Aion - The Tower of Eternity

For a game that looks this good and with a ton of interesting twists to the MMORPG genre, I sure took a long time to talk about it. Aion: The Tower of Eternity is made by NCSoft, which you may know from City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Tabula Rasa. However unlike those entries, Aion is one of the many triple A titles that will "supposedly" topple World of Warcraft. While that lofty title is up to debate, the quality of Aion looks to make it a solid contender.


One of Aions biggest bragging rights is probably one of the most in-depth character customization in an MMORPG. Instead of using a few preset selections like World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online, you'll be given complete control of your character's appearance. I was pretty impressed by the video of the editor in use. I think the best way to describe it is to compare it to The Sims 2's editor with better graphics.


The biggest "innovation" is aerial combat. Characters are limited to the ground, especially when it comes to combat. This isn't just "ground fighting but in the air" either. Of course you should be in the air, you're immortal. Your character has ascended from mortality to a more divine nature. Of course there just happens to be a celestial war going on. Which brings up the subject of the two factions in the game. You'll be given the choice to fight for radiant, luminous Elyos or the grim, foreboding Asmodians.

A powerful avatar editor, aerial combat, and being a divine being sounds like...some type of concoction that should be fun. However a few people are put off by the anime style to the graphics. How NCsoft will win these folk over, and those that fear this is just another "grind" fest remains to seen. A lot of American gamers are quite skeptical, if not outright hostile, to Eastern MMORPGs. Time will tell if Aion actually live up to the hype surrounding the game. If you would like to see some very shiny videos of the game in action, as well as a glimpse of the character editor, check it out here.