In February 2022, after surpassing the one million player milestone, Lost Ark became the second peak online game from an online game developer Friv2Online on Steam in the west. On the territory of the Russian Federation and the CIS, the notorious My.Games is engaged in publishing the Korean MMORPG, providing the project with full localization and Russian-language support. We tell you if it makes sense to break into the game now.

For isometric MMORPGs, a new era began back in 2011, when NCSOFT announced Lineage Eternal, packed with innovative mechanics. Unfortunately, the problematic game never saw the light of day, but it set a high bar, which was jointly mastered by the Korean offices Tripod Studio and Smilegate RPG.

Even at the testing stage, Lost Ark gained wild popularity, which multiplied with the release of the game on the European market. Now Lost Ark is at the peak of development, getting new classes, continents and raid areas, balancing existing content and numerous Quality of life improvements. In this article we will talk about the main features of the project and positive trends in its development.

Despite the fact that Lost Ark was made on Unreal Engine 3 - the 2004 engine, the friv game looks much better than any modern analogue of Diablo III, including the brainchild of Blizzard itself. Again, a flexible set of tools from Epic Games allowed developers to adapt the project to different generations of hardware, giving excellent optimization for less productive systems and great visuals for modern ones.

Lost Ark features a detailed techno-magical world of Acrasia with interactive environments and a huge variety of biomes - from the permafrost-bound northern lands to tropical regions, floating islands and high-tech cities. The game has carefully crafted animations and detailed characterization, which, in principle, is not typical of isometric games.

Like modern Asian MMORPGs, the appearance of the hero can be customized in detail and in detail, changing hairstyles and makeup, calibrating facial proportions, experimenting with a palette of skin, eye and hair colors. According to the law of the genre, female characters look incredibly impressive, but they correspond to the general concept of the world.

One annoyance is that the sex of some classes is still predetermined, but the developers are gradually removing gender restrictions, and even endowing heterosexual heroes with unique properties. For example, at the beginning of last year, a female version of the demon hunter appeared in the game, and by the end of 2022, players can expect the appearance of a female berserker in Lost Ark.

To date, the following types of characters are represented in Lost Ark: monks, warriors, shooters, magicians and assassins. And don't be embarrassed that there are only five classes - each of them has several archetypes in the game with their own sets of abilities, mechanics and weapons, not to mention the variety of builds for each.

So, in the ranks of warriors, classic berserkers with huge two-handed weapons, zealots of the light paladins, tanks-guards fight, among wizards there are summoners, minstrel supports and battle mages, monks and archers have five subspecies, and assassins have three.At the time of writing, twenty-one unique archetypes have been implemented in Lost Ark, since the launch, the Fury, Paladin, Scout Agent, Reaper, Enchantress, Death Blade, Demon Hunter and Tygon have been added to the friv game, and this is far from the limit.

The unique combat system of Lost Ark forces the player to master each archetype separately, carefully selecting sets of skills and power-ups for them, some of which can improve certain skill effects, while others completely reshape their mechanics. The user can use up to eight skills in a combo, use them in conjunction with the ultimate abilities of the archetypes, rely on mobility and speed, support, or an aggressive, offensive game.

No matter how some portals praise lore games, I don’t consider the plot component to be Lost Ark’s strong point - as for me, the story here is rather plain, but it will take players to all corners of the world, send them to explore dungeons, encounter dangerous bosses, teach them how to search for secrets and will help to choose the vector of development of the hero.

At the end-game stage, life in Lost Ark is just beginning: players will be able to join the hunt for powerful bosses or collect collectible rewards, prepare and test the character in raids, participate in numerous events, daily and weekly events, mine gold, explore new continents, halls, rifts and islands of adventure.

Fans of PVP content won't lose out either: the game features arenas, stadiums, and even a royal battle mode. Special ranked matches will allow you to participate in seasonal challenges. There are even PVP guild brawls where clans compete in combat and non-combat competitions.

By the way, PVP in the game is praised for a fairly good class balance and a low threshold for entry, as well as for the ability to create an individual set of abilities and characteristics for battles with other players, so as not to travel with a PVP build through PVE content. It is important to note that the developers also regularly polish and bring to mind the competitive part.

One of the most attractive features of Lost Ark is the growing variety of diverse activities. Like the once innovative Black Desert and ArcheAge, the developers of Lost Ark have implemented full-fledged marine content in the game with many small islands, treasures, pirate ships and separate events on the water.

Players build and fortify their ships for dangerous waters, hire crews of sailors, fight and search wrecks for sunken riches. The navigation system is constantly being improved, adding new areas with objects of interest, opponents, special types of currencies, and getting creative with tasks. If initially the content was very amateurish, now more and more players are willing to set sail.

Back in early 2020, with the Silmael update, a new PVE mode of card battles appeared in the game. The inhabitants of Lost Ark mine rare cards and collect battle decks to duel with other players or AI. The friv game rewards champions with achievements and rare items that will help in character development.

In update 2.0, an island with a personal estate, merchants and a ranch for pets appeared in the game. It contains a laboratory where players research improvements for their possessions, a workshop for crafting consumables, a naval headquarters for equipping ships for naval missions, as well as the mansion itself, where you can change the outfits of heroes and decorate the estate.

The developers of Lost Ark actually keep a close eye on the reaction of the players and successfully work with criticism. So, with each major update in the game, not only does the endgame expand, but the difficulty to achieve it is also eliminated. In addition, the game has a “legacy” system that allows you to strengthen and equip all the heroes on your account, so that it would be easier for players to bring new characters to the current content.

The lack of gold is the main obstacle to development in the late stages of the game, but the number of ways to get it continues to grow. As you understand, you will have to grind in any case, and quite a lot, this is still a Korean MMO, but there are more and more options for profitable activities, including regular events.

On April 20, the Esdo Power update will be released in the Russian version of Lost Ark, which will add a new heroic raid, another guardian, equipment of a new quality and a special Esdo weapon to the game. The European version of Lost Ark is available on Steam, but not for our audience. The Russian version of the game can be downloaded from the official My.Games website.