AION 2 Ends Its Global Test at 69% Positive on Steam: Players Are Still Divided

AION 2's first global public test is over. The temporary characters are gone, the Playtest servers are offline, and tens of thousands of players now have roughly eleven days to decide whether they want to return for Advanced Access. The first measurable verdict is not overwhelmingly positive, but it is considerably better than it looked during the opening hours. At the time of writing, AION 2's Steam Playtest sits at 69 percent positive user reviews, placing the reception firmly in mixed territory rather than producing either the disaster or runaway triumph some corners of the MMO community were predicting.

That number becomes more interesting when viewed across the entire test. SteamDB recorded the Playtest at around 48 percent positive during an early snapshot on September 17. Later data showed that climbing into the 60s, and after Day 2 the score has reached 69 percent. Steam ratings can continue changing as more people submit reviews, so 69 percent should be treated as a snapshot rather than carved into the walls of Atreia. Still, the direction is notable: the player score improved as the test went on.

AION 2 Finished With 73,761 as Its Steam Peak

The final player numbers are now available as well. AION 2 reached an all-time Steam peak of 73,761 concurrent players on September 17. Day 2 came remarkably close, reaching a 24-hour peak of 73,739, just 22 players short of the first session's record.

That is useful context because the second test window did not collapse after the curiosity of Day 1 wore off. The audience returned at almost exactly the same peak level for another six-hour session, despite knowing that every character would disappear when the servers closed.

As we noted when AION 2 first hit 73,761 concurrent Steam players, these numbers still exclude everyone using NC's PURPLE launcher. The actual global test population was therefore larger, although NC has not provided a combined concurrency figure.

The Review Score Started Much Worse

The change in Steam sentiment may be the most interesting part of the test.

Early reactions were rough. During the opening period, SteamDB captured a review percentage below 50 percent. At that point, many of the complaints focused on exactly the things that make the strongest impression during AION 2's first hour: auto-navigation, the interface, extremely easy introductory combat and the feeling that parts of the game resemble a mobile MMORPG transplanted onto PC.

That criticism did not disappear. Steam discussions are still full of players complaining about auto-run, auto-potions, menu design and the generally streamlined structure of the opening quests. Some players tried the game for twenty minutes, decided they had seen another familiar Korean MMO formula and uninstalled.

But other players did something rather inconvenient for an immediate internet verdict.

They kept playing.

AION 2 Seems to Have a First-Hour Problem

Yesterday we looked at the first AION 2 player impressions after Day 1, and one pattern appeared repeatedly: players who disliked the opening hour sometimes became substantially more positive after additional skills, progression systems and group activities unlocked.

One highly discussed MMO community post came from a player who initially disliked the combat, auto systems and mobile-like presentation, then continued playing with friends for five hours and ended up disappointed when the servers closed. Other reactions described something similar. Combat starts extremely simple, but becomes more interesting once classes gain enough abilities for chained skills and actual rotations to develop.

The Steam review curve does not prove that every negative player simply needed to play longer. Plenty of people remained unconvinced after several hours, and that is perfectly legitimate. But the improvement from an early sub-50 percent snapshot to 69 percent after the full test is at least consistent with the idea that AION 2 makes a weaker first impression than it does a third or fourth impression.

The Mobile-Like UI Is Still the Biggest Recurring Complaint

The criticism that refuses to go away concerns AION 2's interface and automation.

Players repeatedly describe the UI as mobile-like, with large interface elements, strongly guided navigation and several automated conveniences. Auto-movement remains particularly divisive. Some players treat it as a harmless option when moving between quest objectives. Others see its presence as symbolic of exactly the sort of MMO design they hoped AION 2 would avoid.

The strange part is that the world itself is receiving plenty of praise. AION 2's vertical environments, floating architecture and large landscapes are among the most consistently appreciated parts of the test, which makes automatically following a route through them feel particularly odd to players who would rather explore manually.

NC now has a useful problem to solve. The systems that make AION 2 approachable may also be the systems making some veteran MMO players dismiss it before its stronger combat and progression have time to appear.

Combat and Progression Are Helping the Other Side of the Argument

Positive reactions tend to focus on a different set of features: combat once more skills unlock, character progression, the pet and mount collection systems, visual quality and the sheer number of things available to improve.

AION 2 constantly gives the player another number, item, passive tree or system to develop. That can eventually become dangerous in an MMO, because today's satisfying progression menu can become next month's list of mandatory chores. But across twelve hours of temporary testing, many players clearly enjoyed the feeling of continually unlocking something new.

The game's combat also has more going on beneath the simple opening than first appears. NC continues adjusting systems such as animation cancelling and skill chaining, while the eight launch classes develop significantly as additional abilities become available.

That does not erase the criticism of the first few levels. It simply explains why somebody can dislike AION 2 at level 5 and enjoy it considerably more later the same evening.

The Test Was Missing Some of AION 2's Most Controversial Systems

There is another major reason not to treat 69 percent as a review score for the complete game.

The Launch Scale Test disabled the Shop, Quna purchases, Membership, the Market, Quna Exchange and other payment systems. The level cap was 37, Founder's Pack items were unavailable and every piece of progression was wiped after Day 2. NC's official test rules were explicit that this was a limited scale test rather than a complete representation of long-term progression. ([steamdb.info](https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/25369750/))

That means players were unable to properly experience one of AION 2's most controversial subjects: monetization. We have already looked at how the $15 Membership affects Market access and other systems, and NC has now clarified after the test that direct player-to-player trading will be disabled as an anti-bot measure, leaving the Market as the central trading system.

The economic conversation will therefore change considerably once the permanent servers open.

NC Is Already Making Changes After the Test

The Launch Scale Test did more than produce a Steam score. NC used Day 1 feedback to push crash fixes, improve quest-object interaction ranges and open four additional European servers during the test.

After the test closed, NC also confirmed changes to its launch queue policy. Players in good account standing can enter a priority queue when servers are at capacity, although NC stresses that priority does not guarantee immediate entry. Accounts under disciplinary action or suspected of violating the Terms of Service can lose that privilege.

Steam users must now uninstall the separate Playtest application and download the retail AION 2 client before Advanced Access. PURPLE users do not need the same extra step.

69 Percent Is Neither a Disaster Nor a Victory Lap

A 69 percent Steam score is exactly the sort of number that allows everyone to find evidence for whatever they already believed.

If you expected AION 2 to be another polished but over-automated Korean MMO, plenty of reviews will support that conclusion. If you hoped for strong combat, beautiful environments and an enormous progression-heavy MMO, there are plenty of players saying they found exactly that too.

The more useful observation is that sentiment improved during the test while player concurrency remained remarkably stable between the two sessions. AION 2 hit 73,761 players on Day 1 and 73,739 on Day 2, while the Steam review percentage climbed substantially from its early position.

That is a much healthier story than a test where everybody arrives once, hates the first hour and never comes back.

It is also far too early for celebration.

The real test begins when the wipe is gone, the economy is active, Membership matters, endgame progression starts consuming weeks instead of hours and players have to decide whether AION 2 deserves a permanent place in their MMO rotation.

For now, 69 percent positive feels strangely appropriate.

AION 2 has convinced a lot of people. It has annoyed plenty of others. And with Advanced Access beginning September 30, the argument has barely started.

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AION 2 First Impressions: Players Praise the Combat, but the Mobile-Like UI Is Dividing People

AION 2 has finally spent a few hours in the hands of global players, which means we can temporarily stop analysing developer presentations and start analysing something considerably more dangerous: MMO players with opinions. Following the first six-hour Launch Scale Test session on September 17, the early reaction is decidedly mixed. Players are praising AION 2's world, progression and increasingly satisfying combat, while the interface, auto-movement and extremely gentle opening hours are repeatedly being criticised for making the game feel more like a mobile MMO than some PC players expected.

That does not amount to a verdict on AION 2. The test is capped at level 37, runs for only twelve hours across two sessions, disables several major economy systems and wipes every character afterward. But after 73,761 concurrent Steam players joined the first global test, there are finally enough people experiencing the same opening hours for some clear patterns to emerge.

The First Hour Seems to Be AION 2's Biggest Problem

One of the more interesting reactions comes from players who initially disliked AION 2 and then gradually changed their minds. In a widely discussed r/MMORPG thread, one player described actively disliking the game during the opening period before eventually spending roughly five hours playing and becoming disappointed when the servers closed.

The complaints will sound familiar to anyone who has followed Asian MMORPG design over the past decade. Auto-movement appears almost immediately. Tutorials aggressively explain where to click. The early main quest sends players back and forth between NPCs while combat encounters offer very little resistance. Combined with the interface, that creates a first impression that several players have described as distinctly mobile-like.

Another Day 1 discussion on r/MMORPG praised the graphics and smooth combat while criticising the early questing for providing little challenge and saying the UI and UX felt like a mobile application.

That criticism is worth taking seriously because first impressions matter. Telling new players that the interesting MMO starts several hours later has never been the strongest sales pitch in the genre. "Please continue until the game stops annoying you" is technically a retention strategy, but not an especially elegant one.

The Combat Seems to Improve Once More Skills Unlock

Combat produced one of the stranger patterns in the reactions because some players listed it as both a strength and a weakness.

At the very beginning, AION 2's combat can feel limited. Characters have relatively few abilities, gear is basic and the game's chain-skill systems have not developed enough to show what a full rotation eventually looks like. Several Day 1 players said combat felt odd or underwhelming initially, only to find it considerably more enjoyable once additional skills and progression systems began opening.

That fits reasonably well with what NC has told us about the combat system. AION 2 is built around chained abilities, positioning, timing and animation transitions, and the Korean version is still receiving changes to systems such as animation cancelling and skill chaining. A level 5 character therefore does not tell us much about how the game will feel after a proper build develops.

Players also seem divided by class. Gladiator has received some positive early comments for its direct, physical combat, while other classes take longer to develop their identity. That is exactly why the Launch Scale Test is a useful place to experiment with several options before choosing one from the eight AION 2 global launch classes.

The World and Visual Design Are Getting Plenty of Praise

Where the reaction is more consistently positive is the environment itself. Even players criticising the interface have highlighted the terrain, verticality and atmosphere of AION 2's opening zones.

The world makes immediate use of height. Floating structures, cliffs, distant architecture and areas visible far beyond the player's current route give the starting region a sense of scale that works particularly well with AION's winged identity. One Day 1 player described the map as feeling alive and specifically praised the amount of vertical space, while Japanese impressions from AION2 Times' three-hour Launch Scale Test session similarly highlighted the presentation and the experience of finally playing the Japanese/global build firsthand.

That does not mean everybody loves the art direction. Some players feel the extremely polished character designs and interface contribute to the mobile-game comparison. But the actual landscape and environmental presentation appear to be among AION 2's safer strengths so far.

Auto-Movement Is Already One of the Most Divisive Features

Few things announce "Korean MMORPG" quite as efficiently as pressing a quest objective and watching your character begin travelling there without further assistance.

AION 2 includes auto-movement during its main story progression, and reactions range from convenient to deeply irritating. Critics argue that automatic navigation undermines exploration, particularly in a game whose world is one of its strongest visual features. Others have found it less objectionable once they stopped treating the main quest as the entire game and instead saw it as a fast route through tutorials and progression unlocks.

There is a genuine design tension there. AION 2 gives players a large vertical world and then, during its opening hours, repeatedly offers to navigate that world for them.

Nothing forces players to stare passively at their character running along a road, but the existence of the feature contributes heavily to the mobile comparison. For some PC MMO players, auto-pathing is simply a red flag regardless of how optional it eventually becomes.

Progression May Be the Thing That Keeps People Playing

One of the more positive recurring observations is how frequently AION 2 gives players something to improve. Equipment, skills, passive progression, pets, mounts and dungeon rewards all provide separate advancement paths, creating a constant sense that something is getting stronger.

The pet and mount systems have received particular interest because creatures encountered in the world can become part of those collection systems. Field bosses also appear early enough to show players enemies they are clearly not supposed to defeat yet, providing a simple but effective reason to remember an area and return later.

AION 2's dungeon structure feeds directly into that feeling. We recently broke down how AION 2 spreads more than 200 advertised dungeon activities across solo, 5-player and 10-player PvE, and even the early instanced content offers progression rewards beyond simply producing another piece of equipment.

The possible downside is obvious: lots of progression systems can eventually become lots of chores. Six hours is enough time to enjoy watching several numbers increase. It is not enough time to know whether maintaining all those systems after two months becomes entertaining endgame progression or a second administrative career.

Playing With Friends During the Opening Story Can Be Awkward

Another criticism worth watching concerns the main story experience. Some early quests and story sequences are heavily instanced, meaning players entering the test together can find themselves progressing alongside friends in voice chat while technically completing large parts of the story separately.

Later AION 2 content is much more group-oriented, particularly dungeons, world activities and PvP, so this should not be interpreted as meaning AION 2 is fundamentally a solo MMO. But the first several hours do not necessarily make that clear.

For a game launching into a genre built around playing together, it is another slightly strange first impression. You recruit four friends into a new MMO, form a party, and the game politely asks everyone to go away and complete their homework individually before the multiplayer begins.

The Mobile Comparison Is Not Going Away

This is probably the biggest challenge facing AION 2's global perception.

The game is a PC MMORPG. NC has no current plans for a global mobile version, and the global client has been positioned firmly around Steam and PURPLE. Yet several elements of the experience immediately remind Western players of mobile MMORPG design: auto-navigation, highly guided tutorials, interface layout, numerous progression systems and an extremely streamlined main quest.

That does not automatically mean those systems are bad. Nor does visual similarity to a mobile interface tell us whether the endgame is good. But the comparison appears frequently enough in Day 1 reactions that dismissing it would be silly.

The question is whether players get past that initial impression.

Some clearly did. One of the most interesting Day 1 accounts effectively moved from "this looks like a mobile game and I dislike it" to playing five hours straight and wanting the servers to stay online. Others saw the same systems and decided they had already seen enough.

That is what makes these first reactions more useful than a simple thumbs-up percentage.

Six Hours Cannot Tell Us Whether AION 2 Is Good

The Launch Scale Test is deliberately a poor environment for producing a final review. The level cap is 37. Membership is disabled. The Market, Quna Exchange and player trading are unavailable. Progress disappears after Day 2, and most players have barely touched the systems that will define AION 2's long-term endgame.

Even NC describes this primarily as a scale and stability test rather than a complete content preview.

What Day 1 can tell us is where the immediate friction sits.

AION 2 looks good. Its combat appears to improve as classes develop. The world and progression systems are attracting praise. But the mobile-like interface, auto-movement and overly guided opening hours are absolutely turning some players away before those strengths have time to appear.

Tonight's second Launch Scale Test session gives everyone another six hours. After that, the temporary characters disappear and we wait until Advance Access begins on September 30.

At least now the argument about AION 2 has moved beyond screenshots and Korean gameplay videos.

Global players have finally played it.

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