Aion: The Tower of Eternity

As you know if you’ve ever seen the byline of this site (hover your mouse over the banner up top), I am a “gamer”. Strictly speaking, I’m a World of Warcraft gamer – I don’t have the time for, or motivation to play anything else. I’m pretty invested in WoW: I am a high-ranking officer in a guild whose website I host, maintain and moderate, and I participate in guild events about 3 times a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights). Given all of that, every now and then I see a game that I think about trying out.

If I chose games soley based on graphics, Aion: The Tower of Eternity, would be right at the top of the list of games to try out.  The thing that I liked the most, immediately, is that the character models are not grotesue, blocky or riddled with odd polygons. The world has a much more ethereal feel than mid-range graphics WoW, but doesn’t go so far as to feel tacky or campy.

 
The lore, while not fully developed (or disclosed) is compelling enough – a planet split in two, linked by a great tower that is the home of a god, Aion; creations meant to govern the world, gone awry, challenging the creator and subjugating the lower races; a last attempt at restoring peace and harmony resulting in cataclysmic destruction; the resulting creation of two peoples, forever divided by lies and misunderstanding.

Perhaps one of the most interesting concepts is mid-air battle – the game makes extensive use of hand-to-hand aerial combat. Apparently one of the talents of both races is the ability to use Aether (magical energy) to grant themselves flight. I was trying to imagine mid-air combat with that Warrior up on the right, but I kept imagining other things one could do in mid-air that would slightly less violent, and possibly more entertaining.

In any event, it’s definitely a game that I’ll keep an eye on and consider trying out – for the pretty male character models, if nothing else.