No MMO is feature complete at launch and even though Aion’s early months were relatively smooth, there was still a host of common player complaints, namely lack of end-game content and the regular need to grind between levels. Well, since the MMO’s European launch nearly two years a go a lot of those issues have been addressed via constant updates, and this week we got to sample the latest.
We’ve already mentioned the new mentor system and enhanced pet functionality included in Aion 2.5, via dedicated news stories (linked on the right), so this hands-on will focus on this update’s two new areas; the Esoterrace Instance and Empyrean Crucible.
With a pre-made level 55 Gladiator-class warrior boasting some truly epic gear, we enrolled in a six-man team to tackle the new multi-region instance. Before we activated the instance to begin our journey, it was clear immediately the visual transformation Aion has gone through. Graphically the game has become much more vibrant with impressive new lighting effects which enable wings to shimmer in sunlight and shadows to cascade realistically onto scenery and characters.
We were also shown the new ‘Motions’ sub-menu which allows players to change their avatar’s movement style whenever they wish. Admittedly it’s a frivolous inclusion, but when you’re running around in a six-man team it’s nice that everyone isn’t moving in exactly the same way.
Back to the mission at hand, after sweeping down a canyon and catching a windstream which took us briefly underwater to glance at a world beneath the waves – a brief taster of what’s to come in Aion 3.0 – we popped back above the watery surface to land in a reddish canyon populated by enemies, dubbed Narayana. In the distance there was what looked like to be an orbital ship hovering above an auspicious looking castle, and it was the goal of the instance to make our way to the facility’s laboratory complex and defeat the foes inside.
We had to get through two different areas in order to progress to the castle, fighting a mixture of Esoterrace staffers and mutated plant life, which concluded us skirmishing with a giant-tree like boss creature, labelled Dalia Charlands. Like a lot of MMO bosses, the trick was to cause as much damage to the giant branched one as possible while keeping his smaller healer allies from propping up the monstrous tree’s HP. Even six level 55 characters with Fabled armour had a lot of trouble taking this guy down, mainly due to his devastating AoE (area of effect) attack, but when we did, several different chests appeared around the blighter, all of which offered up plenty of gear.
Aion’s team are still tweaking the drop rate for this new instance, so it may change before 2.5 launches at the end of this month, but we were pleasantly surprised just how much loot was being offered up to our team – especially seeing as this MMO is seen as one of the stingier games in the genre.
After the first of the boss battles we continued on to speak with Reian, an NPC who told us how to infiltrate the laboratory, via the water treatment section of the facility. There were two ways to get in, the first was via a drawbridge which immediately gets raised as you tackle the first boss and the second was via the back-door. Rather than having players pick the hard or standard difficulty when you start an instance, Aion presents diverging paths to determine what sort of challenge a team faces. It’s an interesting system which allows teams to make informed decisions about how well they might fair against more challenging foes, but it was unclear whether one team member could accidentally screw everyone else by taking the more challenging road.
After navigating the facility’s waterworks, defeating a series of Golems and a refreshingly weak gatekeeper, we finally made our way inside the Air Condition Room. This area, which is much grander than the name suggests, featured another boss called Captain Murugan whose death prompts two doors to open either side of his spawn, each of which includes two treasure chests. Again the loot count was impressive, completely fulfilling that need to be rewarded for good play.
From there we gained access to the laboratory’s main chamber which not only housed the instance’s main boss, but also several mini-bosses which erupted from pods secured in the wall whenever a team member ventured near. After those unfortunately aggro’d foes were dispatched we tackled the main boss in the middle of the room – a demonic looking axe-warrior named Kexkra. After each team member had got fully accustomed to their roles and some long overdue team communication, we dispatched the giant devil without suffering many casualties.
In all the instance should take first timers around two to four hours to get through with more experience heads able to complete it in as little as ninety minutes, depending on if they elect to take a few shortcuts along the way. However players do need to take note of the cooldown time between run-throughs, which will be 22 hours.
Being part of a well-drilled MMO team is always fun, especially when your hosts give you a pre-made character with some truly epic gear, nevertheless this instance was very enjoyable. The set pieces were impressive and the goal was clear from the outset. It highlighted a few of 2.5′s more attractive inclusions but not everything, as we had one more new area left to sample; The Empyrean Crucible.
This dedicated PvE area for a team of six is all about honing your skills as a Daeva and working together as a team. It’s a wave-based mode with five rounds per stage, with harder and harder foes spawning as you progress. At the beginning of a match each team member gets given a trade-able respawn ticket, so if they die during a stage they can resurrect themselves or give it to an ally to get them back into the fight. As you progress through rounds, you’ll see the platform and its surroundings change considerably, as you descend deeper and deeper into the Crucible. It’s a really cool effect and beats just standing around waiting for the next wave to hit. Enemies will be a mixture of beefed up regular foes and bosses, with bonus rounds offering new loot potential, and there will be a sixteen hour cooldown time between each run.
After our experiences it’s clear that Aion 2.5 offers a lot of new functionality for fans to sink their teeth into. The new instances are the big headline grabbers, but many of the great inclusions are buried into the core experience, like the auto-looting pets, improved character animations and additional character creator options. Predicting how much of an impact 2.5 will have on servers after only having a few hours with it is very difficult, but we can say it made us jump straight back into Atreia as soon as we got back home, and you can’t give a sequential update more praise than that.
Aion 2.5: Empyrean Calling will hit European servers on May 25th.
Tags: Aion
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