Another MMO for the Gaming History Books
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN DISCUSSIONS involving SPOILERS FROM Aion 2. CONSIDER WHEN AND WHERE IT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE TO READ THIS PIECE.Platforms
We reviewed our copy of Aion 2 on PC via Steam. Aion 2 is only available on Steam and PURPLE, the game developer NC Software’s gaming platform.Aion 2, the newest Korean Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) game has just dropped globally, and it has picked up a lot of traction in the Americas and Europe. For a few years now, the Americas and Europe have been on the lookout for their newest forever MMO – a game that millions of players can log into and play every day for years. We have been stuck with the tried-and-true classics like World of Warcraft (WOW), Final Fantasy 14 (FF14), Old School RuneScape (OSRS), and a few more. Not that these MMOs are bad, but a new one would be nice. That said, nearly all the new MMOs that have come out in the past five years have failed horribly. Developed by well-known Korean games studio NC Software, Aion 2 seeks to fill this void and right the wrongs of the MMOs that came before it.
I approached Aion 2 with cautions optimism. I have played WOW and OSRS, which have stayed strong through the decades. I also played the new, now failed MMOs like Ashes of Creation, New World, Throne and Liberty, and Lost Ark in beta or on release. Of those games, Lost Ark was the most popular and also developed by a Korean studio. At its peak, Lost Ark had a massive 1.4 million players on Steam in 2021. Now in 2026, it only has 4,000 players and is likely facing end of service soon. Less than a month in, it is too early to say whether Aion 2 will experience this same failure. However, Aion 2 does suffer from some of the same development mistakes as Lost Ark. Therefore, it is only fair to compare the two and approach it with caution. After playing Aion 2 extensively, I can safely say that my fears I developed from playing failed MMOs are very alive and well in this game too.
The “FREE” MMO
Just like Lost Ark, Aion 2 is a good looking, “free” to play MMO. On paper, this is great idea because it removed the biggest barrier to entry for players (buying the game) and inherently makes the player base massive like an MMO needs. In reality, these games need to make money, so they employ highly predatory microtransactions to support the game. In the case of Aion 2, these microtransactions create a pay-to-win environment where playing puts a player so far behind that they can only catch up by paying real money. It is so bad in Aion 2 that there are three unofficial tiers of pay-to-win microtransactions.
Tier one is buying a subscription for $15. In most other MMOs, subscriptions just give access to the game with no other benefits. Since Aion 2 is technically free, the subscription gives massive benefits that make it not worth playing if a player does not have it. These benefits include double rewards from end game dungeons and events, access to the player market, higher storage capacities, and more. Effectively, a player without the sub must play double the amount of time to get the same progress as someone who does have it.
Tier two is buying the two seasonal battle passes. One battle pass is $15 and the other is $10. To be fair, these can be obtained without spending anything more than the subscription but requires the player to covert their in-game currency into the paid currency via the player market. Doing this wipes out at least one full day of progress and supports the tier three pay-to-win players.
Tier three is by far the most predatory microtransaction level. This involves using real money to buy in-game currency. Since in-game currency can buy the best gear in the game and provides a variety of other player power advantages, this is where the game becomes extremely expensive. The term “whale” is used for players that engage in this level of microtransaction. Only around 10% or less of the player base are whales, but one whale may spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on Aion 2. This gives their characters power far beyond what a free, tier one, or tier two could ever achieve. Despite this difference, the free, tier one, or tier two players are forced to compete against the whales in all content within Aion 2. Given this in-game reality, the rest of this review will be described through this lens.
Early Game Leveling
The early game is a safe space away from the pay-to-win players. From creating a class and character to enjoying the story and leveling process, this is the most fun part of the game. Unfortunately, it is also a solo journey, which is counter-intuitive to the MMO genre. There are very few instances in leveling where players need to interact with each other. They may see each other in passing across the world, but meaningful group play is only required a few times during leveling. Depending on the player, this solo experience may or may not detract from the game.
The early game begins with choosing a faction, creating a character, and discovering the intricacy of your class. The two factions are Elyos and Asmodians, which are opposing factions of the human race called Daeva. This choice affects the look of the characters, the story, and the starting region. Then comes the character creation and class selection. The character creation is extremely robust with a ton of options to customize your character exactly the way you want. Each class is very unique and provides different play styles. I chose the Spiritmaster, which is a damage dealer that can summon elemental spirits. There are seven other classes that make up other tank, healer, and damage dealer roles that are a staple of the MMO genre.
After making these choices, the story and leveling immediately begin. As the story goes, the Daeva races of Elyos and Asmodians were constantly in conflict until an alien race, the Balaur, invaded. The Balaur are humanoid dragons that have the power to steal Daeva’s souls and make their bodies do their bidding. They seek to subjugate the world of Atreia (the Aion 2 world) and take its resources. The player is an up-and-coming hero with ancient powers that overcome the Balaur’s soul-stealing powers and sprout wings temporarily to take the fight to the sky. The entire questing and leveling process involves thwarting the Balaur’s plan until reaching level 45, which is the current maximum level and where the story pauses until the next major seasonal update. Therefore, the story with the Balaur is far from over and more will come in later updates.
My Spiritmaster character
While leveling, the chosen class really begins to come alive. Abilities and passives skills are gained and leveled up alongside the story. Because of this, the story quests stay very easy as the player is gaining power faster than the story becomes harder. This allows the player to learn and understand the inner workings of their class without any difficulty. Between the constant level-ups and quest rewards, the leveling process is satisfying and fun while also doing a really good job of introducing the class and story to the player. Once the main quest line is complete and the player is level 45, the end game begins.
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Arcana and gear system
Just like in most MMOs, the end game is where the game opens up and becomes real buffet of content. There are several types of dungeons, ascension trials, events and minigames, pet farming, player verse player game modes, gathering and crafting, achievements and titles, world bosses, side quests, and much more. All these content types give player power and most of them require other players to form groups to do meaningfully. The only limitation on this content is that most of them require energy or keys for rewards. Outside of that, there is nearly infinite content in the end game. The goal of all this content is to increase player power through getting higher item level gear and combat power. At certain thresholds of item level and combat power, more difficult and rewarding content is unlocked. The Aion 2 end game is truly massive and multiplayer-centric.
However, all this end game content is diminished by the pay-to-win aspects of the game. It has trained the player base to only group up with players that have the best gear and highest combat power. Those players are often whales that have paid large amounts of money to get their gear. Therefore, the low tier payers or free-to-play players are left behind and have much more difficult time getting into the content they need to do to get stronger. Not only do the whales get into the harder content faster, but they have much easier access to the best gear in the game that comes from crafting. Crafting a single piece of high-level gear costs tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of in-game currency. The only way to get this much currency is to save up for weeks or buy it with real money. This is something that is not sustainable for a healthy multiplayer game.
Plenty of events and end game content
Lastly, the end game is much more difficult than the leveling experience. Not so difficult that it is unplayable, but enough to where the leveling should have prepared players for it. For example, there are a ton of quick-time dodge mechanics in boss combat. Failing these mechanics will instantly kill the player, and the leveling process never even attempts to introduce this. Players are just thrown into difficult encounters without any preparation. The only saving grace is that players learn through repetition, and players must repeat the same dungeons dozens of times get all the gear then need to reach the next dungeons – another issue with the end game. This is all exacerbated by the game’s inherent latency issue, meaning that a player’s mouse and keyboard inputs are not sensed by the game for half a second or a full second. This lag between the input and the game makes a world of difference when encountering difficult bosses and mechanics. This often makes the difficult end game content feel terrible to play.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Aion 2 is no different from the failed MMOs that I mentioned above. I do not see this game maintaining the player base an MMO needs to sustain itself for more than a year. Between the blatant pay-to-win microtransactions and the inherent latency issue that affects all aspects of the game, Aion 2 is just not a good enough game to withstand the scrutiny of the American and European gaming audience.
Made in Unreal Engine 5, the game looks great on the surface but just below that are core performance and game play mechanics that are riddled with issues. This is not to say there are no redeeming qualities to the game, like the leveling, classes, and some of the end game content, but they are heavily outweighed by all the bad parts of the game. Aion 2 is little more than a waiting room for other upcoming MMOs like WOW Forever, RuneScape 4, and Guild Wars 3, all of which have been announced and will be released in the next year or two.
Even though it is technically free to play, the overwhelming benefits of the monthly subscriptions and battle passes make paying for the game feel mandatory. Due to this, I cannot recommend Aion 2 to anyone. In fact, I would highly recommend not playing it to save you time and money. If you are looking for your next forever MMO that you can sink thousands of hours into over many years, I can safely tell you that Aion 2 is not that game.
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Matt
New video game, movie, or TV show? Matt probably has it on his radar, and he might even be in the middle of reviewing it. This digital entertainment enjoying dude is a Content Writer during work hours, then plays games, watches movies, binges shows, and writes about all of it in his free time.