AION: Legions of War (January 24, 2019 – June 19, 2020)
Genre: Hero Collector | Developer: NCSoft | Platforms: iOS, Android | Payment Model: Free2Play
What kind of game was it? AION: Legions of War was a mobile game inspired by the world of the PC MMORPG AION. However, it was not an MMORPG itself, as it did not have an open world in which you could roam.
Instead, you started from your fortress into complex real-time battles, occurring on multiple tiers, somewhat akin to dungeons. Your group fought largely automatically. However, there were special effects with cooldowns that you had to skillfully use to create tactical effects and combos.
After a successful victory, there was a ton of loot, including items and upgrades for your fighters. You could equip and improve these to take on even greater challenges. A typical hero collector.
What did it fail at? In Legions of War, the goal was to collect and upgrade characters. This had little in common with the MMORPG. As a result, many players boycotted the mobile game, which led to low player numbers.
Moreover, it was criticized that many characters were uninteresting. Some characters even existed in a certain sense as doubles, only with an adjusted element and slightly different appearances. The actual selection was relatively limited even for a hero collector.
What are the best memories? AION: Legions of War featured an interesting combat system where your skills received different effects when enemies were knocked down or otherwise inflicted with negative effects.
This led to some very interesting and complex battles.
Are there alternatives or successors? A game that also focuses on character collection is Genshin Impact. There is significantly more love for detail in the characters, which the developers say is also important to them. Genshin Impact can also be played on smartphones, consoles, and PCs.
If you are looking for a new AION, you can still play the old version on PC. If you want to play an MMORPG on your smartphone, you will also find it in this list:
