Games Happy

There are video games which can be fairly, after which there are video games which can be so fairly that your jaw simply form of hangs open. Whereas at Summer season Sport Fest’s Play Days occasion this yr, I had the prospect to take a look at a hands-off demo of NC’s upcoming high-flying sequel, Aion 2, a follow-up to 2008’s Aion: The Tower of Eternity (2009 within the States), and converse to members of the dev workforce.  Whereas my time with the workforce was transient, just a few issues had been made clear – this sport is beautiful, and the workforce is doing all they’ll to battle again towards what they view because the “decline of the MMO”.

Choosing up about 200 years after the occasions of the Tower of Eternity, Aion 2 as soon as once more places gamers within the boots – or perhaps the “wings” is extra acceptable on this case – of the Elyos and the Asmodians on the fantasy world of Atreia. A very good portion of the gameplay proven in the course of the demo highlighted the huge variety of customization choices gamers may have for creating their excellent character. From hairstyles to cosmetics, face shapes, and even the signature wings which have helped outline Aion over time, are simply a few of the options you possibly can tweak.  It’s clear that Aion 2 will allow you to make actually, actually pretty-looking characters. I wouldn’t be shocked if even the fugliest creations would nonetheless appear like they may win a magnificence pageant.

“A serious focus of what we attempt to do is so that you can really feel such as you’re truly on this fantasy world of Atreia,” started Daniel LaFuente, NC’s Director of Operations. “Something that you just need to manipulate, we need to offer you that instrument in order that, once more, you may make the precise fantasy that you really want throughout the sport.” One somewhat intriguing characteristic of Aion 2 is which you can share your designs with different gamers, permitting different gamers to import your look to make use of on their very own characters. Desires of winged William DaFoes hovering throughout the sky stuffed my thoughts.

One other huge level the workforce wished to actually drive house in the course of the demo, together with the wild customization choices, was that anyplace you can see, you can get to. An strategy that they’ve utilized to each the land and the sky. Because of developments in know-how over the previous 18 years, the workforce was lastly capable of understand their dream of flying, all these years in the past. Aion 2’s execution publishing producer, Merv Lee Kwai, who was additionally current in the course of the demo, defined it like this: “Again then, it [flying] was very restricted, as a result of they could not render numerous areas on the identical time. So proper now, they prolonged the map 36 occasions larger than the unique model in order that you can actually really feel the flying, free flying within the open world.” 

There was one second close to the tip of the demonstration, when within the far distance, what seemed to be a big menacing airship hovered far above the bottom. When requested if a participant might merely fly as much as the airship, the workforce smiled and responded, “Something you see, you may get to.” Signal me up!

With the workforce engaged on Aion 2 being a mixture of each new and authentic members who labored on the primary sport, I used to be curious to know what the OGs considered how the MMOs have developed over the course of Aion’s life and if they’d any concept that the style can be as standard as it’s twenty years later. I used to be shocked by the candid and surprising response from Kwai, “I feel the MMO style is declining. However, there’ll nonetheless be individuals who like this style, and in comparison with the video games from 20 years in the past, there are much more people who find themselves considering video games now. “ He continues, “I nonetheless really feel there is a good portion of participant base who will nonetheless play MMORPGs even 10 or 20 years from now. I need the participant base to construct their very own neighborhood inside the sport, and  simply carry on having fun with MMOs, however it’ll naturally decline from competitors with a bunch of different genres.” None of that is to say that the workforce is apprehensive about how Aion 2 will fare; as an alternative, it’s utilizing it as a problem to plan methods to make sure the sport stands out and appeals to different audiences. The truth is, the crew at NC has excessive hopes for his or her newest fantasy epic, with Kwai telling me that they hope Aion 2 will lead the style into a brand new period of MMOs.

Even with having little or no information or background on the Aion collection, after trying out the character customization, the breathtaking dungeons, and the transient tease of hovering by the air on majestic wings, I can’t assist however be enthusiastic about Aion 2. Fortunately, gamers gained’t have to attend lengthy to earn their wings as Aion 2 will launch across the globe this September. Till then, we’ll simply should maintain ourselves on lovely gameplay trailers.