Lost Ark: impressive hack and slash from CrossFire developer

Smilegate, the Korean developer of the free-to-play online shooter CrossFire, is making tons of money with this game. Understandably, the plan for the studio is to develop more games and with the added ambition that the extra cash brings to any developer. And so Smilegate revealed Lost Ark, an isometric action online RPG, or hack and slash, that we can easily compare to the Diablo franchise. However, it should be compared to other two ambitious and upcoming action RPGs: Lineage Eternal: Twilight Resistance from NCsoft and MU Online 2 from Webzen.

The first trailer for Lost Ark is over 8 minutes and it shows plenty of what this game has to offer: beautiful graphics powered by the Unreal Engine 3, plenty of characters on-screen at the same time, huge bosses and a game world that isn't “closed” due to the isometric perspective, there are moments when you can see the usually impressive views around you. Other interesting stuff concerning Lost Ark is the number of planned classes, 18, with a handful already revealed in the trailer, and the size of the team working on this game, with 160 workers. Closed beta is scheduled for 2015 and while there's no word yet on a Western release, it could eventually happen. The official website is here, in case your Korean isn't too rusty.