ARK: Survival Evolved is a testament to the open-world survivor genre, making way for a new experience for you, your friends, and your potential tribesmen. While this can be a single player experience, I would recommend at least trying multiplayer to get the ultimate experience. This particular review will also focus on the Aberration DLC as well as the base game maps.
The premise of ARK can be seen as Cast Away with dinosaurs, as caveman warfare, or even as a callback to the Turok series. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination … and whether or not a giant dinosaur decides to step on your house. Cooperation is key if you are looking to build a civilization in a land where you are somewhere in the middle of the food chain. Work your way to the top and domesticate dinos for warfare, hunting, harvesting, storage, transportation, and companionship.
Your character will quickly develop needs that you should keep an eye on, like hunger and thirst. In order to survive, you will need to acquire resources, craft tools, and build shelter. By nightfall, you’ve better crafted a torch, or else you will be wandering in pitch blackness until a pair of yellow eyes finds you in the dark. The good news is that you can trace your dead body by a green light that shoots straight up into the sky. The bad news is that it’s still nighttime and that raptor is still eating your last character. Ark can be pretty brutal just trying to survive a single day/night cycle.
As you level up, you can increase your stats, such as carrying weight, melee damage, crafting ability, etc. You will receive a certain amount of engram points, with which you can unlock new items and structures to craft. There are game modes that cause the game to keep players within the bounds of a certain aesthetic, like caveman or medieval. The technology progresses towards the realm of science fiction (laser swords included), and then things really start getting interesting. Certain engrams cannot be crafted depending on what map you are on, but the vanilla objects are so numerous and necessary. That encourages you to try out the different builds and solutions to each other the arks.
Domesticating dinosaurs has been my favorite part of the game so far. They have so many uses, and they stand by your side no matter what. My first companion was Lessie the Lystrosaurus. All you need to do is collect food, put in your quick selection, and press the action button every time it gets hungry. At first, I kept Lessie around just for companionship, but then I started using her feces as fertilizer for my crops. It was a mutual partnership.
As of right now, there are three major arks/maps that you can choose from, all of which are unique. I would recommend island hopping to get your bearings, seeing how the game works. Scorched Earth and Aberration are more challenging, but they’re just as fun as the base game. Resources are harder to come by, and the dinosaurs are much meaner. All of the dinosaurs have a different variant per map as well. I was killed by an aberrant raptor within the first 5 minutes of trying the DLC. These maps are enormous too, making navigating difficult and dangerous. The environment in Scorched Earth might kill you just as easily as the dinosaurs. Your only hope for survival lies in building adobe huts and finding water. Aberration is an undergrowth with hallucinogenic mushrooms that make you defecate uncontrollably. Your hope for survival is clinging higher terrain. Giant spiders lurk in the dark, little dog-like creatures waddle around with lights on their heads, and dodo birds are still somehow not extinct.
Aberration feels like you are in the ruins of a fallen civilization. The sheer amount of fungi and flora really create that sense of decay. If you are into a sort of roleplay with a group of friends, then this may be for you. It also makes for a treacherous environment, where a battle between tribes can be easily swept aside by the vicious creatures waiting and watching. A hasty retreat into a patch of mushrooms can prove hazardous. You might just find yourself getting killed by something you wouldn’t expect. You won’t believe the scale of some of these creatures too! At some point, if you’re lucky, you can tame a Basilisk and mount it. Then you will be legendary!
The soundtrack is really good too. There is a specific change in music when the game day transitions into night, and you can’t help but feel a shift from being safe and sound to being totally exposed to whichever predator finds you first. The title theme is especially epic. I can easily get immersed in this dino universe with the Ark theme playing subtly in the background. The sound effects are intriguing. I always know a dodo bird is around, but I don’t notice a raptor until I hear it hiss and screech from the wilderness.
I do not have many criticisms for the game, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the ones I found. Sometimes there will be pathfinding issues with the dinosaurs, whether they’re yours or randomly generated. Lessie got stuck on many a rock as we ventured back to my beachside hut. Thankfully you can destroy most rocks with a pick. I also think it is a little strange that you can’t sleep in your sleeping bag, but your character can get knocked out due to being bludgeoned over the head or due to being exhausted. The major issue is that you cannot skip the night sequences. My other notable criticism is my confusion with hosting a session with my friends, because it seems like players can’t stray too far away from the host. That nearly defeats the purpose of rival tribes and hinders other players from exploring.
It is incredibly difficult to capture everything in this game with a review, because of the massive amount of content spread throughout the base game as well as the DLC. The developers pay attention to smallest details, like hurting yourself by punching trees or growing your hair and beard at an alarming rate. The user interface is incredibly user friendly, especially on console, and the game guide is readily available on the pause menu. If you like playing games similar to Savage Lands, The Forest, or ORION, then I recommend you give Ark a try. I think a fair rating for this game is a 9.5 out of 10.
Here is the ARK: Survival Evolved Aberration Expansion Pack Launch Trailer:
ARK: Survival Evolved is available for PC via Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
PC Review
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Overall Score - 9.5/109.5/10
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
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