Lost Ark is an MMOARPG that launched in Korea in 2018, it then spread to other eastern countries before finally coming to the West this week. On the surface Lost Ark looks like another Diablo-like game with the isometric movement and combat style between various hero classes the player can choose from. But in more detailed terms the game is like any other MMO you might have seen with a more action style combat system and a isometric viewpoint. After playing it for a few hours and watching many streamers dive into the game, my best comparison would be "If Tera and League of Legends had a baby".
The reason why I bring up League of Legends (or any MOBA really) is that with the isometric view and mouse clicking to move you already yield a bit of that comparison. Combined with the fact that the skills are all cooldown based off a series of hotkeys defaulted on the keyboard with q,w,e,r,a,s, and d. Some moves can be comboed together, while others are indepentant. Most of the cooldowns are pretty short, but are just long enough that you can't spam a single ability but if you rotate through them then the first ability will be off cooldown before your "rotation" is finished. However these abilties seem unresponsive, lagging just a enough behind you hitting the button that you'll reflexively hit it again to make sure the move happens. Considering this is action combat and you will be required to move away from attacks and out of aoe's, not having responsive controls is a bit of a problem.
Otherwise it plays like any other mmo except with an isometric camera. But in reality there is another problem with Lost Ark that many other Korean mmo's have suffered.....
The game is unrewarding as fuck. You are immediately given all your classes skills at level 1, the character progress lies in a talent tree that allows you to invest points into these skills to grant them extra effects like longer durations, more damage, shorter CD's and what not. None of these skill points feel like they effect gameplay much at all, but that effect could be gradual and more impactful over longer periods of time. Additionally the traditional things you would unlock and gain in a typical mmo are given to you immediately. You get a mount right away, meaning faster travel is not earned, you immediately get blue gear items and the first dungeon will give you epics which means the power and gear progression are meaningless and it doesn't feel rewarding to get new gear.
On top of that it is a free to play game so there are all the free to play bullshit things that tend to plague these asian games. Log in bonuses, milestone reward chests, pets, mounts, etc etc. In fact at level two I unlocked a reward chest that will grant me a set of legendary gear when I hit 50. Fucking why? What's the sense of playing and progressing if the rewards are already given to me?
To me it seems like it's a game that clearly was never really meant for outside Korea. This is the perfect game for them, they love this kind of thing over there, but in the West it just doesn't work because it removes any reason to play almost immediately. The english voice acting is hilariously bad in places too, and the story is nonsensical which is also on par for a Korean game.
I feel like you have to already be into this style of game to get anything out of Lost Ark to be honest. It's free though and there is no harm in giving it a shot. If you like Isometric, skill based action combat it might be your thing. Just don't expect to get much out of it.
The reason why I bring up League of Legends (or any MOBA really) is that with the isometric view and mouse clicking to move you already yield a bit of that comparison. Combined with the fact that the skills are all cooldown based off a series of hotkeys defaulted on the keyboard with q,w,e,r,a,s, and d. Some moves can be comboed together, while others are indepentant. Most of the cooldowns are pretty short, but are just long enough that you can't spam a single ability but if you rotate through them then the first ability will be off cooldown before your "rotation" is finished. However these abilties seem unresponsive, lagging just a enough behind you hitting the button that you'll reflexively hit it again to make sure the move happens. Considering this is action combat and you will be required to move away from attacks and out of aoe's, not having responsive controls is a bit of a problem.
Otherwise it plays like any other mmo except with an isometric camera. But in reality there is another problem with Lost Ark that many other Korean mmo's have suffered.....
The game is unrewarding as fuck. You are immediately given all your classes skills at level 1, the character progress lies in a talent tree that allows you to invest points into these skills to grant them extra effects like longer durations, more damage, shorter CD's and what not. None of these skill points feel like they effect gameplay much at all, but that effect could be gradual and more impactful over longer periods of time. Additionally the traditional things you would unlock and gain in a typical mmo are given to you immediately. You get a mount right away, meaning faster travel is not earned, you immediately get blue gear items and the first dungeon will give you epics which means the power and gear progression are meaningless and it doesn't feel rewarding to get new gear.
On top of that it is a free to play game so there are all the free to play bullshit things that tend to plague these asian games. Log in bonuses, milestone reward chests, pets, mounts, etc etc. In fact at level two I unlocked a reward chest that will grant me a set of legendary gear when I hit 50. Fucking why? What's the sense of playing and progressing if the rewards are already given to me?
To me it seems like it's a game that clearly was never really meant for outside Korea. This is the perfect game for them, they love this kind of thing over there, but in the West it just doesn't work because it removes any reason to play almost immediately. The english voice acting is hilariously bad in places too, and the story is nonsensical which is also on par for a Korean game.
I feel like you have to already be into this style of game to get anything out of Lost Ark to be honest. It's free though and there is no harm in giving it a shot. If you like Isometric, skill based action combat it might be your thing. Just don't expect to get much out of it.
