AION 2 has managed to produce one of those wonderfully contradictory MMO launches where almost everybody appears to be playing the game and a substantial number of them are simultaneously explaining why they do not recommend it.
Only a few days after AION 2 reached an extraordinary 397,905 concurrent players on Steam, the English-language Steam review score has fallen to 60 percent positive. At the time of writing, Steam lists 8,450 English reviews and labels the reception Mixed. Across all supported languages, the picture is slightly healthier, but still divided, with more than 16,000 reviews already submitted.
For a game that launched free-to-play on October 5, that is a remarkable amount of feedback in less time than some MMOs need to finish explaining their crafting tutorial.
AION 2 Has the Players. Keeping Them Happy Is the Harder Part
The strange thing is that the review score is moving in the opposite direction from the player numbers. AION 2 climbed from 73,761 concurrent Steam players during September's Global test to 171,530 during paid Advanced Access, before exploding to nearly 400,000 when the free-to-play gates finally opened.
Interest, in other words, is not the problem.
The complaints appearing in Steam reviews are considerably more familiar. Monetization sits near the centre of the argument, with players questioning how strongly paid systems, convenience and long-term progression will affect the competitive landscape. That concern was already hanging over the game when we published our AION 2 review and its monetization warning. The Global version changed several systems compared with Korea and Taiwan, but opening the full shop naturally means players can now judge the economy rather than speculate about it.
The AI Discussion Has Joined the Review Battle
Another criticism receiving attention concerns generative AI. This is not simply a Steam-review conspiracy built from somebody finding a suspicious-looking finger. NC's own Steam disclosure states that some in-game assets were created with assistance from AI tools, specifically mentioning Arcana card designs and some icons.
That does not mean AION 2's enormous world, characters or environments were generated by pressing a large red button marked "make MMORPG." It does, however, mean the subject is real, and some players clearly dislike seeing generative AI used at all in a game with this scale and budget.
The Global Test Actually Ended Higher
The contrast with September is particularly interesting. When the temporary Global test ended, we reported that AION 2 had reached 69 percent positive reviews after beginning much lower. The score improved as players spent more time with combat, progression and group content.
The retail game is now showing the opposite early movement.
There is an important caveat here: the test and retail release have separate review pools, so 69 percent to 60 percent is not a literal nine-point fall among the same reviewers. What it does show is that the complete game is being judged on systems the test deliberately left unavailable, especially monetization and the permanent economy.
NC has already demonstrated that it is willing to respond quickly. Founder’s Pack cosmetics were made account-wide after player feedback, and the first Global patches have already started changing progression, boss difficulty and resource availability.
400,000 Players and 60 Percent Positive Can Both Be True
The temptation now is to decide that AION 2 is either an enormous triumph or a spectacular disaster.
It is currently neither.
A peak of 397,905 Steam players is an extraordinary launch for an MMORPG. A 60 percent English review score is also a warning sign that a very large part of that audience has serious reservations. Both numbers matter.
The question is no longer whether NC could convince people to try AION 2. October 5 answered that rather loudly.
The question is whether the hundreds of thousands who arrived will still want to live in Atreia once the launch excitement disappears, the progression slows down and the shop becomes part of everyday life.
That will take longer than three days to answer.
But with almost 400,000 players arriving and the Steam review score already turning into a battleground, AION 2 has certainly managed one thing.
Nobody is ignoring it.
