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Picking Up Another Fantasy MMORPG: We Review Lost Ark

Published Fri, 11 Mar 2022 13:42:11 -0600

Last updated Fri, 11 Mar 2022 13:45:40 -0600

For about a year, we had heard rumblings of what Lost Ark was doing in South Korea, but had no idea what to expect when it ventured West. When Amazon Games announced it had decided to take on publishing duties for a free-to-play game, that's when we realized something special might be on the way. I must admit, I wasn't thrilled at first that a new MMORPG was coming onto the market, especially since there had been a few others released over the past calendar year with updates to established classics, because the genre is time-consuming and unless you're all-in, often you don't get the full experience. But I decided to give the game a shot with everything I had, and after a few weeks of delving through it, we have a short review for the game.

Picking Up Another Fantasy MMORPG: We Review Lost Ark — Credit: Amazon Games

Lost Ark hurls you into a fantasy setting where you create your own character with their own look, abilities, etc, and dive into the story. The storyline is fun but a bit predictable, as you are one of many powerful humans currently caught in the middle of a good vs. evil battle between angels and demons. There's no escaping the story at the start of the game, you have to play through it in order to get to the main crux of what makes this a cool title, but we'll chat about that in a moment. As a human siding with the angels, it is up to you to head into the fray, sometimes alone, sometimes with allies, and occasionally with a powerful army, to cast out the demons who have a hold on the world. Often you'll battle for a bit, then come across some cool sequences that are visually stunning and make for a great experience before heading back into battle.

The story leaves a lot to be desired, and while I'm not a fan of completely mocking the work of writers, it's very clear both from the way this was set up to the way the characters were eventually voiced in the west, the story of the game was secondary at best. There are times when I'm walking through and about to approach a battle or a cutscene, and I out loud to myself predicted what was going to happen, and then it happened almost word-for-word. What's more, while I enjoyed some of the performances in Lost Ark, it's pretty clear the cast hired to voice the western version probably didn't get a full look at the script to know what these characters' motivations were or what the outcome was. There are times when people are talking and there's little emotion behind what should be a powerful moment or a tone that just didn't fit the mood. I'm not saying they did a poor job, what I am saying is it's clear no one had the full story for context, so both the writing and the acting took me out of any investment into the story an hour in.

There are currently only five base-classes of characters in the game (Gunner, Martial Artist, Assassin, Warrior, and Mage), but there's an interesting list of subclasses that come with their own unique abilities and powers that will make venturing into the unknown satisfying. The big downside to this is that some of these classes are gender-specific, which is depressing because not everyone wants to be a specific gender when you can customize just about everything else. Depending on what you're going for, you'll be able to unleash powerful magic users or skilled fighters who can tear into enemies like they're paper.

Like all games with an RPG element, you'll need to grind a bit to get where you want to be, but when you get there it is completely satisfying and doesn't leave you hanging on for some new mystical ability that will change the game for you. We went with Gunslinger the first time in because I wanted range without having to worry about healing every 30 seconds, and as I grew, I could feel that my character actually had an impact on combat and wasn't just in the back letting the tanks and heavies do all the lifting.

The real fun of Lost Ark actually starts when you finally get out of the main story, which is forced upon you for several hours. Once you're out, you now have free rein to run around and do whatever you'd like. Keeping it spoiler-free to a degree, you eventually get your own ship, and by proxy, the freedom to go anywhere you want in the game. There are a lot of hidden gems throughout the world that include interesting ports of travel, hidden villages, lost treasure stories, your standard "kill the monster hurting our village" quests, lore enrichment, unexplored territories, and more.

It's a pretty big map with 13 continents, so you have a lot you can go do for days on end without getting bored. Well, maybe not by the content, but by the combat as that eventually gets tiring. Thankfully, that is counterbalanced by the fact that as you travel around, you'll be able to interact with other players who also are thankful to be out of the long-drawn-out storyline and are ready to do anything in the new lands they get to explore. You can make friends, team up, create your own party, join a guild, and run around making new adventures for yourself. This is where I believe the game really shines and sets itself apart from other MMORPGs, although it still has the standard revolving door of certain challenges where it's clear after you beat it, the party behind you is just waiting for it to reset so they can do it too. Oh well… C'est la vie.

This brings us to the last major topic to discuss for Lost Ark: combat, which is one of the hidden gems of the game. First off, the mechanics of the hotbar are some of the best we've toyed with in a while as you have nearly complete freedom to do whatever you want. You can line up whatever skills you'd like and are free to change them out as needed or pair up whatever you'd like for some cool combos. You can also store several items in the bar if you'd like so if you want to go combat-heavy, you have options to aid you. Even if you're loaded on magic attacks, you still have the ability to toss in some items to the side.

When you're actually fighting, everything has a solid flow to it that doesn't feel clunky, predictable, or delayed. When you have your heart set on a specific set of actions, they happen immediately and as planned, which is nice compared to other titles we've seen in recent years where there's a disconnect between when you click and when something actually happens. You also have the ability to dodge, which comes in handy more often than you think, but you don't lose your power's timing, radius, or charge when doing so.

Overall, I thought Lost Ark was a nice change of pace from other games in the same genre but came with its own set of faults that are a bit too seen to be ignored. Touching on items we didn't get to: The PvP modes are pretty killer when you find the right groups of people to hang with for a battle or two. The game has a real-world buying aspect where you can plunk down cash for in-game items, which we're not fans of. You get your own stronghold, which you can customize, but it uses up a lot of resources and crystals, which are "conveniently" sold in the in-game shop for real money. (See what they did there?) The game looks pretty on the graphical side and sounds amazing, so the team behind it didn't slouch on making this worth buying when it comes to the look and feel of everything.

The game has a lot going for it and doesn't feel like most of the other games out there in the same genre where it just feels like everyone is trying to one-up the other in certain areas. It's fun to plan and doesn't immediately get tedious or grindy. That said, there are areas that need improvement and changes that need to be made which will work against it for some newcomers. Plus, we can't stress this enough, that the main story needs to be fixed immediately when it comes to the presentation. If you're looking for something new in the genre, this is worth your time, especially with it being free.

Lost Ark