Lost Ark is a game with zero chill, a Korean hybrid of ARPG and MMO that embodies the strengths and weaknesses of both genres. Ambitious to a fault, the game is a sprawling, epic fantasy adventure enlivened by a brilliant combat system and a staggering sense of scale, but its grandiose plans are hampered by stilted storytelling and repetitive quest structure. It's a ridiculous, over-the-top, often clichéd, and occasionally inspirational chunk of game design, and a particularly tricky customer to condense into a review. But to summarize briefly, I kind of like it.

The broad plot is that your character travels around the world in search of the seven enormously powerful artifacts that bear the Arks' names. Your character chooses from five classes: Warrior, Gunner, Mage, Martial Artist, and Assassin. Some of them are divided into more sophisticated subclasses. For example, the Mage is divided into the musical Bard and the elemental Sorceress, while the Warrior can choose between the damaging Berserker, the melee/shooting Gunlancer, and the Paladin, which balances swordplay and holy magic.

I spent most of Lost Ark as a Paladin, but I dabbled in a variety of classes with the game's built-in class tester. The combat in Lost Ark is superb, at least on a visual and tactile level. From the start, the belief is "why fight one enemy when you can fight 20?" and the game gives you the combat skills to make it easier. The game starts at level 10, with five abilities already unlocked. For paladins, these include powers such as "Spin Slash," a powerful one-two punch attack that puts a big dent in the enemy's health bar, and "Light of Judgment," in which the paladin thrusts his hand forward and shoots a searing beam of heat, sending the enemy backward without getting bored.

The Lost Ark is built around these powerful combat skills, mostly using standard attacks to sweep up straggling enemies when the battle is already won. The more they level up, the more powerful they become. Every few levels, a new combat skill is unlocked, going up to a maximum of 40 levels. Each level gives you ability points to refine your existing skills, making your attacks faster, more powerful, and longer lasting. Once the higher level abilities were unlocked, I liked to start the fight with Wrath of God. The paladin would then slowly advance and wipe out the remaining enemies with the rather awkwardly named Flash Slash, an attack that slices through the air as quickly as an armored lawnmower.

While the combat is a great foundation for Lost Ark's adventure, the game's difficulty curve can feel a bit flat for those looking for a challenge. Outside of particularly challenging bosses and dungeons set on hard, you won't have to think too much about positioning or force placement.

At first, the Lost Ark is a very guided experience. The world is divided into various continents, which themselves are divided into different zones. These zones are designed to be experienced in a specific order, leading you right under your nose through a series of main and optional quests.

Lost Ark's approach to questing seems to be a parody of MMO design. Monsters respawn so quickly that it is often faster to wait for them to reappear than to explore. The NPCs that populate the zones are also some of the laziest I've encountered. They literally talk on behalf of the person standing next to them and ask you to move objects like crates and barrels 10 yards. The most bizarre objective is to emote to an NPC. I don't know how to stop the would-be king from questioning my legitimacy, but I guess there's no use in enthusiastically shoving my fist in the air.

It is rudimentary to say the least. However, Lost Ark is only able to take this approach for two reasons. First, the quests are surprisingly efficient in advancing the zone. Not only are the objectives clear and straightforward, but they are often completed with a different NPC than the one assigned to the quest. This helps maintain momentum and minimize backtracking. Also, rewards such as coins and new weapons and armor are consistently available.

Second, these quick-fire quests gradually build into larger story arcs and events. Most zones eventually lead to dungeons. Dungeons are instantiated areas that can be explored with up to three other players. These dungeons vary greatly, from ancient ruins to pirate coves to crumbling catacombs inhabited by heretical clerics. They are wonderful spaces to explore, and unlike most zones, there are no constant enemy respawns, which makes the combat a little more satisfying.

The pinnacle of Lost Ark, however, are the major story events. The majority of the early game takes place on the continent of West Luthera, where you try to help the misguided King Tiraine in his attempt to regain his throne from the usurper Lord Sherritt. The storyline involves helping Tiraine rally his forces through multiple zones, culminating in a massive castle siege more akin to Total War than an ARPG. Dashing along the castle fortifications and slaughtering enemies by the dozen as siege engines pound the walls with rocks and chains, I squealed with pure joy. And in East Luthera, the Lost Ark does this again, leading us to another battle that is not only larger, but much more bizarre.

When the Lost Ark grows, it is impossible not to be swept up in the momentous events unfolding before our eyes. And what I have described here is only the beginning of what this game contains. Once you reach the end of East Luthera, the game gives you a ship and sets you off to explore the rest of the massive world of the Lost Ark. From quirky little islands filled with talking animals and other strange creatures to brand new zones where you can continue your search for the rest of the ark, there is a vast array of new places to explore. Some of these places are truly bizarre. For example, the first port of call away from the mainland is an island inhabited by pixie-like creatures that tend to ladybugs in the undergrowth.

The Lost Ark can be a fascinating adventure, but it is a pity that the main storyline is not as compelling as it could be. The central characters are an almost one-dimensional carousel of tired, noble heroes and villains who seem to be passing by the local SM club on their way to battle. The only character with any real nuance is Armen, the priest, who is literally two-dimensional, half human, half demon. The fact that this idea of duality is as important to the story as the baby faun shows the level at which the story works.

I have another complaint about Lost Ark. Almost all of the loot is intended as status upgrades, at least along the path of the main storyline, and there is little that is unique or distinctive. MMO-oriented players may find some pleasure in creating their own upgrades, but I would not be surprised if the game's upgrade system is not as simple as it seems. While I might find joy in doing so, for me, the meta-game scaffolding of Lost Ark is not as fun as finding a great sword that shoots lightning bolts, and it's a shame that it dilutes the core enjoyment of the game, which is collecting cool equipment that spits out of oversized treasure chests at high speed.

But every time I start to dabble in the shallowness of the "Lost Ark," the game throws up a wild scenario and tries to pull me back into its depths. It's hard to stomach a game where one of the bosses is a pirate parrot who fights you on a tabletop after shrinking you with a magic potion. The combat alone is reason enough to play "The Lost Ark," and its ridiculous scale and bizarre asides successfully overcome the flat storytelling and mundane quests. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a lot of fun to watch it try to become one.