Volamel
2022-02-15 02:40:57
On the other hand, the bosses themselves mimic your typical MMO, with a myriad of telegraphed attacks, debuffs, and even unique phases. Without getting into spoiler territory, the game’s creativity and the difficulty scale linearly with its bosses--as it should. Much like modern WoW many of the quest chains result in you being tasked to clear a dungeon tucked away in the corner of a given zone, which are easily the highlight of the leveling experience, outside the fun and often over the top fight scenes between major characters.
Now, let’s muscle through the rough bits. Lost Ark does suffer from some early woes that vanilla WoW’s questing experience brought, namely the “speak to my neighbor loop” or “deliver this letter to the person who stood to my right” style of quest. There is a Warlords Of Draenor garrison-esque system, it’s a lot and isn’t packed or formatted well. Expect a roughly five-minute packet style homework assignment partway through the early game that’s not skippable or avoidable in any intuitive way. The story, while far more straightforward and concise than Shadowlands--not that it is a big metric for success--can be a bit melodramatic.
And the voice acting can feel flat and soulless, even downright tone-deaf at certain points, and the writing often feels cliche. Lost Ark won’t be for everyone--but it seems like it’s designed for that in mind. It knows what it's doing throughout the entire journey and leans into its strengths rather than attempting to spread itself thin.
There are plenty of rough edges to Lost Ark, but at its core, it is the lack of manufactured engagement that keeps you coming back. Sure, there are systems to bring you back--things like daily login rewards--but it doesn’t feel cumbersome. You’re not, at least on the surface, punished in some backhanded way for not doing your dailies every day. You’re not at a loss of power because you didn’t grind enough artifact power. However, what takes the cake is the amount of content anyone can do at any time. It is this accessibility that gives Lost Ark a sense of freedom.
Lost Ark feels like a game that’s incredibly easy to pick up but incredibly difficult to master. The accessibility that Lost Ark brings lulls you into an entertaining experience that leaves you exploring the many systems it carries with it less as a chore and more from genuine interest. Sure, you can just beeline the main story quest and blitz to the end like you might do on the release of the new expansion and jump straight into raiding, but that’s where Lost Ark differs.
This does not have to be a “rush to the end” type of game, you and your friends can go off and chip away at all sorts of innocuous content. It is because you’re having fun throughout the entire experience that you’re more likely to try and dabble with all the game has to offer. Tagging along with a friend while you hunt for collectables doesn’t feel like a chore because it isn’t one. Want to grind rapport to make your butler fall in love with you--go for it!
These systems are not Battle For Azeroth’s island expeditions, a system bred to be a vehicle for progression, they’re more akin to (in a weird way) the introduction of battle pets. Most of these things are just harmless, horizontal content that can be experienced but does not intrude on your experience all that much. You’re not forced to play anime card games to progress the story or grind some odd bone ash for super epic cool gear so that you can progress through the part of the game you actually enjoy.
You can hunt for seeds or do puzzles or find hidden stashes of treasure whenever with whoever--which brings a breath of fresh air from WoWs chore heavy blueprint.
For a free-to-play game with such accessibility and a creative lens for how you experience the game, there truly is nothing to lose by diving in with the best of intentions. Tired of Torghast and need a palate cleanser that allows for a fun gameplay loop with some potential be it casual collectable hunting or genuinely interesting end game raids? Just looking for something to pass the time while you raid log and wait for 9.2?
By far it isn’t the logical “next-step” in MMO design, but Lost Ark brings a fresh take and mountains of content to explore to the table--and who knows--it might be your next home.