, except for a couple. Generally there are a lot of buttons to push.

I dont see the wow templates as opposed to eq 2 templates. Mages are mages. I've played mages and warriors in wow and I don't feel that they are the same in Aion other than throwing fire or frost. Otherwise the combat is good and in some cases great as the animations are very fun. For a player who yearns for something more grounded or closer to what a real sword fighter would experience they might hate it as they are a bit over the top.

Character Skill Customization (Awful):
Can only select from a small pool of skills and requirements usually constrain to a couple choices. Choices do not influence class play style.
choices actually do influence class play style. Heck I know a player who is experimenting with a chanter as an off tank. After some discusstion it was realized that it might be a viable option. I even experienced a chanter as an off tank and it actually seemed to work in the situation we were in. Or how about weapon choice for glads. There is quite a bit of discussion on duel wielding over polearm.
And as far as my own experience, using orbs over books do give different results. I'm still not convinced one is better over the other but that they do give better results depending on choice. Gear matters in this game. However, it's the stimas that give players skills. That is a tough one as I see some of the same one's being used by players. As players get higher and as advanced stigmas are introduced it remains to be seen. I will say poor to average.

Crafting (Average):
Take basic crafting, add more randomness, add quests and you have Aion crafting.
um, I supose that works for me. However there is the addtion of divine power that stacks some of that randomness in your favor if you craft while being, er "full of it".

Player vs. Player (Subjective):
Good rewards and significant disparity between PvE/PvP items in the form of PvP damage bonuses. Rifts are few and randomly allow access to SOME PvE areas of the opposing faction. Most PvP confined to Abyss, which is a large area with different tiers that has PvE advancement and fortress sieges. Consumables play a MAJOR role.
consumables can play a major role but to point out one can't spam heal pots. Or any pots for that matter. Just a point of note.

Character Advancement Pace (Poor):
There will be gaps while leveling where the quests run dry (only repeatable ones remain). New skills are gained every 3 levels or so.

The idea that a player must have something every 3 levels bothers me. Why? Why can't a character have something every 5 or 6 levels? One thing I know is that your attacks do become more powerful as you level but I don't see where it is written that a player needs to get something every x levels.
As far as quests running dry, I've seen this but will iterate that I don't think players are finding the quests. Heck, there was a player who asked about quests in the teens because he had run out of them. Aion does try to send you to other hubs but if you do all the quests in a particular hub you might actually find a few more several levels from where you finished them. I personally like this but players who are used to a guided leveling experience seem to get frustrated. Still, the devs feel that players are having some issues and are going to be raising some of the quest rewards.
for the record I think the character leveling pace is fine. Then again I came from Lineage 2 so this seems like a walk in the park.

I wanted to actually comment on your post instead of just pointing out that I didn't think your credentials mattered, just your reasons, however it's guy's night tonight so I couldn't go further into it.

In any event it is nice to have a "not bs" review but though it is opinion as all reviews are , some of it didn't resonate with me or as I noted some of it seemed that it shouldn't matter given the design of the world.

edit: I get that some people like the idea of credentials but it really shouldn't matter. These are games and regardless of how many games one has played one can still say that "textures suck in areas" because one can plainly see that they do. As far as a comparison, if you list your games then I will assume there is a reason that I will benefit from such as "In AoC the graphics are x and it is a pvp game yet one can only have x amount of players in y before it bogs up therefore Aion's use of textures could make sense..." or "Lotro also has kill x quests but the storylines are in many cases deeper than Aion's and therefore they might make players paying attention to quest lines feel less of a grind..."

Otherwise it comes off, to me, as "I've played a lot of games therefore you know I'm going to be on the money". I only care about whether or not your arguments resonate or if you are listing extensive game experience that I will see where Aion has succeeded or failed with actual comparisons.

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Experienced MMO Player's "No Bullshit" Review of Aion

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Experienced MMO Player's "No Bullshit" Review of Aion

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