Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

I'll come back to AION when it ripens in a year or two. It reminds me of the opening of Age of Conan: lot's of hype ... good lookin' vids, but it offered players too many niggling annoyances.

Who's the demographic anyway? AoC and WAR know theirs ... AION needs to find it's players in the final years of High School and cater to them. After playing AoC for a year (even with all its irritations at start-up) I'm spoiled for a more direct interface and engagement with the mechanic.

It's a sharp looking game and the flight mechanic is a real selling point. It's what made me want to try and what will make me return at length. Some of the more juvenile elements were a turn-off. Swashbuckling kitties?!? C'mon!

The biggest irritation was sign-in times in the first few weeks. Server lag and being frequently logged out was also a downer.

Loyal AION fans you should keep the faith: MMO's need people to be hard-core from the start; but I'll wait for more ironing before re-subscribing.