''Lost Ark'' is a 2019 MMO

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co-developed by Tripod Studio and

Smilegate Smilegate is a South Korean video game developer and Video game developer, publisher, which develops, publishes and services mobile and PC online games. It has five core business sectors: game development, publishing, platform, investment and soc ...

. It was released in South Korea in December 2019 by Smilegate and in Europe, North America, and South America in February 2022 by

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. ''Lost Ark'' cost around 85 million to develop. The game received generally favorable reviews and is among the most-played games on

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Gameplay

''Lost Ark'' is primarily focused on

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(PvE) and exploration (questing, achievement/collectible hunting, crafting, etc.). It features

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(PvP) elements as well. Players start by customizing their character which they can then level up by completing the storyline. Reaching level 50 unlocks access to tiered

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dungeons and raids, at which point most further progress is tied to the character's gear score.

Development

''Lost Ark'' development began in 2011 under the codename ''Project T''. The game uses

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. It originally only supported

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but was updated to also support

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prior to the western release in 2022.

Release

''Lost Ark'' was fully released in South Korea on December 4, 2019, and in North American, South American, and European regions on February 11, 2022, with

serving as the global publisher. Users that pre-purchased one of four founder's packs could play 3 days early on February 8, 2022. The game was initially unavailable in Belgium and the Netherlands due to the countries' stringent

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regulations, with the latter later reversing its decision. Within twenty-four hours of its release, ''Lost Ark'' became the second most played game on

Release schedules

In 2021, there were plans between Smilegate and game publisher HappyTuk to launch ''Lost Ark'' in

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. It was announced in 2023 that the release of Taiwanese servers has been delayed but not canceled.

Reception

''Lost Ark'' received "generally favorable" reviews according to

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. ''

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'' praised ''Lost Ark''s combat, writing, "Abilities look good, sound sufficiently powerful, and feel great to use. You can’t help but feel like a combat god when you divekick a crowd, and blast fodder monsters into bloody chunks." Despite enjoying some of the minigames, ''

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'' disliked the game's structure and felt, compared to other MMOs, ''Lost Ark'' had little to offer: "Some may relish the chores, the gradual progress of the EXP bar, and the allure of shiny loot rewards... Yet, there's nothing I've seen so far in the game's questing and progression that makes it stand out from the competition." ''

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'' liked the combat abilities, but criticized the story: "''Lost Ark'' can be a captivating adventure, which makes it a shame that the main story is simply not that compelling. The central cast of characters are a largely one-dimensional carousel of exhaustingly noble heroes and villains." The Western release was also criticized for its high volume of

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Notes

References

External links

* (in English, Spanish, German, and French) * {{in lang, ko 2019 video games Active massively multiplayer online games Action role-playing video games Massively multiplayer online role-playing games Unreal Engine games Video games developed in South Korea Windows games Windows-only games Smilegate games