Seventeen years after the original AION helped establish itself as one of the most recognizable MMORPGs of the late 2000s, developer and publisher NC has returned to Atreia with an ambitious sequel. Best known for franchises such as Guild Wars, Lineage, Blade & Soul, and the original AION, the Korean studio spent most of last year preparing AION 2 for a worldwide audience after its initial launch in Korea and Taiwan in November 2025.
Built in Unreal Engine 5, AION 2 is far more than a graphical remaster of its predecessor. NC has described the new world as about 36 times larger than the original game’s map, with flight and large-scale exploration once again at the heart of the experience.
The game has been available in Korea and Taiwan since November 2025. NC has spent months gathering player feedback, analyzing balance data, and rolling out post-launch updates to refine the experience before its worldwide launch. This includes the extreme backlash the game had at launch in Asia, where heavy pay-to-win monetization tanked NCSOFT’s stock by 15% on the first day of release.
In pre-launch interviews, the development team said the global version would launch somewhat behind the Korean service, allowing them to incorporate lessons learned while delivering a more polished experience from day one.
That strategy appears to have paid off in terms of player interest. Following an early access period beginning on September 30, AION 2 launched globally on October 5 through Steam and NC's PURPLE platform, quickly climbing to the top of Steam's sales charts and attracting over 400,000 concurrent players on launch day.
The question, then, isn't whether people were excited for AION 2. It's whether NC has successfully translated one of Korea's biggest MMORPG launches into a game that can stand alongside modern genre giants.
After completing the campaign and spending dozens of hours in the Endgame, experimenting with its PvE and PvP systems, and reaching the point where the hardest grinding truly begins, the answer is both more impressive and more complicated than I expected.
Our review of AION 2 was conducted with the PC version on Steam.
Highs
Story, Cutscenes and Voice Acting
While many MMORPG stories are treated as little more than a vehicle to move players from one quest hub to another, AION 2 keeps players engaged with its narrative. The main story is consistently entertaining, using plenty of cinematic cutscenes that give important moments the weight they deserve.
Set 200 years after the original AION, AION 2 takes place in the shattered world of Atreia after the collapse of the Tower of Eternity, where the Elyos and Asmodians struggle to survive against the powerful Balaur and their Dragon Lords. While AION 2 tells a new story with fresh faces, it's still the same world and conflicts of the original, with plenty of callbacks for veterans to spot along the way.
Players begin on opposite sides of the conflict, experiencing the story from different perspectives as both factions fight to reclaim a war-ravaged world.
Equally important is the extensive voice acting. Almost every conversation is fully voiced by moving NPCs, with notable voice actors like Jon Allen and D.C. Douglas. It adds a surprising amount of energy to even smaller interactions, helping characters leave an impression long after a quest is finished.
Speaking of which, I rarely felt tempted to skip through any of the story. In many MMOs, I usually find myself speeding through dialogue once the objective marker appears. But, AION 2's strong character performances, cinematic presentation, and willingness to let major events breathe kept pulling me back in. Rather than feeling like a means to an end, the story often felt worth slowing down for.
The story doesn’t necessarily reach the heights of the best single-player RPGs, but it's still engaging enough to keep me invested in what happens next. As such, the road to endgame felt more like a single-player game worth investing in, rather than spam-clicking dialogue to get to the “good stuff”.
A Massive, Immersive Open World
AION 2’s enormous world is one of the game's greatest pleasures. While many modern MMORPG’s disguise a series of smaller zones behind loading screens and fast travel systems, Atreia is a genuine world to explore. Flying across mountain ranges, diving into rivers, and stumbling into new quest hubs are all seamless with no loading screens. I found myself maintaining a sense of discovery that usually fizzles after the opening hours in other games.
The regions and world aesthetic differ depending on whether players align with the Elyos or Asmodian faction. The scale and structure of each map reinforce the ongoing conflict between these factions, making the world feel like a place worth fighting for in PvP modes, rather than a collection of disconnected maps you have no attachment to, like Lost Ark or Final Fantasy 14. Fans of the first AION will recognize this ongoing conflict and will be happy to return to the side they chose years ago.
Beyond its main story, AION 2 encourages exploration through a vast open world filled with quest hubs, sprawling cities, dangerous dungeons, and contest regions. Each faction has its own settlements and storylines that guide players through the world. Major hubs serve as centers for crafting, item vendors, upgrading gear, and preparing for the adventure.
After hitting level 45, players will also discover group dungeons, world bosses, hidden points of interest, and opt-in large-scale PvP zones that make Atreia feel as important as the narrative itself.
The world's size is supported by a variety of traversal options, with the two main ones being your pet enlarging to function as a mount, or your wings carrying you great distances through wind tunnels. Flight adds a vertical dimension to exploration that few MMORPGs match, with many locations and hubs in floating worlds in the sky or deep underground, rather than a flatter landscape like World of WarCraft.
Overall, what I liked most was how AION 2 felt rewarding no matter what I chose to do. Whether I was focusing on progressing the main story, hunting for collectibles, or simply immersing myself in the world, Atreia rarely felt like wasted space. Many MMORPGs boast huge maps but struggle to justify their size, whereas AION 2 consistently gave me reasons to venture off the beaten path.
Character Customization and Cosmetics
Character creation was one of AION’s original strengths, and I’m happy to say AION 2 continues that tradition in impressive fashion. The sheer number of options available makes it easy to create a character that stands apart from everyone else.
Facial structures, body proportions, makeup details, and hairstyles all add immense control over your character’s appearance. Whether you want a realistic warrior, an anime-inspired adventurer, or a character ugly enough to make a kobold blush, you can do it.
You can also earn new armor sets, weapon skins, dyes, and cosmetics through quests, vendors, events, and dismantling old gear. Every unlocked appearance is stored in the Closet menu, letting you mix and match outfits regardless of what you have equipped.
My partner and I played this game together through the review process and enjoyed the different ways you can customize your character, even before getting into clothing and cosmetics. She went with a holy-aesthetic Spiritmaster, while I chose a flame Sorceress.
What makes the system particularly effective is that your character customization continues throughout the entire game. With so many players gathering in major cities and joining large-scale PvP battles, characters with different heights, body types, and color schemes let you stand out with a look that's uniquely yours.
While it may seem superficial on paper, in an MMO where players spend hundreds of hours with the same avatar, that personal connection goes a long way toward deeper investment in the world.
Better still, customization doesn't end once you create your character. By the time I left the tutorial area, it was rare to encounter two players who looked alike, either in their looks or chosen gear. In a game where you'll spend hundreds of hours with the same avatar, I loved that the level of personalization available helps AION 2 feel less like a video game and more like a living world.
Lows
Major Gameplay Aspects Locked Behind End-Game
While I praised the story in the Highs, the downside to AION 2’s overall structure is that much of the game’s most exciting content is clearly designed around the endgame. Large-scale faction warfare, competitive PvP game modes, seasonal activities, looting methods, and many crafting and progression goals are heavily limited or locked until you hit level 45.
The design can also make portions of the leveling process feel less meaningful. Rather than feeling like a complete experience, players are disconnected from the broader MMO elements, and will have to focus solely on the campaign, until they unlock these activities.
As a result, many players who want to focus on these will be forced to complete dozens of hours of quests and leveling before they can access the traditional MMORPG features. For players like myself who enjoy the journey, this won’t be a major issue, but those looking for instant access to the game’s headline features will find the road there longer than expected.
Many MMOs like Throne and Liberty or Black Desert Online will slowly or instantly introduce players to the different design systems underpinning the game, such as progression skills like woodcutting or smithing, or crafting your own gear and weapons.
As a result, some AION 2 players will feel like they’re being asked to work through a lengthy onboarding process before reaching the content that made them download the game in the first place.
Finally, creating a new character in AION 2 also means starting the entire story and progression from zero, with only your cosmetics and unlocked pets/mounts carrying over. As such, many players will be deterred from having multiple characters and classes compared to other MMOs.
PvP and Problematic Monetization
With any free-to-play eastern MMO, discussions around PvP balance and monetization are never far behind.
While AION 2 offers a wide range of PvP activities, many of them don't use normalized stats. In open-world PvP and the Abyss, item level, enhancements, Combat Power, Stigmata, and Abyss board upgrades heavily influence outcomes, often making battles feel decided before they begin.
PvP is tied into the game's core progression and reward structure. So, running into a heavily geared player can make fights feel decided before they begin, particularly when rewards are on the line.
The issue is especially noticeable compared to other eastern MMOs like Lost Ark and Blade & Soul, which normalize PvP stats so skill determines the outcome. Even World of Warcraft experimented with stat templates.
AION 2's monetization compounds this issue. Despite improvements following backlash of the launch in Korea and Taiwan, including removing auto-healing from the subscription package, the game still features a monthly $15 subscription, two premium battle passes, and cash shop purchases that directly affect progression.
Players that purchase the subscription are granted marketplace access, exclusive shops, increased energy limits, faster recharge rates, and doubled dungeon rewards. Combined with the premium battle passes, paying players can progress significantly faster than free players.
Progression resembles Genshin Impact and other mobile games more than a traditional MMO. Daily energy systems cap rewards, activities are often time-gated, and players are encouraged to purchase energy refills to continue farming. Because that gear carries into PvP, many players view the system as bordering on pay-to-win.
The marketplace further amplifies the problem, allowing subscribers to exchange real money for premium currency and powerful gear. During my review period, viral clips showed players such as Shroud spending thousands of dollars to bypass the grind entirely.
As a result, AION 2 feels caught between a free-to-play game and a subscription MMO. A model closer to Final Fantasy XIV or Guild Wars 2, with a subscription and a generous free trial, likely would have addressed many of these concerns.
Combat Can Feel Like Autopilot
The final area where AION 2 falls short is its combat. At first glance, the game offers a deep, engaging class system with eight classes, dozens of abilities, Stigmata choices, and Daevanion customization that should encourage meaningful combat decisions.
In practice, however, much of that complexity is undermined by the game's built-in macro system, which lets players bundle large portions of their rotation onto a single button and hold it down through most encounters.
This isn't a niche strategy used by a handful of players. Macros are deeply embedded in how AION 2 is played, to the point that many builds are designed around them. Players can choose to be a Gladiator, cycling through damage skills with their greatsword, or a Spiritmaster, maintaining summons and damage-over-time effects.
But optimal gameplay often boils down to holding a macro key while occasionally pressing cooldowns that you've deliberately left outside the rotation.
The result is combat that can feel surprisingly passive despite having a large number of abilities available. Classes such as Assassin, Ranger, and Sorcerer still have moments where positioning, timing, and burst windows matter.
However, much of the minute-to-minute gameplay lacks the active decision-making found in MMOs like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars 2, where players are expected to manage most of their rotations manually. And while you can organize some macros in eastern MMOs like Lost Ark or Final Fantasy XIV, they don’t have built-in combat macros to the degree that AION 2 does, where almost every ability benefits from being tied to it.
In AION 2, learning your class often means learning how to build an efficient macro rather than mastering its individual skills. That's not to say the combat is bad. The animations are flashy, the classes are distinct, and large-scale PvP can still be chaotic and enjoyable.
But after dozens of hours, I found myself interacting with far fewer abilities than the game initially suggests. For a title with so many skills, builds, and progression systems, it's disappointing that so much of the actual gameplay can be reduced to holding down a couple of buttons and letting the macro system do the work.
Our Score
7/10 (An MMORPG Worth Experiencing)
AION 2 delivers one of the most impressive MMORPG worlds in recent memory, backed by excellent character customization, a surprisingly engaging story, and cinematic presentation that makes the journey through Atreia enjoyable.
However, AION 2’s biggest issues center on its long-term progression. Much of the game’s most exciting content remains locked until level 45, PvP can heavily favor players with superior gear, and an aggressive monetization reminds you that spending money can significantly reduce the grind.
The good news is that, unlike a traditional subscription MMO that asks for an upfront commitment, AION 2 gives players plenty of room to decide whether the game is right for them before opening their wallet.
Much like Final Fantasy XIV’s generous free trial or RuneScape’s extensive free-to-play offerings, there’s plenty of content here to experience the world, story, combat, and progression systems before deciding whether the premium benefits are worth it for you.
And if AION 2 becomes your main game, the monthly subscription offers plenty of value for its low price, and it isn’t an unreasonable ask if you view it the same way many dedicated World of Warcraft players view it as a worthwhile cost for a hobby you spend hundreds of hours enjoying.
It’s also worth remembering that MMORPG launches are rarely perfect. Some of the genre’s biggest success stories spent years refining progression systems, rebalancing PvP, and addressing player feedback. AION 2 already has the hard part nailed down, with its compelling world, excellent presentation, and a core gameplay loop strong enough to keep players invested.
With its massive active player base and strong foundation, NC has every reason to address many of the issues discussed.
AION 2 is a solid follow-up to the original, and successfully introduces the world of Atreia to a new generation of players. At the same time, it gives returning fans plenty of familiar sights and ideas to revisit.
There’s a lot to enjoy here. The story, exploration, and main leveling progression can all be enjoyed without spending a cent, making it easy to recommend to MMO newcomers or those unsure about the game. However, some players will be put off when premium restrictions and progression frustrations become harder to ignore.
As such, AION 2 remains an enjoyable MMORPG with a strong foundation, but its long-term appeal will likely depend on how NCSOFT addresses these issues in future updates. While its frustrations may push some players away, AION 2's core systems offer more than enough depth to become a main game for others.
Reviewed by Jack Briggs (originally published October 23, 2026)
