Lost Ark, first impressions

[jmotivator]

I will temper my evaluation of the game after a few hours of play with the knowledge that it is free...

I'm not even going to evaluate the game on its bugs.. since it is an MMO and these things happen...
With all those caveats... I really don't like this game. This my be largely a matter of personal taste, so I'll be sure to be clear on what I find aesthetically bad versus mechanically bad.

And finally, I'm an old guy who is reaching that point where new interfaces and mechanics are more frustrating than interesting... so take my whole review with a grain of salt. So now on to the review....

WTF is this game?

Lost Ark has an identity crisis that really breaks the game for me. It is an MMORPG skinned as an ARPG Looter. THis is a bad fit because the weaknesses of MMORPG combat mechanics really show throught playing this game.

You see, for various technical reasons, an MMORPG has to severely balance movement and action... that is to say you can't do both. In MMORPGs you generally can either span your skill buttons or move out of the ubiquitous circles of doom, but not both. Contrast that with a typical ARPG where side strafing and run-n-gun are tools of the trade, and even when the stop-to-attack mechanic is in an ARPG there is an effort made to make the transition fluid (adding multiple possible contectual actions to a a given mouse click). In Lost Ark there is a very MMORPG mechanic where you stop for every skill which trades the more fluid ARPG mechanic for the jittery MMORPG combat... which doesn't work well in a 3/4 view game.. for me.

The next issue I have is the how bad the graphics are. I guess I can excuse this for a free game, but they are really bad. The development team made the decision to make the game cut scenes using the game engine... but then developed the graphics so they would looking mostly nice from a virtual 60ft in the air. When you zoom in the characters you see the low rez textures, lifeless mannequin faces and plastic helmet hair in all of their glory. It's bad, is what I'm saying.

On the bright side, the acting is as artificial as the graphics. The developers set out to make a Japanese style MMO and then hired all the worst voice over actors from anime to do the voice acting.

It's all just completely not to my liking. Technical shortcomings aside I just never got into the overly dramatic Anime style of acting, or rail thin protagonists carrying weapons that would weigh more than a Ford F-150.

But I'm such an ARPG junking that I would still play it.. if it played like an ARPG. But alas...

All that said, as a free game you should figure it out for yourself...

 

[jmotivator]

So, on further review, Lost Ark is actually an old game from South Korea. This is news to me, but I tend not to do much research on free games.

It was originally released in 2016, which would account for most of the low graphics quality... I suppose...

But the game still just doesn't appear to be fun.

 

[PeteEU]

So, on further review, Lost Ark is actually an old game from South Korea. This is news to me, but I tend not to do much research on free games.

It was originally released in 2016, which would account for most of the low graphics quality... I suppose...

But the game still just doesn't appear to be fun.

I was just about to roast your first comment...

Yes it is an older game from South Korea, made for Korean taste buds. Hence the big boobed hot anime girls. Same with all other Asian MMO/APRG games.. Final Fantasy comes to mind.

As for game mechanics... they are the same pretty much since Diablo/Everquest and have not really been improved by an MMO or APRG looter.... just slight changes that make it "different".

Only thing that has changed is graphics, and lets be frank here. Lost Ark graphics (none cut scenes) is pretty good. You got to remember, the developers have a choice.. make a game that is graphically impressive, but no one can play due to high computer requirements, or make a game that looks good within average computer requirements. Those developers who choose the first are idiots.

 

[Slartibartfast]

At high levels, you will get with your guild to clear out tough dungeons for great rewards. These raiders of the lost ark will then compete for top spots on the leader board.

 

[jmotivator]

I was just about to roast your first comment...

Yes it is an older game from South Korea, made for Korean taste buds. Hence the big boobed hot anime girls. Same with all other Asian MMO/APRG games.. Final Fantasy comes to mind.

As for game mechanics... they are the same pretty much since Diablo/Everquest and have not really been improved by an MMO or APRG looter.... just slight changes that make it "different".

MMO and ARPG mechanics tend to be very different. MMOs focuses on minimal movement and focus on button spamming many skills while an ARPG has more fluid movement and a smaller selection of skills to manage. In Lost Ark all the skills that aren't movement skills are stand still and spam skills. For me it just doesn't work in a game designed to look like an ARPG.

Only thing that has changed is graphics, and lets be frank here. Lost Ark graphics (none cut scenes) is pretty good. You got to remember, the developers have a choice.. make a game that is graphically impressive, but no one can play due to high computer requirements, or make a game that looks good within average computer requirements. Those developers who choose the first are idiots.

I would dispute this. Most developers have a wide selection of graphical adjustments to fit a wide variety of base hardware with most of the graphics that take real horsepower (read: ray tracing) being disabled if you can't do it. What they've done is provide minimum graphics to everyone. It looks pretty, and might have been a challenge for harware 6 years ago, but if you are relaunching a game in 2022 and don't spend any effort improving low rez textures and meshes then what are you really doing?

But really the game looks nice for an ARPG, sure... when viewing the character at long distance, but to take that engine and use it to render cut scenes at close range is just plain ugly.

And, again my original caveat: It's free. There is no reason whatsoever to use my opinion for decision making since it costs no money to find out for yourself. Everyone should play it and decide for themselves.

Anyway, a joke as my final argument...

You spend way to much time creating character that you think looks both aged, and combat hardened.... you are satisfied. And then the first cut scene:

 

[jmotivator]

Also I have a smal moral issue with the Pay 2 Win drift of the shop.

In games like POE you get skins just because you want to look cool and support the game.. in Lost Ark the paid "skins" actually come with set bonuses which aren't really skins at all at that point.

Oh, and clearly the game seems popular judging from the screams of how long the queues are ... people complaining that at the moment teh EU servers have 20k people waiting to join.

You'd think the #1 cloud gaming provider in the world would have had a solution for this....

 

[expat_panama]

I will temper my evaluation of the game after a few hours of play with the knowledge that it is free...

I'm not even going to evaluate the game on its bugs.. since it is an MMO and these things happen...
With all those caveats... I really don't like this game. This my be largely a matter of personal taste, so I'll be sure to be clear on what I find aesthetically bad versus mechanically bad.

And finally, I'm an old guy who is reaching that point where new interfaces and mechanics are more frustrating than interesting... so take my whole review with a grain of salt. So now on to the review....

WTF is this game?

Lost Ark has an identity crisis that really breaks the game for me. It is an MMORPG skinned as an ARPG Looter. THis is a bad fit because the weaknesses of MMORPG combat mechanics really show throught playing this game.

You see, for various technical reasons, an MMORPG has to severely balance movement and action... that is to say you can't do both. In MMORPGs you generally can either span your skill buttons or move out of the ubiquitous circles of doom, but not both. Contrast that with a typical ARPG where side strafing and run-n-gun are tools of the trade, and even when the stop-to-attack mechanic is in an ARPG there is an effort made to make the transition fluid (adding multiple possible contectual actions to a a given mouse click). In Lost Ark there is a very MMORPG mechanic where you stop for every skill which trades the more fluid ARPG mechanic for the jittery MMORPG combat... which doesn't work well in a 3/4 view game.. for me.

The next issue I have is the how bad the graphics are. I guess I can excuse this for a free game, but they are really bad. The development team made the decision to make the game cut scenes using the game engine... but then developed the graphics so they would looking mostly nice from a virtual 60ft in the air. When you zoom in the characters you see the low rez textures, lifeless mannequin faces and plastic helmet hair in all of their glory. It's bad, is what I'm saying.

On the bright side, the acting is as artificial as the graphics. The developers set out to make a Japanese style MMO and then hired all the worst voice over actors from anime to do the voice acting.

It's all just completely not to my liking. Technical shortcomings aside I just never got into the overly dramatic Anime style of acting, or rail thin protagonists carrying weapons that would weigh more than a Ford F-150.

But I'm such an ARPG junking that I would still play it.. if it played like an ARPG. But alas...

All that said, as a free game you should figure it out for yourself...

looked interesting but w/ 50 gb required space I need to know first: does it support VR?

 

[jmotivator]

looked interesting but w/ 50 gb required space I need to know first: does it support VR?

I would assume not given how old the game is. I get a headache just thinking what that experience would be like.

 

[expat_panama]

I would assume not given how old the game is. I get a headache just thinking what that experience would be like.

been checking into it and I find no reference to VR so I'll have to assume it's not yet available.

 

[Redress]

MMO and ARPG mechanics tend to be very different. MMOs focuses on minimal movement and focus on button spamming many skills while an ARPG has more fluid movement and a smaller selection of skills to manage. In Lost Ark all the skills that aren't movement skills are stand still and spam skills. For me it just doesn't work in a game designed to look like an ARPG.

I gotta argue with this, especially comming from an old school Everquest player. Pre-WoW, MMOs where not button mashers, in fact probably less than ARPGs. As for example a warrior, which I played from low end to one of the top raid guilds, I would click a button 5 or 6 times a minute maybe during a fight, and in longer raid fights, would usually be more focused on movement than anything else. Keeping the mob you are tanking and the raidforce is killing where you want it(went cornering was not an option...when cornering was an option, I spent more time talking in our warrior chat channel than anything, usually plotting on how to get the rangers killed) was far more important than throwing the occasional kick or bash. And when it comes to movement, kiting became a recognized thing in Everquest(it was around before, but it got its name and was recognized as a tactic due to EQ), and that is mostly movement, except long enough to fire an arrow or spell.

Sorry, I am being anal retentive today.

 

[jmotivator]

I gotta argue with this, especially comming from an old school Everquest player. Pre-WoW, MMOs where not button mashers, in fact probably less than ARPGs. As for example a warrior, which I played from low end to one of the top raid guilds, I would click a button 5 or 6 times a minute maybe during a fight, and in longer raid fights, would usually be more focused on movement than anything else. Keeping the mob you are tanking and the raidforce is killing where you want it(went cornering was not an option...when cornering was an option, I spent more time talking in our warrior chat channel than anything, usually plotting on how to get the rangers killed) was far more important than throwing the occasional kick or bash. And when it comes to movement, kiting became a recognized thing in Everquest(it was around before, but it got its name and was recognized as a tactic due to EQ), and that is mostly movement, except long enough to fire an arrow or spell.

Sorry, I am being anal retentive today.

I mean, I don't think we really disagree here, but I'm talking about the majority of modern MMOs.

THat being said, the kiting example doesn't really prove a point either way since kiting was entirely possible, and employed by many griefers, in WOW even though the combat mechanic was still stand-still-and-spam-keys.

A better example of an ARPG/MMO hybrid would be The Division and The Division 2 (two games that I think are HIGHLY underated). But even then the actual combat takes place in a PVE map that is entirely instanced and limited to standard group sizes. PVP zones, however, played more like a CSGO or Battle Royale then they did an MMO.

Dang, do I want to start The Division 2 up again?

 

[PeteEU]

I gotta argue with this, especially comming from an old school Everquest player. Pre-WoW, MMOs where not button mashers, in fact probably less than ARPGs. As for example a warrior, which I played from low end to one of the top raid guilds, I would click a button 5 or 6 times a minute maybe during a fight, and in longer raid fights, would usually be more focused on movement than anything else. Keeping the mob you are tanking and the raidforce is killing where you want it(went cornering was not an option...when cornering was an option, I spent more time talking in our warrior chat channel than anything, usually plotting on how to get the rangers killed) was far more important than throwing the occasional kick or bash. And when it comes to movement, kiting became a recognized thing in Everquest(it was around before, but it got its name and was recognized as a tactic due to EQ), and that is mostly movement, except long enough to fire an arrow or spell.

Sorry, I am being anal retentive today.

Pft spoken like a true meat shield. Casters in EQ were/are button pushers. All you meat shields had to do was to hit taunt once in a while...

 

[Redress]

Pft spoken like a true meat shield. Casters in EQ were/are button pushers. All you meat shields had to do was to hit taunt once in a while...

Button pushers, not button mashers. Except wizards, who where nuke, click pants, click pants, click pants, click pants, click pants, click pants, nuke, repeat.

 

[PeteEU]

Button pushers, not button mashers. Except wizards, who where nuke, click pants, click pants, click pants, click pants, click pants, click pants, nuke, repeat.

Guessing you have not played a cleric then We are button mashers, at least during certain raids. Long gone are the good old days of the CH rotation...

 

[Grandpappy]

The male character creation screen is full of over stylized, fluffy haired gay model type guys. I picked the ugliest bastard I could find and played through the prologue and a bit more.

It's not bad, kind of odd keyboard map, but not too hard to get used to. OK graphics for he most part, runs smooth on my PC. The Koreans certainly have a unique sense of style. PoE is better, more of a challege. Diablo3 is better if you're drunk. A little bit too much zingy fantasy stuff for me, but I'm not deleting it just yet.

 

[Mycroft]

Okay. I've waited for a while to weigh in on this game. I wanted to play it before I comment.

I hadn't heard of the game until I saw this thread last month and then I found out my younger son had started playing it. So I got into it.

A little background. I started my MMO experiences in 2007 with Archlord. That was a pure level grind game with PVP. Story...almost nothing there. And I loved it. It eventually died away. Then I played a number of games like Aion, Rift, Guild Wars 2, Warhammer Online and others. I liked them all for various reasons. Warhammer had the best PVP, in my opinion. Then I pretty much stopped playing MMO's. I kind of lost interest, I guess.

So here I am, trying out a new one.

1. The story lines for the different continents...I like. Each are different, involved, some very emotional and, in the case of Yorn, downright funny. Same for the various island quests. What really irritates me is that each continent has some powerful ally...but when it comes to fighting the Boss, they are never around. They always come in the last moments of the battle after I've pretty much done all the work.

2. I've never really gotten into the dungeon scene and if it weren't for the fact that they need to be done to get gear, get resources to hone gear, etc...I probably wouldn't do them. I pretty much stay away from the Abyss stuff. Too ****ing complicated.

3. The sea-going stuff is interesting. I haven't made an effort getting all the ships, but I have leveled up the three I have some. I haven't tried any of the group ship action yet.

4. Misc. Group Island stuff, Field bosses, the Tower, the Cube, Boss Rush. All fun. I especially like the Cube and Boss Rush.

I'm on Rohendal server. My main - Gloryah - is a Sorceress, Item level 1050 at the moment. I have three alts. A Gunslinger that I don't like, so I mainly use her for gathering resources, mining, etc. Another Sorceress, Item level 840. My main Sorceress is Igniter. My alt Sorceress is Reflux. And then I have a Berserker, Item level just over 600...Mayhem. They are all fun to play. I may start other alts. Thinking of doing a Bard.

Final thoughts...

I'll play the game more. I'm not sure about upcoming endgame though. If it involves complicated dungeon stuff I may eventually drop the game when I get done with/tired of the other stuff.

Oh...one more thing. The music. I LOVE game music when it's good...and this game has VERY good music.

My favorite:

 

[Mycroft]

Oh...I just remembered...that Yorn musical cutscene. GREAT STUFF!!