Lost Ark

[Dark Drakan]

Developed by Smilegate (devs of popular first-person shooter Crossfire), the game launched in South Korea in 2019. It was then followed by a Japan and Russia release before it was picked up by Amazon Games. Is is now set to release in North America and Europe, and has run multiple beta tests ahead of its Feb 11 Free to Play launch. Amazon’s release of Lost Ark features written and spoken dialogue in English, French, German, and Spanish.

It is already proving to be massively popular with players buying in early ahead of the free to play launch. It already has more than 530,000 concurrent players on Steam before it goes Free to Play on Friday. The game has recieved rave reviews over the years and before US and EU launch it sits at 96% Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.


STEAM DESCRIPTION
Embark on an odyssey for the Lost Ark in a vast, vibrant world: explore new lands, seek out lost treasures, and test yourself in thrilling action combat. Define your fighting style with your class and advanced class, and customize your skills, weapons, and gear to bring your might to bear as you fight against hordes of enemies, colossal bosses, and dark forces seeking the power of the Ark in this action-packed free-to-play RPG.

Discover a World Brimming with Adventure
Explore seven vast, varied continents and the seas between them to find vibrant cultures, strange and fantastical beasts, and all the unexpected marvels waiting to be discovered. Delve into the secrets of Arkesia, prove your might in battles and raids, compete against other players in PvP, travel to distant islands in search of hidden riches, face packs of enemies and colossal bosses in the open world, and more.

Your Odyssey Awaits
Splash into massively satisfying ARPG-style combat and progression as you quest, raid, and fight on the scope of an MMO. Whether you want to play solo, in groups with friends, or matched up with other adventurers in the world, there’s an epic adventure waiting for you. Fight in the open world or delve into chaos dungeons, go head-to-head in expert PvP duels, test your mettle on epic quests, raid against bosses big and small, and hold your own in the fight against the Demon Legion to reclaim the power and light of the Lost Ark.

Define Your Fight
Lost Ark offers easy-to-learn features with unexpected depth and room for customization. Hit the ground running with pick-up-and-play action then take control of your combat with the unique Tripod system. Unlock three tiers of customization for each of your abilities, giving you powerful control of exactly how you fight. Lost Ark’s ever-expanding roster of iconic classes—each with their own distinct advanced classes—offers plenty of room to explore until you find the combat style that’s just right for you.

The same goes for other features: as you continue your journey, you’ll find non-combat skills, crafting, guilds and social systems, and other rich features that bring the world alive. Whether you want to skim along the surface or dive deep into the details is up to you.

For anyone curious as to how the 5 classes work, there is a very helpful article here.

DOWNLOAD HERE ​

 

[Dark Drakan]

Lost Ark becomes the 2nd most played game in Steams history after just 24 hours​

After the rise (and current fall) of New World, Amazon Games have this time teamed up to be the publisher of a game that launched in South Korea in 2019 by Smilegate and its western release has so far been a HUGE success.

At time of writing the game sits 2nd on the most played games in Steams history list (see below) with a peak concurrent player count of 1,325,305 players. The free to play MMO has even had to open up more servers in the EU due to the huge demand.

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[Dark Drakan]

After recently announcing that they have banned over 1 million bot accounts from the hugely successful MMORPG, Amazon Games have also revealed that Lost Ark now has 20 million users globally and currently more than 10 million of those players come from North America, Europe, South America, and Australia. Amazon Games have also vowed to ban even more bot accounts from the game in further waves in the future.

At time of writing the peak concurrent player count sits at 1,324,761 players with a 24 hour peak of 821,214 which is really impressive numbers when you consider the drop off in players from Amazon Games last MMO title New World.

Lost Ark's recent western release still doesn't at present contain everything the current Korean version has, with more additions due to be rolled out in future updates. They have revealed that more storyline and endgame activities are coming in March, and shortly after that more of the advanced classes seen in the Korean version are coming too.

A recent tweet on the official Lost Ark account did hint that there might be a slight delay in that however.

''We are currently making adjustments to our upcoming content roadmap based on player progression data. We will be sharing an updated roadmap following our March update." ​

 

[Dark Drakan]

Lost Ark to get 2 new classes in a major content update by May

It has been revealed in an Amazon blog post that the Western version of Lost Ark is to get two new classes previously released in the Korean version of the game.

The Glaivier (coming in April)
A female Martial Artist who wields a spear and glaive

The Destroyer (Coming in May)
A male Warrior class who dishes out damage with a huge hammer

Amazon have also detailed Lost Ark's upcoming content roadmap which includes the new continent of South Vern on top of the 2 new classes as well as a number of quality-of-life updates.

Amazon have also that the roadmap doesn't cover all the new content coming to Lost Ark in the next two months so keep your eyes peeled for further announcements.

April and May Roadmap
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[Dark Drakan]

Destined For Destruction Update

The May update for the hugely popular free to play MMO launched on May 19th and the patch notes and feature updates are HUGE. They include a new raid, new Destroyer Advanced Class, new cosmetics, a comprehensive balance patch, new activities, and much much more.

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[Zarkes]

Loving this game so far

 

[Dark Drakan]

Loving this game so far

I really need to get back on it as I was enjoying what I had played so far, purely down to not much free time.