Hands on with the Aion beta: Creating your Elyos

So the Aion beta has finally begun! You won a key, downloaded the client and now is the time to take your first steps in Elysea. For the purposes of this beta you get to play on what amounts to a PvP server and can only create characters from one faction, in this case the Elyos. However you get eight character slots meaning you can create a male and female toon from every class should you wish to.

One of the best parts about starting a new game, whether it's live or on a test realm is the chance to create your avatar. The virtual personification of all your hopes and dreams as well as desires to kill anything that moves. The most important thing you're ever going to do, regardless of the game, is create a virtual you and in this game customization is the big buzzword. So join Massively after the jump on a whistle stop tour of creating your first toon in NCsoft's must-play title.

Aion gives you the option of four classes, each with a choice of male and female: warrior, scout, mage or priest. Warriors are your typical tank, scouts correspond to rogues while mage and priest are rather obvious. Clicking on any of the sample toons will give you a flashy animation and a box telling you more about the class and the individual stats (which change depending on gender). I've decided to play a mage because I like pew pewing over melee and I always roll female characters.

Next comes the fun bit. Yes this is literally where you can while away half a weekend tinkering with your toon. Indeed the customisation options are some of the most advanced I've ever come across. I think it's safe to say you're rather unlikely to come across another toon who looks just like you. At first glance, the options seem a little over simplified. The game starts you off with a randomised female and it's up to you to craft a toon you can love and live with. The choice of look goes from the rather realistic (like the image below) to the downright scary, although the finished product ended up somewhere in the middle, a lifelike looking mage with the slightest hint of anime about her.

I have to admit, the female forms were much more pleasing to the eye than some of the male ones (check out the full gallery below to see what I mean). There are dozens of hair styles and while the colour palette is limited most of them are amazingly realistic, perfectly suited to a fantasy MMO. Some are also distinctly Asian in look and very suited to the whole feel of Aion. Each hairstyle has a preset number and it's just a matter of clicking through until you find one you like, then picking a shade. The same goes for skin tone and lip colour. However there's another level to your toon's uniqueness with the addition of decoration and tattoos.

Whether you want a crescent moon marking your toon's forehead or an angel's wings is entirely up to you. Perhaps freckles or a mole are more to your taste? You could even go with a litttle heart tattoed by your eye. Arrows at the bottom of the screen allow you to turn the portrait from side to side in order to get an all-round look at how your toon is progressing. Pressing the button in the middle zooms out to a full-body shot and also allows you to manual set things like the width of your characters eyes, size of the nose, all the aspects which the more anal player will just love to tinker with.

Returning to the headshot screen, you could always randomise your toon using the two drop down bars on the left hand side but the entire beta is only lasting a weekend so perhaps it's time to move on? Your choice of race and class is displayed in the top left hand corner, just above a box where you can enter a name. I used one of my 'stock' names and you can check if it's available before committing. The final thing to choose is your avatar's voice. Now this feature isn't actually available in the beta (indeed all the sound is Korean for now) but when this feature is implemented you can choose one of four voices depending on the look and personality you want.

The character creation complete, your new avatar greets you with a flashy display of magical prowess against that nice seashore backdrop. Her name and race can be found in the first of eight character slots (this beta allows you to make eight, one of each gender per class) and all you need to do is click on start to take your first steps into the realm of Elysea. Are you ready?%Gallery-65264%