Well, I finally just went ahead and bought it. If it sucks, that's $50 down the drain. Oh well.
I played AoC very briefly and thought the graphics were great and the combat was interesting, but quickly figured that the game wouldn't last. Too many bugs, too much unbalance of classes, and too many complaints not being addressed (until much later, apparently). I think I spent an entire 3-4 days on the game.
I played WAR for roughly two weeks. Like many other MMOs, it had a few features that really looked good on paper. Outdoor scenarios for example, or whatever they call them - the repeating events for items / xp; the first few times they were kinda fun and really rewarding, but after the 5th time you do a particular event it gets old fast. Some events were completely void of other players as well. Overall the worst part about the game was the huge PvP focus combined with the horrible slowness of the UI. In WoW, when I hit "1" five times in rapid succession, I expect my Frostbolt (or whatever) to cast immediately when comes off of cooldown / global cooldown. In WAR, I always felt like there was a .5 - 1 second gap between when I clicked the button to use a skill and when it actually cast. Not a huge deal for a relaxed PvE game, but with the focus on PvP, it was devastating. I didn't find PvP any more fun than similar games either.
So far Aion has been decent. I'm level 18, and so far the level of polish does show. I can't stand the random non-sense voices they use for some actions (thankfully I'm a Gladiator, so I don't have to listen to myself cast), and I think some more English voice acting would be a nice touch. There are several minor bugs here and there, but I haven't found anything game-breaking. Flying... well, gliding... is a complete blast. Even in areas where you normally can't fly, you can still jump off of a slight cliff or hill and glide as far as you can make it (finally landing when you hit an incline). Combat is so-so; I find chain skills more of a nuisance than a benefit, though it is nice not to have to use up 10 action bar spots just for normal combat, in addition to dozens of skills that you just may need from time to time. Quests are for the most part what I've come to expect of recent MMOs unfortunately - go here, kill this guy, collect these, talk to him, save my missing so-and-so. Ugh. The graphics are much better than a lot of the competition, but I still find textures for foliage and certain decals like ropes to be sadly lacking (we still have 2-dimensional ropes? C'mon...). Overall, I don't think Aions success so far has much to do with Aion offering anything new or innovative; it's more the fact that Aion is far more polished, so similar games just look like crap.
I played AoC very briefly and thought the graphics were great and the combat was interesting, but quickly figured that the game wouldn't last. Too many bugs, too much unbalance of classes, and too many complaints not being addressed (until much later, apparently). I think I spent an entire 3-4 days on the game.
I played WAR for roughly two weeks. Like many other MMOs, it had a few features that really looked good on paper. Outdoor scenarios for example, or whatever they call them - the repeating events for items / xp; the first few times they were kinda fun and really rewarding, but after the 5th time you do a particular event it gets old fast. Some events were completely void of other players as well. Overall the worst part about the game was the huge PvP focus combined with the horrible slowness of the UI. In WoW, when I hit "1" five times in rapid succession, I expect my Frostbolt (or whatever) to cast immediately when comes off of cooldown / global cooldown. In WAR, I always felt like there was a .5 - 1 second gap between when I clicked the button to use a skill and when it actually cast. Not a huge deal for a relaxed PvE game, but with the focus on PvP, it was devastating. I didn't find PvP any more fun than similar games either.
So far Aion has been decent. I'm level 18, and so far the level of polish does show. I can't stand the random non-sense voices they use for some actions (thankfully I'm a Gladiator, so I don't have to listen to myself cast), and I think some more English voice acting would be a nice touch. There are several minor bugs here and there, but I haven't found anything game-breaking. Flying... well, gliding... is a complete blast. Even in areas where you normally can't fly, you can still jump off of a slight cliff or hill and glide as far as you can make it (finally landing when you hit an incline). Combat is so-so; I find chain skills more of a nuisance than a benefit, though it is nice not to have to use up 10 action bar spots just for normal combat, in addition to dozens of skills that you just may need from time to time. Quests are for the most part what I've come to expect of recent MMOs unfortunately - go here, kill this guy, collect these, talk to him, save my missing so-and-so. Ugh. The graphics are much better than a lot of the competition, but I still find textures for foliage and certain decals like ropes to be sadly lacking (we still have 2-dimensional ropes? C'mon...). Overall, I don't think Aions success so far has much to do with Aion offering anything new or innovative; it's more the fact that Aion is far more polished, so similar games just look like crap.