E3 06: Aion: The Tower of Eternity Hands-on

LOS ANGELES--One of the more interesting MMO games shown off at E3 2006 was NCsoft's Aion: The Tower of Eternity. The game is an entirely new high-fantasy MMORPG being developed in Korea, but the developers have noted that the game will be designed and aimed at a worldwide market. The game uses the same Crytek engine that was used in the FPS game Far Cry to produce some extremely colorful and lush environments, full of fully physics-based elements like water, for example, which will slow down characters trying to slog through it. The greenery in the forest and wetlands environments we saw was pretty thick, while player models were adorned in very ornate armor, exhibiting a very Korean or Eastern sensibility in character design. Weather effects are also available in the game, and these can have a real effect on gameplay--using fire-based attacks in a driving rain, for example, won't be as effective, while using water-based attacks in the same type of weather can make those spells even stronger.

Joohyung Jang, the director of Aion, explained that the game will attempt to differentiate itself in a couple of ways. The principle difference will be in "user-driven storylines." Put simply, the actions that players and groups take in the world will have a lasting and profound effect on the world as a whole (at least, within the server that these actions happen.) You can imagine a group of players taking out a world boss of some sort and that having far-reaching effects on the world and player population of an entire server. Jang also talked about "PvPvE" design. Rather than have entirely separate subsections of the design where players of one faction can group together and do PvE content, or fight against the other faction and thus engage in PvP action, Aion will attempt to have everything seamlessly work together. Players will be able to choose from two factions in the game, angels and demons, while the computer will control a third faction of dragons. If one player faction ever begins to gain control over the other via world combat, the computer-controlled dragon faction will automatically respond by attacking the winning faction as an attempt to rebalance the world.

So far, four base classes are available in the game--wizards, rangers, warriors, and a healer class that both heals and buffs allies. A total of eight player classes are planned for the final version of the game. Players of both factions will be able to literally, spread their wings and fly from one point of interest to another. As currently implemented, in-game flight goes down strict paths, much like gryphon rides in World of Warcraft. Currently the designers are considering whether or not to allow more freedom of movement while in flight.

We got a chance to play as a warrior in our hands-on time with the game, and played through a small portion of the game, taking out mobs in a shoreline area with the titular Tower of Eternity visible in the distance. There were a variety of different mobs wandering around the area, though none of the ones we fought seemed to exhibit the advanced artificial intelligence that was described to us during the directed portion of the demo, where some mobs would actively stalk and ambush you. The warrior we tried had a number of different combat skills, including a taunt, a spinning attack that would briefly stun all enemies around the warrior, and some other abilities that could chain off each other for massive damage. One type of strike would open up another melee ability to knock over an enemy, which would then open up a coup-de-grace type move to inflict massive damage on a grounded mob. In this manner we were able to solo multiple enemies of about the same level range.

Later on in our hands-on session, we came upon a couple of bells near a village of goblins. We tried ringing one bell, which resulted in all the nearby goblins running away from their patrol spots and into nearby huts--maybe it was the dinner bell? This opened up a path to a portal, which abruptly put us inside of a lava cave where we fought a huge demon boss, who we defeated before finishing up the demo.

Jang mentioned that despite the solo-centric nature of the E3 demo, parties of up to 6 players can be formed, as well as raids of several parties for bigger content. From what we've seen of Aion so far, the game looks promising. NCsoft noted that a closed beta of the game is scheduled for late 2006, with a 2007 release.