While everyone's eyes are focused on the old man ring that will be unlocked this Friday, an online game that has been launched in Hanbok three years ago has become the real protagonist of the Steam platform.
"Lost Ark" officially launched on February 11 in Steam and European Services, and in just one day, the number of online users exceeded 1 million, surpassing "DOTA2" and "CS:GO", and climbed to the top of the Steam online number list, and still maintains the first position.
If you've been following the news about the game for the past two years, you should be impressed by the game. "The Lost Ark" was officially launched in South Korea in 2019, and the agency right of the national service was taken down by Tencent, of course, there is no sign of the national service going online.
The developer of The Lost Ark is South Korea's Smilegate. I believe that most domestic players' only impression of Smilegate is "the company that made "Crossfire", and even in the company's Baidu Encyclopedia, there is still such a sentence: "So far only one game in Crossfire has been produced"
Of course, this is not the truth, Smilegate actually did a lot of games, but from the Baidu Encyclopedia entry for so many years no one to change this, it can also be seen that in the eyes of domestic players, Smilegate in addition to "Crossfire" does not have any particularly famous works.
How did Smilegate, which has basically relied on eating the old "Crossfire" for so many years, make the three-year-old "Lost Ark" climb to the top of steam online?
In fact, from Steam's evaluation, it is not difficult to see the reason for the popularity of "The Lost Ark".
The most mentioned point in the praise is "excellent picture". "The Lost Ark" in terms of visuals is indeed the level of the first MMORPG, first of all, the character value is high, needless to say, the traditional art of Korean online games, Chinese players have long been strange for pinching out a variety of beautiful little sisters, but from the hottest pinch face post of the overseas Reddit forum, you can feel how much European and American players have not seen the world:
Reddit user Xephyr
After reading it, I just want to say, "That's it? ”
But if you consider that European and American players usually look at those "politically correct faces" in the game, it is easy to understand. For example, the appearance of the heroine of "Fading Light 2" has been spat upon a lot:
Heartache for European and American players for a second... In this comparison, the appearance of Korean-style online games is indeed a crushing advantage. Coupled with a variety of cool fashions, for European and American players, it is definitely the same experience as Liu Grandma entering the Grand View Garden.
There is no harm without contrast
Foreign players posted the terrier "My Mage Character Walking Posture"
In addition to the characters, the quality of the game scenes in The Lost Ark is also amazing, each different map in the game has its own characteristics, and the aesthetic is also quite online:
Snowy mountains in the distance:
Mysterious Dungeons:
Crash scene with full impact:
Mysterious Tower:
Fantastic Transparent Bridge:
Although the game engine is still "old" Unreal 3, even by today's standards, the level of production of this scene is amazing in MMORPG.
Of course, these have been in the previous Korean-style online games, but there is one thing that "The Lost Ark" has a huge breakthrough, that is, the interpretation of the plot animation:
There is even a sense of "Lord of the Rings" visual
The plot animation in the game, whether it is mirror operation, special effects or expression, has a level close to that of AAA masterpieces, which is rare in recent MMORPGs.
In addition to these, the most important thing is the refreshing feeling of mowing the grass in the game, a good sense of blow combined with a slightly exaggerated skill effect, so that the process of spawning monsters is at least visually and hand-feeling is very satisfying:
Eye-catching characters, pleasing graphics, stunning animation performances, and a solid sense of percussion combine to form the core elements of the delightful nature of The Lost Ark. After reading hundreds of player reviews, these advantages are basically recognized by players who like and hate the game.
But we haven't talked about the most critical aspect of a game yet — gameplay.
And the gameplay is the most controversial place in this game. Some people think the gameplay is good and "comfortable".
Even World of Warcraft players find it fun to play.
Other players have come to the classic conclusion of evaluating Korean-style online games: "Everything is good, it's not fun"
Some players even think it's just a "HD version of the legend" (but it was well received):
So why is there such a polarized evaluation? In fact, in my opinion, the "HD version of the legend" may be a bit exaggerated, but the overall praise and bad reviews are not contradictory. In a word, "The Lost Ark" is a typical Korean online game with a more refined gameplay.
It's not World of Warcraft, it's not Diablo 3, and it's not Path of Exile.
Although the animation performance is amazing, but the main plot is decent, in this game to level 50 is basically a novice period, practice to level 50 takes about 20 hours of time, the 20 hours of experience is very general, many people are also abandoned at this stage, old players will also emphasize "give this game more time, stick to ten hours after it will be much better." The whole main line is basically a cycle of taking tasks, killing N monsters, handing over tasks, and then taking tasks, helping NPCs go a few meters away to get a prop, and handing over tasks. If it weren't for the game's visuals and cool blows, the process would have been even more difficult.
After reaching level 50, you will find that "The Lost Ark" borrows a lot of excellent MMORPG gameplay, can do a lot of things, all kinds of PVE, PVP are all full, if you want to liver, there are endless things to do, and the gameplay is definitely rich. But it lacks a core gameplay that can support the whole game, in "Road of Exile" we play Build, in "World of Warcraft" PVE players can go to the book, PVP players can go to the battlefield, the arena, but in "The Lost Ark", those who play bad reviews will feel that everything is there, and it seems that nothing is so fun.
But it is precisely this low-threshold design that is the root of the "comfortable" and "happy" players who have received praise.
This is also the dilemma faced by MMORPGs on PCs today.
Will "The Lost Ark", which rushed to more than one million online at the same time in one day of launch, be the work that led MMORPG out of the predicament? Not.
The Lost Ark did not bring a substantial breakthrough to MMORPG, it was more like a compromise that followed the trend of the times.
I believe that no one will deny that World of Warcraft and "Road to Exile" are good games, but their current situation is not optimistic. You might say that World of Warcraft has changed, but why can't the original nostalgic suit bring it back to its former peak?
The reason is that in order to get pleasure in the game, we are willing to pay less cost.
My roommate in college was a hardcore World of Warcraft player, playing on time every night, more active than class, playing until midnight, almost without breaking a day.
You have to enjoy the joy of forming Build in "Road of Exile", not to mention how much time it takes to brush the equipment, just to thoroughly understand what more than 1,000 talent points are for, it is not something that can be done in ten days and half a month.
A picture can't even fit
We used to be willing to give a lot of time and effort to the pleasure of the game, but now there are fewer and fewer players who are willing to pay for it.
The reason why "The Lost Ark" is popular is that although it tastes like boiled water, you don't have to use your brain too much, you don't have to have any pressure, the picture is good, the gameplay is simple, and "comfortable" is its core experience.
Will The Lost Ark stay on fire? Hard.
I don't know if you remember which MMORPG was last with nearly a million people online on Steam? It is "New World", which is also published by Amazon. New World once had a maximum of 910,000 people online at the same time on Steam, but just five months later, how many people are online at the same time? 37,000 people.
Don't forget, "New World" is still a game that requires a paid buyout, Steam's lowest price in the United States is also 30 US dollars (about 190 yuan), these players who have spent money to buy the game have now more than 90% abandoned pit, so how many people will be left online after half a year of free downloading "The Lost Ark"?
"The Lost Ark" is not the beginning of the next spring of MMORPG, but more like a return to the light under the sunset, in the Category of Korean online games, it has done well enough, but as a work full of compromises, it is doomed to have no way to break through the limitations of the times.
The golden age of MMORPG may really not come back.
PS: "The Lost Ark" is currently locked in the country, and there is no Chinese, playing with external services has the risk of account blocking, and it is not recommended for everyone to experience in depth for the time being.