{"id":11225,"date":"2022-03-17T13:29:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T11:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=11225"},"modified":"2022-03-17T13:29:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T11:29:38","slug":"free-to-play-but-feel-free-to-pay-lost-ark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/free-to-play-but-feel-free-to-pay-lost-ark\/","title":{"rendered":"Free-to-Play, but Feel Free to Pay – Lost Ark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lost Ark<\/em> is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game from Korea, making its way west two years after its original launch. The game plays and looks a lot like the Diablo <\/em>series and others like it, but its MMO features, such as group content and a large world, set it apart from those. The game has been a huge success, reaching over 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam. After creating a character and choosing a class, the player follows story quests until the endgame, where the most interesting content awaits.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Those allergic to pop-ups and interfaces full of information may want to steer clear, as things can get quite busy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The game\u2019s main strength is its gameplay. Fighting monsters feels great thanks to polished visual and sound effects that make every hit feel special. Each of the varied classes has eight main skills available in combat, as well as some powerful special abilities. At the start, characters are provided with at least six abilities, with more unlocking as they progress in levels. This is a welcome improvement on most popular MMOs where a character starts with one or two abilities, which makes combat a slog. Here, battles are fun during the whole leveling process, and even more so once the max level is reached. I have been quite addicted to the game thanks to its satisfying combat, even if some problems with the camera and controls that come with the perspective can cause frustration.<\/p>\n

There is a lot to do in the game. Most of it includes fighting, but there is a huge world map where players can sail their own ships, discovering islands with a variety of quests and activities. For example, my favorite find so far is the Panda Island where players transform into pandas and eat together to complete a quest objective. With surprisingly great rewards, exploration is encouraged, and there\u2019s lots of it available.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>
Some islands only appear for a limited time, making them coveted by the players.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main content for progressing (getting stronger gear at the maximum level) is also quite fun. Chaos Dungeons are mindless monster-mashing parties, while Guardian Raids have players hunt a single boss that can have some threatening moves. Abyssal Dungeons contain some of the most challenging content in the game, with all four party members having to perform perfectly to get through an encounter. The dungeons themselves are fantastic, but doing the content with random people during the first weeks has been a frustrating experience. Many people are caught off guard by the sudden difficulty spike and are not prepared to learn complex mechanics.<\/p>\n

Progression happens by honing one\u2019s equipment, possible with materials that are obtained daily by the aforementioned content. The biggest problem of the game becomes apparent here: honing has a chance to fail, increasingly so the further in the endgame you get. This system that locks you out of content for a long time if you\u2019re unlucky is mitigated by a shop where you can buy materials with real money. That\u2019s an unfortunate design decision, but understandable as Lost Ark <\/em>is free to play.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
As the game is an MMO, other players are seen in great numbers, divided by servers and channels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My 100 hours with the game have been very enjoyable, mainly thanks to the Deathblade Assassin, a fast-paced melee class that I\u2019ve been playing the most, as well as having a friend to do content with. However, I haven\u2019t seen even half of the endgame content, but I\u2019m already facing a wall due to how honing works. Now I\u2019m stuck repeating the same dungeons daily, hoping to make even the slightest amount of progress. I can easily understand those that pay real money to get more fun out of the game, but I\u2019m not sure I want to support that kind of design. There\u2019s a lot of fun to be had in Lost Ark<\/em>, but players should be wary that experiencing the best content requires either a lot of time or a heavy wallet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Publisher: Amazon Games<\/p>\n

Developer: Smilegate RPG<\/p>\n

Platforms: PC<\/p>\n

Release Date: February 12, 2022<\/p>\n

Genres: MMO, Action<\/p>\n

PEGI: 18<\/p>\n

Pictures: Screenshots from the game, taken by the author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lost Ark is a fun MMO that offers a lot of activities, and even more if you have the time or the cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":11230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[247,206,556,319,173,272,388,194,245],"class_list":["post-11225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","tag-action","tag-digital-games","tag-english","tag-free-to-play","tag-games","tag-multiplayer","tag-pc","tag-review","tag-rpg","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}