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Just leveled to 10 on Aika - impressions
harvschmarv
Member Posts: 83
First a disclaimer.
The following thoughts and impressions are after an afternoon of casual gameplay, and only up to level 10. I got bored and thought I'd roll a toon on this game that I've read some decent things about. Please note this is a F2P game with an item mall.
I rolled a paladin - the tank of the game.
Character creation/customization - it was limited, but I liked what I saw. My chick is a pretty hawt chick. Had about 4 - 6 hair styles, face styles, and hair colors to choose from. Not alot of customization, but on the other hand, I like the way my character looks. I should get hit on alot. 
Once the game got going, there was very little customization. At first glance, it seems like there was only 1 paladin set of armor up til level 8, and then only 1 to replace it with at level 8ish. Of course, this may not be the case, but this is my impression based on limited gameplay. Most palys I saw looked about the same. The classes reminded me of Warhammer to a degree - each of the 6 classes has a distinct look about them (palys with the shield and sword and sexy yet inefficient looking armor, warriors with full armor and the sword that must weigh 200 lbs, etc). To those who want a unique looking avatar, I didn't see the game offer it at the early levels.
Interface is pretty standard/cookie cutter. Hotkeys on bottom, typical inventory screen (2 bags to start, I never filled em but I visited the merchants a few times). "I" opens inventory, "C" opens character, "L" opens quests, that sort of thing. At least the buttons did what I wanted them too. WASD movement.
Combat was fluid, but without many options. At level 10 I have 6 or 7 things on my hotbar - a skill that seems best to pull with, a shield bash, auto attack (didn't hotkey it, just left it on the bar - haven't played with hotkeying yet), health potions, a heal, a port back to the city. However, during combat, I had a firm grasp on what was going on due to the easy to understand interface in this area - I could see my hitpoints, the enemy's, how much I was hitting it for, etc. I didn't die once, but I had plenty of health potions and popped them now and then. I could've died once or twice, but managed to scrape by.
I did not play around with tradeskills, but I did read the introduction to them.
Prans. I just got my first Pran. This is a fairy/familiar that goes with you, grows up, assists in combat. There are 3 flavors (fire, water, air) and they have 3 different areas. According to the Aika forums, certain prans go with certain classes better, so I picked a fire one to help beef up my damage output as a Tanky Paladin. I just got the Pran. I wouldn't call it an epic quest to get one, but it was certainly the most lengthy set of quests to acquire my cute lil fairly fluttering about over my head. I named her after my daughter, and had instant "Ooos" and "Ahhs" from my 3 year old!
The world was above average, but unremarkable. I didn't see anything that made me stop and gawk, but there was nothing in hindsight that made me recoil in abject terror either. I've only visisted the one city and the area outside of it. I'm ready for the first dungeon now, but haven't ventured forth yet.
Upon logging in, I was greeted with a spam of gold sellers, etc. I blocked them one by one and had a clean chat channel shortly afterwards (apparently, there were only 4 or 5 spamming). It wasn't empty nor was it crowded. I ran into people everywhere I went, but it wasn't by any means crowded. I waited on a named spawn once, and it was a very short wait (witnessed it being killed, 3 minutes later, I had it). I was assisted once or twice by other players. I saw several apparent groups running around together, and witnessed a few duels outside of the town by what had to be youngsters in real life (wasn't hard to determine that, let me just say that). There were a few guilds that would recruit over world-channel. I only interacted once in /say, but the fellow was nice enough. There were also a variety of inappropriately named characters as well as "barren chat" from time to time. Overall, it wasn't much worse than I expected, and if I continue to play, I hold on to hope that maybe, just maybe, there is a nice community there somewhere. Here's to hoping.
The game was smooth, and I had little to no noticeable latency at all. I was not booted at all. I had no crashes. The hardest thing technically speaking was figuring out my video resolution (I boinked it up to start), but then I noticed on the login screen you could adjust it there, and I was rolling after that.
Final thoughts:
Considering this is a F2B game, it was excellent. I have yet to have exposure to or need of the item mall, but I would expect it to be neccessary later on (just guessing). This F2B game has me wanting to login for another play session, and that's better than over half of the games I try. Looking at my shelf at the one login games I've purchased - ouch. I don't buy at launch anymore because I've been burned by making impulsive decisions on "the next great mmorpg" only to have it be a pile of "you know what."
Anyways, it was fun, and I could see the game holding me over for a couple of weeks while I figure out what I want to play, or not play. It wasn't a long download, and from the time I made the decision, I was playing in under an hour.
I would reccommend this F2B game as a fun diversion to the traditional fantasy mmorpg fan without serious reservation, based on my afternoon of gameplay. Don't expect to be blown away, but I don't believe you'll be seriously dissappointed either.
Comments
Well, my first 4-5 days in Aika; i m lvl26, and i liked it...after played 5+ diff mmo's; tons of private servers...at last 3 years...
I havent seen any problem with f2p-item mall yet. i hope i wont see (i play global aika).
Another thing, GM support (7/24 as i know) and pran...pran = no boring while soloing
I have a few wishes ofc
Better auction house interface, more options for char creation style, more different clothes for prans & chars...i would love to have a gothic pran 
LF PvP game...for years...
Current: changing game everyday
Played: Shaiya, Aion, Perfect World(short time), Aika
Tried: EQ2, DAOC, LOTR, Atlantica Online...
Future: Any pvp game..couldnt found yet...
You've convinced me to give it a shot!
if your playing this game for a once in a while game its great. the pve drops its standards at around lvl 40. the monsters just grow more and more generic . but honestly this is ok this is a pvp based game with 90% of the game geared tords PVP. your first major problems wont come into play untill after you start doing wars , the big dawg cash shop users will 1 hit you with ease , and the lag in these areas is great, next when you hit the lvl 50+ grind areas you will be greeted by a marching band of bots .every non - agrro mob spawn will have a bot at it anywhere you do on the pve maps , if you switch to the pve maps to grind you will be quickly killed every few mins by drive by honor farmers and or partys seaking to steal your nations relics.
For some odd reason nothing at all is done to reduce the bots in the pve serv. and when asked why they donot remove these bots , your standard message is use the pvp serv. as it is bot free. so your 2 opptions are go to pvp to grind and get killed every 5-10 mins or go to pve to grind and race bots for kills. for me i could not deal with opption 1 or 2
the last biggy is the game owners are only letting the game out in stages .. not a big prob in its self , but the game was not coded to be released in the stages they are releasing it , when you near cap there are quest pick ups and drop offs you can not get to beings therebehind a locked area. these unaccessable quest make you have to grind more in a game not set up for grinding past lvl 30. with the flux of botters to try to grind is more work than ts worth.
If your just going to play this game for fun and not try at all to be competative you can have a good time till around lvl 40. past that its mega cash shop to mega your gear and weapons , cash shop pots and exp boosters and run shortman dungeon instances many lvls befor there ez to free players. or just give up .
Now if agames fun and fair ive no prob spending a bit on cash shop , yet the way this game is being run is far from fair. content is already in place past lvl 90 , yet there slow releasing to get the got to have it players to max upgrade weapons/gear , that any 1/2 smart player knows not to do till near end game. the sad thing is its working so this slow release will be the reg. for this game . im sorry even at end game a max upgrade wep is not worth $200.00+ " the Avg. cost of a max upgrade at current cap "
I'd have to agree with the above and add on that the game is fun for people who like drama. With 5 nations and perpetual wars between at least 2 sides (2 vs 3 or 2 vs 2 vs 1), there is always drama going on between the players. There's strife against the foreigners, strife with allies, and even internal conflict as allied guilds fight to lead their nation. It's like watching a soap opera.
I think the publishers are waiting on the developers to come up with a solution to reduce the bots on the PvE server. There's been a change in GMs recently where one of the most visible and popular GMs (Lingo) left the company and there is the addition of 2 new GMs. I'm not sure how active or up to speed the 2 new GMs are.
I'll raise the bar to 51 before the big grind. Since the level cap was raised to 60, players are concentrating on getting and upgrading the level 50+ equipment rather than the level 40-50 equipment. I'm disturbed by the amount of real money it takes to attempt to upgrade a piece of equipment though.