As I mentioned to Editor Jon Wood, the difficult articles to write are always about either the games in Pre-Alpha where most everything is still under wraps, and the games so close to launch that NDA has been lifted and most everything has been revealed. Aion falls squarely in the latter. I’ve seen, written and read about Aion since it was revealed to the Western audience at E3 2006 as Aion: The Tower of Eternity, and had hands-on play when it was provided at Cons. So what is it about then?

Aion, the latest title from developer NCsoft is billed as a PvPvE MMO that is being developed simultaneously by both NCsoft in Korea and the US, with Korea being about nine months ahead, and the US version localized as it develops, for the Western market. The world Aion, Atreia, resembles a globe that has been torn in half. The lower half is a lush green world as it receives the benefit of sunlight where the Elyos live. The upper half is dark, cold and arid, the world of the Asmodians. In Eons past, the two halves were joined by vertically by the Tower of Eternity and the Elyos and Asmodians were one people, but when the tower was destroyed in the thousand year war, the factions turned on each other and blamed the other for its destruction.

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