Aion 2 has finally arrived and is proving quite popular as this month’s shiny new MMO, with hundreds of thousands of players enjoying its stunning character creator and visuals – despite developer and publisher NC’s use of generative AI, that is.

In case you’ve missed it, Aion 2 is here as the ambitious sequel to Korean MMO Aion: The Tower of Eternity – a 2008 gem that’s maintained a dedicated fanbase despite its age.

It’s got quite an active community already, too, hitting nearly 400,000 players on its first official day (it was available pre-release to folks who paid, after all), according to SteamDB figures. A solid 397,905 players, to be precise… which is no small feat.

The official Most Played charts on Steam mark it as the fourth most popular game currently, too, with the MMO coming in ahead of Apex Legends and Wardogs. It’s also apparently the third most downloaded title on Valve’s platform as well, so, yeah.

It’s clearly seeing a good bit of activity. As for what players are thinking of Aion 2 so far… well, that’s a little bit more complicated. Feedback so far isn’t exactly positive.

In fact, the game currently has a “Mixed” rating on Steam, with many reviews discussing its pay-to-win features.

One dubs it an “extremely predatory monetization” system and says Aion 2 is “the complete opposite of what a good MMO means.” Others complain that it’s got “slop” vibes, perhaps alluding to NC’s use of generative AI during development.

There is a disclaimer outlining as much on the page. “Some in-game assets were created with the assistance of AI tools,” it reads. “Arcana card designs and some icons use AI-generated assets.”

Not everyone is a fan of gen AI, of course, but again, that doesn’t seem to be the topic dominating players’ feedback. And as someone who gave the game a go, I can definitely understand why – pay-to-win is a big concern in the MMO community, and Aion has historically been no stranger to it.

There is plenty of positive discussion surrounding the sequel as well, however, and I’d be lying if I said there weren’t good qualities myself. The character creation is wonderful, and the world is gorgeous. Plus, it’s clearly plenty populated.

Searching for some more new games to dive into? Browse through our roundup of the best MMORPGs out there right now if so.