Amazon sure knows how to advertise a game. They also know how to blow that hard work away by not providing enough server capacity for people to play. First New World, now Lost Ark - the login queues plagued people for the first two weeks. But I'm not here to talk about that. Queues are now a thing of the past, while the game continues forward. Lost Ark exceeded even the previous impressive nigh-one-million New World peak player count by amassing over 1.3 million players a couple days after launch, placing it at the second highest peak player count game on Steam. After nearly a month, it still pulls in daily peaks of over 800K, and has remained the highest average player count game on Steam for the whole duration.
Myself, I played it for a whole 120 hours in the first two weeks, falling off over the next two weeks leading up to this review. I think I got a very good view of the game and experienced every major activity, but in terms of raw progress, I'm not even halfway through.
At first, you may hear Lost Ark being compared to Diablo or Path of Exile, but also being called an MMO. I can't verify the comparison to Diablo, but I found that statement weird at first. After a bit into the game however, I deemed it an apt description, at least according to mainstream definitions. Lost Ark combines the top-down mouse-based-movement action RPG combat with the content and progression systems of mainstream MMOs. I of course loathe that these games, where the only multiplayer aspect is people co-existing in a multiplayer area without any incentive to play together, dare call themselves MMOs, but I can't fault people for using the term, considering how long it's been since there has been any non-indie "real" MMO.
Lost Ark has the usual storyline grind to max level (technically a soft level cap), which then opens up daily dungeons and raids you can do (generally 4 people max, but also usually doable solo), alongside with more spaced out additional storylines unlocked at various points in progress. I would wager that the main appeal of the game, however, is the vast amount of optional collectibles it features. There are hundreds of side-quests offering various little collectibles that can be turned in for minor character improvements. Of course, hundreds of minor improvements stack up to become quite powerful indeed. Aside from the mini questlines, there's over 1000 "mokoko seeds" scattered across the whole world, and a lot of NPCs have a sort of friendship level that can be increased over time. Through these side quests, there is content for well over a thousand hours if you aim to collect and complete everything.
Different things kept me in the game during different times. At first, it was mostly the combat. Throughout the levelling process, you often unlock new skills and upgrade existing ones, offering new playstyles. These skills were well-designed and felt very satisfying to use, but after hitting max level, the playstyle remained the same, never to change again. Worse still, despite the dozen-or-so different classes, there was very little diversity within a class. My Scrapper class played like every other Scrapper class, and there was nothing to make me unique.
That might have been fine, but after the fun of using my flashy and impactful skills wore off, I realized that the enemies posing no threat whatsoever for 99% of the encounters was not a levelling thing. This, dare I say, casual difficulty was here to stay until the end. And so, there was no fun left for me in the combat.
During the later levels and after hitting the level cap, the world opened up, and I started to care about the collectibles. This remained my main focus up to this point, but with a few exceptions, the quests to get these collectibles were as quests are in MMOs - 90% travelling, 5% beating stuff up, 5% clicking and waiting. It was fun to see the numbers go up, achievements roll in, and progress be made, but whenever I looked back at what I was doing, it was beyond mindless busywork. I stopped to ask myself if this was worth my time. Was I actually enjoying this?
As of right now, I have not actually made the decision to quit the game entirely, but rather to take a break. I've played more than enough of it in the past month, and I'm not sure if I could really call this game bad, after how long I played it, after how hours flew past so fast while playing... But I do look back at what I've done, and think of things to praise Lost Ark for, and I'm having trouble. It's like the game felt fun in the moment, but not in hindsight.
Should you play it? I don't think I can recommend it, in the end. It's free, so you're free to give it a try, but be warned that it will take a lot of your time if you decide to give it a serious try. It's just made to be that way. Maybe in another month or few, as people reach the real end of the game, will we see if Lost Ark has any real staying power, or if it really is just a 500 hour grind.
