The closed beta testing in Aion ended on August 17th, and with time running out, I pushed my Spiritmaster (one of two Mage choices) to level 20 and left the rest of my Elyos characters behind. At this level, it's all PvE and I'd soloed 90% of the quests. The rest I joined up with others in pick up groups and had fun grouping with friendly faces to take out some tough customers I couldn't defeat alone.
I'd say that under level 20, there was still a lot of run-of-the-mill questing, i.e. "go talk to so-and-so and deliver this message" or "kill 10 of these critters and come back," but mixed in were plenty of tougher, thoughtful quests that required some strategy. I really enjoyed some of the new areas with different flora and fauna, and the artwork was still top-notch. Kudos also goes to the incidental music that permeated the game, although the main symphonic theme did repeat a bit too often.I never found an 'epic' item in all my questing with any character and I still wonder how often they drop, but green drops were plentiful, storage was ample, auction houses were always available and the 'kinah' (gold) flowed at a decent proportion to your needs.
One neat feature was personal 'booths' you could set up yourself to sell excess gear and advertise locally wherever you were. Little things you had to learn on your own in a beta were inevitable - for instance, the comma sign (,) rested your character for a quick boost in health and mana regen (called HP and MP). The period (.) was the walk/run toggle. Like most games, the keyboard was customizable to your own liking. I didn't customize it much, but I think I would have preferred a better way to fly other than the default settings of the PGUP and PGDN keys for take-off and landing (although I got used to it). There was a little round icon that ticked off the time remaining for flying and you got an audio and visual reminder that time was running out. Ignore it and fall to your death if you're too high.
Overall, I'm happy I participated in the Aion closed beta. I'm always glad to try a new game, especially one that kept my interest over a couple of months. I'm sorry to see all of my little guys permanently go away though! But they shall live again (if I can get the names back) on Sept. 22 when Aion goes live.
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