Question Lost Ark Experience So Far?

[Komodo]

If you're playing it, how are you enjoying Lost Ark?

I gave it a negative review on Steam but I'm really leaning more towards neutral. There's some things that I do like about it, but there's a lot rubbing me the wrong way.

The monetization model is pretty aggressive and there's been a video making the rounds about a player who has spent $700,000 on MTX so that's pretty concerning. I expect grind in a F2P title but by the sounds of it this game ultimately becomes pay or don't progress. I haven't made it to endgame though, so I can speak to the validity of that.

I like the look of the game and the story is so-so. Combat is chunky and satisfying though it feels like a real power fantasy with little to no challenge. There's also the fact that it just kind of dumps you into the game world and there's so many features it's almost head-spinning. Jody's recent article touches on this a little.

I'm not very far into the game at all so maybe that's it? I'm still going to give it a chance for a few more hours and see if it clicks. I'm playing as a male martial artist but I might switch it up to female martial artist and look past my issues with the characterizations.

I'm curious what your thoughts are!

EDIT: Took out an argument I had with the game after giving it some more careful thought with a group of a friends.

 

[Colif]

though it feels like a real power fantasy with little to no challenge.

That agrees with this review. The game isn't hard for half and then I bet difficulty spikes up and you have to buy stuff to avoid grinding.

that is if you can get past the queues or don't have a server crash and lose all progress on quests and not be offered anymore.

It doesn't matter, its free. Just make a new character and look at our shop. I bet game is a buggy mess but shop is perfect. You get showered in gifts that most likely take you to shop to tempt you into buying stuff in a game that is boring.
Beat a boss with 4 button presses... do a dungeon with no healers... sure sounds like an mmo to me.

No wonder its been hyped up, its a trap.

 

[Johnway]

not played it myself, but being based in europe i suspect i wouldn't be able to get into a game anyway.

 

[DXCHASE]

Note, there is already a thread on lost ark where you can put your experiences, idk if mods will remove this or not but im gonna answer here. Kinda long but TL;DR - Its a great game with some widely misconceptions

Lost Ark—up to launch 2022-02

Not sure if there is much interest in this game here, but i love me some ARPG games and this one has been in the making for a couple years now. Its a super popular MMO in S. Korea and its projected to bring in numbers like New World. I put up a link here in case you were wondering. They are...

forums.pcgamer.com

But to answer your question, i have been absolutely enjoying lost ark with 0 queues, 0 server issues and 0 crashes mid game. The combat is fantastic, the storyline is ok, its no Red Dead Redemption level but i find the story more interesting than Diablos tbh. The game is very dense with a lot of stuff to do which i personally like, theres over 15 classes to choose from (as where POE, Diablo, Grim Dawn etc. have ~6) with about 8 more to come in the future. I also play with a guild/my wife which adds value and fun on its own level, not to mention the bonds you build in MMOs too. So its great and i highly recommend it for any fan of ARPGs.

I couldnt disagree with you more about it being P2W. If you dont want to buy anything you dont have to and you still can get good gear, higher levels etc. etc. Just because someone was (dumb?) enough spend that kind of money on a game, thats a him problem, not the game store. This game is literally not P2W. Yea, maybe the price of some bundles could come down, but its for stuff i dont need AT ALL to progress. Also, PVP is based on an equal playing field, noone can buy anything in the store thatll give them an edge there, whether it be playing time or otherwise.

Also, i dont think anyone can have an opinion on how "easy" it is if you havent been to Tier 2 or Tier 3 dungeons and raids because they are NOT easy lol. You need a really high set of gear and a good mix of classes if you want them done right. The beginning is meant to be easy, getting to level 50 isnt supposed to be the hard/grindy part. Its everything beyond that.

I am actually quite irk'd at steams rating of this game lol but it makes sense, the biggest game release in terms of numbers of con-current players are going to piss off some people who cant play because of queues so most of those complaints come from "server queues" which is the lamest reason to downvote a game esp. one thats extremely popular atm. Lost Ark has over 20 servers and still wasnt enough, why? Because over 1 million people were trying to play all at once. Thats a popularity issue, not a developers issue. And its something that LA is working on.

Outside of that, i feel downvotes of this game is made by people who havent really played the game (ex. you said combat was easy, but you havent gone far and you already downvoted it on steam when in fact it does get harder, A LOT harder if you dont have your characters done right)

No wonder its been hyped up, its a trap.

There was little to no mention of this game for literally the entire time it was set to release in the western world. Its been hugely popular in SK and RU for roughly 3 years now, so there was not much hype imo, just mostly players who already were playing mixed with newcomers etc. And i dont see why its a "trap" game is free and you can do basically what someone who spends millions on in the game can do.

That agrees with this review. The game isn't hard for half and then I bet difficulty spikes up and you have to buy stuff to avoid grinding.

No you will still have to grind. Most of the stuff in the store is either skins (which most games these days sell for real money and have no advantage at all) and cosmetics (mounts, pets ) etc. The rest is buying currency that might be able to midigate the length of grinding for certain aspects but by far and large doesnt really reduce it.

that is if you can get past the queues or don't have a server crash and lose all progress on quests and not be offered anymore.

It doesn't matter, its free. Just make a new character and look at our shop. I bet game is a buggy mess but shop is perfect. You get showered in gifts that most likely take you to shop to tempt you into buying stuff in a game that is boring.
Beat a boss with 4 button presses... do a dungeon with no healers... sure sounds like an mmo to me.

Nope, game is not buggy and the shop is not buggy. Have had 0 issues outside 1 or 2 queue times on the first day, but nothing before that time and nothing since.

4 button presses wont do it, you need all 8 of them and your super! lol, but yes it def. is an mmo for better and worse.

 

[Brian Boru]

idk if mods will remove this or not

This thread works for discussion after launch. I renamed the other thread to "Lost Ark—up to launch 2022-02", so carry on

 

[Colif]

Note, there is already a thread on lost ark where you can put your experiences, idk if mods will remove this or not but im gonna answer here

We could have merged threads but it makes a mess of the threads as it reattaches them based on chronological order, and while it might work on this thread, others it just makes them impossible to follow.

That and the other thread is from November. No reason can't have 2, one before release and one after.

 

[Zloth]

No reason can't have 2, one before release and one after.

I don't know - there's got to be a database storing all these posts. It's likely got an integer for the thread ID. Once you get much past two billion threads.... BOOM!! Looks like you've burned through 100K after just a couple of years. Come the year 22022, you might be wishing for more IDs!

 

[Colif]

You could wonder why a forum with only a few active members at any one time can have 100k threads in just a few years and yet so few are visible now. I wonder where they all are. Its a pity most aren't still showing on here as we would have an abundance of threads to use as reference.

The number of successful threads that last longer than a week has grown in the last six months. It wasn't very good a year ago, I can imagine.

 

[PCG Jody]

I'm with @DXCHASE. The combat's great, and that gets me past the fact the story's all over the place. Early on I didn't care what was happening with the plot at all, but as it went on it got better, and the dungeons and mass battles got more fun as well.

A lot depends on what experience you have with other games, I think. People coming in from action-RPGs without much experience of MMOs are likely put off by the quest structure and pacing, while people who haven't played many free-to-play games seem to be put off by the multiple currencies and such.

Compared to other free-to-play stuff I've tried, especially MMOs, I think Lost Ark is quite generous. Other games make you pay real money to have a decent size inventory, or get access to mounts at the same time as paying players, and there's nothing that egregious in Lost Ark.

 

[Colif]

review below shows it gets better

 

[Frindis]

Played for almost 150 hours now and thankfully the majority of that was not in any queues. Games have been fun at times and then also quite frustrating.

The good stuff:

- Exploring the world is particularly fun, especially with a ship. I got the Orka skin, which is both fast (+7 knots if you have two or less as crew) and find it quite relaxing to use while island hopping. On land, I often go for the adventure tomes and have so far completed all of Rethramis. The dungeons are fun to explore and hidden areas make them particularly interesting searching for mokoko seeds. There are also some really cool instances that took me completely by surprise, like the Mechwarrior mission with heavy metal music and tons of firepower against hordes of enemies.

- Combat feels smooth, at least with the Gunslinger class I am currently playing. Tons of customizations, both for solo/group/PvP and swapping from pistol-shotgun-rifle depending on the build is quite rewarding for those extra high damage hits. Gunslinger class got quite high DPS and is also agile so you'll be able to manage dungeons (especially Chaos dungeons/tower) with ease.

- Stronghold is a nice touch, with the ability to make items, send NPC's on savaging missions and farm stuff.


The bad stuff:

- The rapport system is garbage and is heavily focused on pointing you to the cash shop. Yes, I know you are not supposed to be able to do everything fast (if you are not a whale) but it makes completing the adventure tomes quite the hassle since you often have to be lucky with the report you get and the points you get from emotes you can only do so much a day.

- The majority of the quests (with the exceptions of some really cool main story instances and island missions) are quite boring and basically spoonfed you so you can get to the end game faster and be able to spend money.

- The honing system is also garbage and just as with the report system it wants you to spend money. The rng is for me off-putting and does not motivate me to grind more so I can gamble my materials again with a bad roll.

- All the chests, quests finish, achievements, and whatnot have some type of casino sound. It is so annoying I had to turn off the sound completely because it was driving me mad. It is grooming you into becoming a gambler or at least gently massaging the whale's wallets and I find it pretty sad, to be honest.

Conclusion:

I stopped playing Lost Ark for the endgame progression when I found out just how bloody grindy the game is and how PTW convenient it is. Sure, you can grind for gold to use for buying materials that you can use for buying the materials you need for leveling up, but I don't want to do that. I don't want to have anything to do with that kind of cash shop system. It is only there in the first place so you will HAVE to visit the shop and hopefully spend really money in the future.

The feeling of going up a tower, defeating enemies because of your skill and then being met with: NO! You can't get any further because you don't have enough GearScore. I hate that kind of system and makes exploring those instances further quite demotivating.

So, why do I want to keep playing Lost Ark if most of the systems in the game are not to my liking? Because I love the combat, I love the exploring and I love (even if I don't like the rapport system) the adventure tomes. The game has something to offer me and I can live with the end game content being something I am never, ever going to strive for or even care one bit about. I'm playing the game the way I find it to be fun and that is how it is for me.


If I were to rate it, I'd give it a 6/10.

 

[Wynny2k]

I feel the grind is the game and I am loving it so far and have not played much of anything else so yeah it's a thumbs up from me