Erst nach dem Prolog werden die Spielfiguren mit dem ausgestattet, was Aion von den MMOG-Konkurrenten abheben soll: dem Flugfeature bzw. den engelhaften Flügeln. Doch Dauerflüge wird es auch in diesem Spiel nicht geben. Eure Flugkraft reicht nur für wenige Minuten, bis ihr euch wieder für einige Zeit regenerieren müsst.

Fantasy MMOs aren’t an endangered species these days. So is developer NCsoft’s latest MMO, Aion: Tower of Eternity worth getting excited about? The game does feature rather stunning visuals with multi-tiered cities in the clouds, and the ability to take flight for short periods of time with wings early on.

We found the somewhat abstract construction of Aion’s world which consists of a top, middle, and bottom layer, fresh and ripe with the opportunity to explore what’s above and below with the game’s flight mechanic. Players will pick between two factions, the Asmodians who dwell on the world’s upper half, and the Elyos who live below.

In the end, are pretty designs and soothing music enough to lull MMO gamers into another unwarranted monthly grind? In most cases, no. So while Aion certainly smells like a fresh spring tulip, it may yet turn out to be a stale weed. We’ll know more when the game enters closed beta in the next few months. Long-term, expect a simultaneous release of Aion in Europe and the United States sometime next year.

I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that, visually, Aion is the artistic successor to Final Fantasy XI. But how does its storyline stack up? Quite well, though the details are comfortably dim at this point. While developers are quick to point out that the two player factions are neither necessarily good nor evil, the angel-like Elyos control one half of the eaten apple-shaped world and the demonoid Asmodians the other half, with the damaged Tower of Eternity as the apple’s “core.” No good story limits itself to two sides, and as the foil, we have the draconic, server-controlled Balaur, who fight on whoever’s side they “choose.” The factions used to live together in harmony, but at some point the war began and the tower partially broke apart. The rest you’ll have to discover as the game unfolds.

Players will select a race to start, and select a profession at level 10. Currently, there are four professions to choose from – the classic ones in any fantasy game: the Warrior, the Scout, the Healer and the Mage. The customization available is interesting in that if you like the look of one piece of gear better than another, you can apply that look to your current piece. That is to say, you can make your uber +10 sword of slaying look like your newbie weapon. The same can be done to your armor – which might be important to some if you really can’t stand mis-matched armor or what your +10 divine breastplate of might looks like.

The small slice of the world that was shown does give us a spectacular view of the art. Included in the environment are creatures that are only there for atmosphere as well as creatures that are there for combat. We ran out of time rapidly, but I was able to determine that open beta would be in 2008, although closed beta would be “pretty soon”.

At level ten, players discover they have lost their memory and have to recover part of it. To do this, we had to bring a bottle of water to a tree. The tree wasn’t just any tree, though, it is reminiscent of an Ent. This quest line gives players their wings – yes wings, as they become Daevas, a very spiritual thing. Players will be able to fly once this quest is complete. They also pick a further specialization of their class at this point.

The game isn’t all visual beauty, though; the other hook of the game comes from flying. According to the demonstration, players won’t be able to fly right away, nor will they be able to fly all the time once their characters acquire wings. Apparently the team wishes to preserve the “specialness” of flying by only allowing it in certain areas or have the power on a timer with a cooldown period. Flying will also be a key element of the game’s PvP component. During our demonstration we saw the no man’s land between the two halves of the world — an orange void filled with floating rocks where the two player factions battle each other along with a third race of computer-controlled characters. On release, there will apparently by quite a few triggerable flying skills that do things like allow a player to rocket in the air and yank a flyer down to earth or dive-bomb an unsuspecting ground-walking opponent.

Die Chun stehen für die Kraft des Lichtes und werden auch “Die Auserwählten” oder “Die Engel” genannt : Die engelsgleiche Rasse.

Sie suchen Schutz vor den Ma. Sobald ein Chun genügend Erfahrung gesammelt hat, erhält er seine Flügel – sie besitzen sie nicht von Geburt an. Männliche Chun besitzen dunkle Flügel und weibliche Chun haben kleine und hellere Flügel.