Aion 2’s naughty character customization is the least interesting thing about it

I’m not a big fan of MMORPGs, but Aion 2’s rise to the top of the Steam charts with over 400,000 concurrent players was enough to pique my interest. Yes, the game has a breast size slider, and no, I don’t think it’s a big deal when it sits among some 200 other customization options in one of the deepest character creators I have ever seen. And yeah, the options run deeper than Cyberpunk 2077. Yet most discussions online barely mention the game itself.

It’s as if most critics never made it past that menu.

Gaming has always had a naughty streak

None of this is new. Gaming has always had a corner fixated on the lewd, from the adult cartridges sold for the Atari in 1982 and the urban legend-esque “Nude Raider” patch that trailed Lara Croft through the 90s to GTA’s Hot Coffee scandal in 2005 and the nude mods that remain among Skyrim’s hidden legacy. Adult content even helped keep VR afloat in its early days, when headsets were expensive, niche, and short on games worth playing.

Aion 2 has none of such extremes, though it is obvious that the characters in the game lean quite a bit toward being eye candy. The slider itself can grow the bosoms of your character to quite extreme proportions. But beyond that, I found the game has a lot more to offer.

I went into the game expecting stiff, click-and-wait combat. What I got was far more responsive than I thought it would be.

Abilities chain into each other fluidly, and the combo animations have real flair to them. The flying is my favorite part. The controls are simple enough to pick up in a few minutes, and the whole system is clearly designed with beginners in mind.

The game uses a combination of gliding and flight mechanics, mounts, auto-move, Kisks (teleport points), and globe fast travel to get around the map. I also love the camera mechanics. A single scroll takes you from a tight third-person view all the way out to something that almost plays like a 2D game. You choose how you want to play, which matters when you’re still working out what kind of player you are.

However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The menu is a complete mess; it has more settings, tabs, and currencies than anything I’ve played, and the first few hours were overwhelming. I slowly got the hang of it, but I shouldn’t need to. It isn’t just me either, as cluttered UI is one of the most common complaints, and many players blame the game’s mobile roots. Thankfully, this problem can be rectified with an update.

The breast slider isn’t the problem. This is

Then there’s pay-to-win, which I can’t defend. Full access to the player market is locked behind a paid membership, and that market is where much of the progression happens. Real money converts into gear through currency exchange and item purchases, so a paying player buys what everyone else has to grind for.

You can see all the content without spending anything, but in a direct comparison, the paying player comes out ahead. Overall, I would say Aion 2 is a better game than the conversation around it suggests, and a worse deal than its free-to-play label implies.

Try it for the combat and the flying, but keep your wallet closed. And yeah, don’t get too fixated on those naughty customizations. They’ll only take you so far when it comes to actually enjoying the dopamine rush you get from a well-made game.

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