Aion: A New Dawn Is A New Experience Entirely?

The highly anticipated update 6.0 for Aion has just landed in Europe (you can play Aion for free here) and we managed to give it a look. A New Dawn is the chosen name and it was clear that a lot of players are interested in it, judging by the movement in the Public Test Servers. So what is this all about? Watch the video or read our opinions below.

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Hey everyone, and welcome to the highly anticipated Aion 6.0 update, which is now available in Europe. This is obviously free, and you can download the game using the link in the video description.

So, let’s get the ball rolling. Many of you already know that one of the perks of being on YouTube is the number of extras that we occasionally get from the developers – just look at all that money. That’s right, we’re rich, bitches! All for research purposes, obviously.

But we got a lot more! For example, a fancy sports car with wings, just look at us go! We go riding on a huge chicken or a cute rabbit, we purchased the latest spaceship model available with all the extras, but sadly we didn’t get a pink unicorn – so jealous! But we have a nice, cozy house that we’re yet to decorate, we’re too busy saving the world to go shopping, no rest for the wicked and all that. Looking at some of the houses available in the world of Atreia, we can’t help but wonder just how awesome it is to have one of those.

Many years have passed since its original release and Aion still features one of the best character creation systems ever designed for an MMORPG. With plenty of sliders and color choices, you can easily create a beautiful avatar or the most horrendous creature to grace the world of Atreia. No matter what, the options are there at your disposal.

One of the highlights of A New Dawn is the Transformations system. To get the transformation scrolls you must go to the new Gold Sand Shop and purchase them, crossing your fingers to get a good transformation. You can turn into a kickass polar bear of doom, a decaying skeleton, a rat-thingy what’s-it’s-name or a ravaging cute chihuahua, among many other options. However, if you don’t want to literally morph into a penguin or any other of the available transformations, there is the option for a transparent transformation, which means that you’ll inherit the abilities of the scroll while keeping your cool, respectful, daunting look. I mean, fighting a huge dragon while in the shape of a polar bear looks odd, but seeing everyone interacting with it during the cutscenes can be unintentionally hilarious.

The entire Aion gameplay was revamped for this 6.0 update, to make levelling up a faster deal and overall a smoother experience. Some regions and instances were removed, and the developers were serious when they said that the higher levels can be reached in a matter of hours. Sure, you must devote quite a few hours into Aion after level 75 – that’s when things get serious – but judging by our calculations, you’ll be up there in about a dozen hours, and then it’s a short but more serious step to the current level 80 cap.

When we reached the higher levels, that is when we realized we shouldn’t be so full of ourselves. After all, we had dozens of trinkets that we could have used to boost our character, but instead we tried to level up as fast as we could – we’re not even sure if this was a mistake or not. Suddenly, we get into the PvP side of things and it’s obvious that everyone and their moms were better prepared for battle than we were. We were killed in a matter of seconds, making us look like an insignificant speck in the middle of an impressive, no holds barred celestial war.

We learned a valuable lesson. While the levelling in A New Dawn is definitely streamlined, you need to improve your character along the way or be ready to do so later on. Grouping, faction battles and all of that requires some knowledge and a strong hero with chained skills, boosted equipment and the all-important stigma stones. It’s up to you to decide how you will face this challenge.

Later in the game you will have to group up with other players, as going solo won’t cut it anymore in the serious bits. The brutal open world PvP scenarios will be vital for your progress, so make sure that you find a few friends before venturing into the more dangerous regions.

Speaking of which, there is a new shared-map region called Lakrum where important things are happening. Your faction will be battling to take the fortress in the North and to get some valuable equipment from the nine artefact garrisons.

Aion is known as that MMORPG where you can fly, so we should talk about that for a bit. When you reach level 10, your character earns its wings. However, you can’t fly in some zones, but you can glide anywhere, making this an important travel feature – you can cross chasms or descend from places that would otherwise require a long walk. Flight time is initially restricted to 60 seconds but can be boosted through armor and accessories. Flying is definitely cool and becomes even cooler when you see those majestic creatures crossing the skies – we tried and failed to reach them, but the scene is still pretty imposing. Just make sure you don’t forget about the flight time, or you may end up falling to your death, as you can see right now.

In terms of graphics, the higher-level regions improve on the visuals from the starting areas. Aion still looks good and some of the huge bosses will remind you why this game was acclaimed for its accomplished art style.

We wanted to keep this overview of the 6.0 update somewhat casual, so we won’t get into details such as the skill revamp or the cube system, we’ll leave that to the Aion experts. As it turns out, Aion feels like an MMORPG that is here to stay, and now with a heavier focus on the endgame. Don’t let the quick levelling fool you, this is a game with tons of depth and systems that will consume months of your time, so you’ll have a lot to see and do here. Just make sure that you take the time to care for your character and learn about every single object in your inventory, so you can make the best of it before going into the serious battles.

This is our overview on Aion’s 6.0 update, A New Dawn. We hope you enjoyed the video and if you’re new to Aion, you can download the game for free using the link in the video description. Have fun!