Steam Reviews are Not Being Kind to Lost Ark
Remember what happened to New World? An onslaught of technical issues burying an otherwise-enjoyable game? Folks interested in picking up Lost Ark had similar concerns. After seeing incredible success in Korea, Amazon Games decided to help the game reach a western audience – and oh boy, did they ever reach that audience. Fears of technical problems subsided when players got their hands on the game, boosting player numbers to absurd levels. And at that point, it wasn’t even free-to-play yet.
But it seems like that “handicap” also doubled as a blessing. When the game finally shed the paid exclusivity, the servers had a lot of trouble handling the influx of new players. Queue times got longer and longer, especially for those in the EU region.
Unfortunately, steam reviews have become something of a place for gamers to vent about their game under the guise of a review. Almost everyone’s in agreement that, as far as raw gameplay goes, Lost Ark is stellar. But when you’re stuck waiting for the servers to let you play, those positives are hard to see.
Other complaints are the usual fare – an extensive grind, generic quest structure, nothing you haven’t heard before about common MMO faults. But given when the game’s opinion started to shift, it’s easy to see which straw broke the camel’s back.
Great gameplay means little when it can’t be played, and in the end, that fault lies with Amazon Games. Is it sad that Lost Ark is catching flak for it? Perhaps – they did choose to partner with Amazon, after all. But it’s Amazon’s money funding those servers, and they’ll need some reinforcement if they want those Steam reviews to bounce back.