Hands On With Aion

For those that don't know about Aion, it's a visually stunning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where players ascend to divinity and fight in a celestial war. Here they will wield divine powers and the capability of true flight, to bring deliverance to your people and restore balance to a world shattered by cataclysm. Choose your side, spread your wings, and claim your rightful place among the immortal legions of Atreia.

NCSoft is set to release the game on September 22, and after spending some time with the game during the San Diego Comic Con, we can't wait!

The controls are fairly straight forward, and typical for most MMOs. The one addition that's great is that by hitting "Page Up" you can unfold your wings and take flight. Flight time isn't unlimited, but a warning message will pop up letting you know when you're getting close to your limit. Hopefully you're somewhere that you can land safely!

"Page Down" will fold your wings back up and put you back on the ground.

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One thing that's different with Aion is the "Chain Skills" feature. With it, you can add skills to your hotbar, but can only be used in the proper order. It sounds like it could be difficult, but NCSoft has made it pretty easy. While executing a chain, follow-up icons appear on the screen to let you know what needs to come next.

While the earlier levels we played were your standard fair (go here, collect these, kill these, etc), the game looks absolutely amazing! More important, we didn't mind the grind, which is unusual in an MMO. The combat was enjoyable and the environments were gorgeous.

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So where's the dirt? It can't all be glowing praise and cotton candy... Our biggest complaint? We don't think we can wait until September for this game.

With the promise of flight and PvP, Aion has a lot of potential.