A League of Legends veteran or Diablo fan will relish the combos on offer here, but for me, it was too finicky. It required switching between three guns: dual pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun to keep the damage flowing, each with their own hotbars and combos. You see, the class was difficult to play for a beginner like me. My decision, thankfully, was a good one, albeit ambitious. Thanks to those sweet pop-ups, I opted for the Gunner (Female) in the hopes I could channel my inner Dante from Devil May Cry. I've got no qualms with it, I just think it's an interesting move.
It's a similar situation for the Gunner too. Meanwhile the male equivalent only has access to one. The female Martial Artist, for instance, can choose from three advanced specialisations. Something I've not seen before are class gender differences. As you browse everything from the burly Warrior to the elegant Mage, you can dive into a preview window that’ll show you what “advanced class” opens up at level 10. And let me tell you, this game does a fantastic job of letting you know what you’re getting into before you commit to a role. You get to pick from a number of classes, each with their own playstyles and snazzy specialisations. Lost Ark makes a good first impression, though. Both bits mesh quite nicely, but whether “quite nicely” is enough to make it stand out against some stiff competition over the long haul remains to be seen. There's a universe to save, and you happen to be the chosen one.
Quests have you fetch stuff in exchange for EXP and you’ll encounter other players running about your world. From a top-down perspective, you click on the environment to move your character forwards and you’ll cleave through enemies in their dozens. But rest assured that it has familiar trappings from both genres. In my brief five hours with Lost Ark, I got to sample some classes, some quests, some dungeons, and some co-op, and I can only describe it as a Diablo-like MMO crossbreed without all the grimness that comes with it. Judging by my few hours of hands-on time, I’m thinking it might, but only if you’re able to embrace its slow burn. The big question, then, is whether Lost Ark’s Diablo-y formula can do enough to compete with the already well-established MMO juggernauts. Of course, what with Amazon's own MMO New World now settling into its third month, not to mention Final Fantasy 14's Endwalker expansion looming on the horizon, Lost Ark arrives at a busy time for fervent EXP grinders. Now, Amazon Games are bringing its flashy, Diablo-like combat to the west in the form of a closed beta later today, and we've had an early sneak peek at it. Lost Ark is a free-to-play action RPG-inspired MMO that came out to great acclaim in Korea back in 2018.