"Terrible, yet refined..."

With the release of World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Cataclysm, I've cancelled my Aion subscription with Armitage the Cleric having reached level 20. Although the questing has been fairly fun, I've yet to see any group content, which is a pity for an MMO. Regardless, I don't see myself rushing back with the amount of content to see in Cataclysm.

Armitage, Elyos Chanter (Aion)

For those who don't know, Cataclysm has reshaped all the Old World (level 1-60) content, making for a much more enjoyable experience. And with PvP battleground queues and the (relatively new) PvE dungeon finder, joining groups for multiplayer while you level is really easy.

To further tempt one to experience the new leveling content, Cataclysm has introduced two new races, Worgen (werewolves) and Goblins. I've created Jahger, the Worgen Hunter.

Jahger, Worgen Hunter (World of Warcraft)

The Worgen have their own introductory questline that runs along the timeline of the Shattering. As a human in the kingdom of Gilneas, you begin by helping to defend the capital from the constant assault of Worgen, before eventually falling to the Worgen curse yourself. Held prisoner by the humans, you're given a chance to prove that you have control over your bestial nature.

Can a Worgen be trusted?

What begins as a defence against an assault by the Forsaken (the undead of the Horde) becomes a desperate evacuation as the cataclysm sees the land sinking beneath the ocean.

Just this questline tops anything I've seen in Aion with World of Warcraft's phasing tech being used to give a real sense of progression of the timeline. Of course, most quests still boil down to kill X creatures or find Y items, but it is really worthwhile to pay attention to the story here.

I believe Goblins have a similarly excellent introductory questline and look forward to giving that a go, but meanwhile I'm pushing on with Jahger. I've already reached passed level 20, leaving Armitage's accomplishment as just a fading memory.

The title of this post is a reference to an oh-so-relevant Penny Arcade comic about Cataclysm and Worgen.

Aion - Beyond the Trial

So I caved and bought a cheap CD key online for Aion. I created a new character, Armitage the Priest and joined a friend and his guild-mates who were leveling alts.

Armitage

First impressions are that the trial really sells the game short. Seriously, no items drop off monsters in the trial?! The trial ends just before the first harder sub-zone where monsters will attack you before you attack them, and before you can complete the main introductory campaign questline. And most significantly, it ends before level 9 and the Ascension questline as you recover your memories of your lost Daeva-hood.

Ascension ceremony

At this point you have to choose which specialized class to go with and I chose Cleric, the game's specialist healer class as I intend to do as much grouping as possible (although I haven't encountered any content yet that actually requires groups).

Opening up for you then is the beautiful base city of Sanctum; plenty of quests there (many leading to the game's next questing zone) and the game's crafting system.

Also unlocked is flying, though only in certain areas, so no flying in Sanctum for example which means my experience with it is somewhat limited for now. I'll have to see how that plays out.

Sanctum

So my evaluation of Aion has only improved. So far it plays like a polished, shiny version of World of Warcraft. While I can't imagine it doing much to interest WoW-haters, if you do like WoW (and maybe have time to kill before the Cataclysm expansion is released), Aion starts off strongly enough to make the free month included with the game worthwhile. We'll have to see if I ever pay any subs for it, but I don't see myself having both an ongoing WoW and Aion subscription.

Trial Wars: Aion vs Guild Wars

Signing up for the free trials on both these online RPGs, I created the mage Devin Skala in both games. In Aion he was an Elyos Mage; in Guild Wars an Elementalist with Monk as a secondary class. In terms of customization of your charatcer's looks, Guild Wars offers quite a lot, but Aion's customization is probably the most powerful I've seen in any kind of computer game.

Aion (left) vs Guild Wars (right)

Both games start with a cinematic intro with appropriate hinting of momentous events afoot. In Guild Wars (the Prophecies campaign to be specific), you learn that this is the last day before some cataclysm, whilst in Aion the cataclysm has already occurred, but your character has lost his memory.

As you spawn into the world you'll notice that the Aion graphics are top notch for an RPG, whilst Guild Wars graphics are decent but nothing special. And then we're into the introductory quests.

Guild Wars has you running around a lot first as you learn how the questing zones are instanced, before the quests take you into some easy combats. There's not much in the way of in-game help besides some unhelpful messages that pop up ocassionally, but the controls are fairly standard and you only have 1 attack skill and 1 healing skill to worry about.

Aion starts with greater pace, with a combat quest straight away, and then a basic variety of quests as you continue along the road to the nearest town. There's a lot of help messages that trigger during this section, but once again they're only really useful to complete beginners in the genre - for anyone else they're not needed as the controls are standard and the 2 skills you start with are easy enough to manage, just an attack and a root to keep the enemy in place.

My noob mistakes that followed in both games were eerily similar.

In Guild Wars, you don't automatically learn skills as you level up - you have to do quests to unlock them. I learned my secondary profession as required by the main questline, and then just by picking up the quests in the area (a monastery), I acquired 4 Monk skills but was still sitting on only my initial 2 Elementalist skills. I was really struggling to kill a group of 3 enemies of my level and in the end just killed them 1 at a time, corpse-running between each kill. Next visit to the Monk trainer, I asked where I could find an Elementalist trainer and was directed to a completely new area I hadn't heard of before. There I did some quests and learned some new skills including those with area damage and I was really off and running.

In Aion, you need to buy skill books from a class trainer which are then usable as you gain levels. You even get a quest that directs you to visit your class trainer but the quest automatically completes before you actually acquire the skill books, so I didn't even notice it. However Aion's early levels seem very forgiving. Hardly anything will attack you unless you attack it first, and just spamming my basic attack power was enough to kill any monster of my level or below. Eventually I was killed when I ran out of mana, and then discovered the class trainers near the respawn point. I learned a few new skills and after that was never again in danger of dying.

The Guild Wars newbie area ends with the Searing as monsters overrun the city and its lush environs. The story continues two years later with a kind of post-apocalyptic vibe as the remnants of the kingdom try to fight back against the monsters in a wasteland version of the areas you'd just been questing in. These post-Searing areas really require a group, especially since a single character can't seem to out-damage enemies who can heal themselves. With a trial account you can't talk to anyone else (to limit gold sellers and scammers, I'm sure) and so your only option is to fill up a party with computer-controlled henchmen. Two drawbacks to this:

1. Henchman are weak, not leveling up with you.
2. Henchman are stupid and you have almost no control over their actions.

Combat after that was decidedly unfun, and I decided to stop with the trial after 6 hours played.

The Aion newbie area ends with ... well, I don't know exactly, since the Aion trial is so bloody short you don't even reach the end of the newbie area. It took me 2½ hours but once you reach level 7 (of 55), that's it - you're booted out. It looks like the cool stuff happens around level 10 when you gain your wings and your class specialization. The implication is that the game radically changes at this point, making the trial seem like a bit of a false front to the game.

Overall, the Aion trial was much more fun. It's not really a fair comparison as Guild Wars is 4 years older (and free to play after the initial purchase) and Aion has really benefited from the lessons learned in those 4 years. The excellent UI, gentle introduction for newbies and, of course, the graphics, are all examples of this.

Guild Wars is not without its redeeming features. You get a lot of skills quite quickly which is great for those with a lot of RPG experience, and the fact that you're limited to just 8 skills creates an interesting strategic element. I could see this being a fun co-op game with a group of friends exploring the strategic possibiities together as they advance through the campaign.

So Aion wins the Trial Wars, but loses the battle for my wallet due to the trial's brevity. I've heard mixed feedback from friends about later levels, so I think I'll wait and see how many are still playing after the other cataclysm hits.

My Trials Begin

So last week was mostly spent finishing off classic adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky (free on gog.com). Overall I had to dip into the hints from UHS about half a dozen times - there are some very frustrating bits. A general hint for those who want to give it a try: if the way to proceed isn't obvious, examine everything and talk to everyone again as the game's state can change pretty subtly after solving unrelated puzzles. Oh, and show everything you can to Joey, your little robot friend. Even if it doesn't help you, he's got the best dialogue in the game.

Overall it wasn't as amazing a game as I expected, with my thoughts on what they could do in the setting outreaching the tech capabilities and genre conventions of the time ... but did I mention it was free?

Friday had me progressing in Guitar Hero's Quest mode and trying out the character's special powers in the Quickplay+. The highlight was getting the 22nd highest score for Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls :)

Fat Bottomed Girls - 22nd

Now with my disappointment in Titan Quest behind me, a friend of mine who knows I enjoyed World of Warcraft, suggested I give Aion and Guild Wars a go. Both have free demos (though Aion's is invite only for some reason) and so I signed up for both so I could do...

Report back due when the trials have expired for both games.