Ark: Survival Evolved Reviews
The survival game ARK: Survival Evolved released recently with a bunch of interesting and fun features. The survival crafting game does a lot more than other games in this genre, having actual end game, and reason to be doing the things you are. Ark boasts a huge diverse roster of dinosaurs, and biomes with multiple “Arks” to play on for free and more coming via DLC.
Ark: Survival Evolved was first launched on Steam Early Access in June 2015. Ark: Survival Evolved spent about a year on early access for consoles and now the open-world survival crafting game has been officially released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One & PC. As the title says the main aim of the game is to survive, and you will be put through your paces when it comes to crafting and building yourself a future in the Ark universe.
Its pricey to be sure, but if you’re a fan of the genre Ark is worth picking up. The hours of gameplay it offers pays for itself already. Also: dinosaurs.
Overall, Ark: Survival Evolved gets an 8/10, it was and still is a great game, with the new additions to the game and changes it has seen a vast improvement. However, it still has a big problem, glitches, and optimisation, with many claiming it has not improved since day one. Early Access, Alphas, and Betas are meant to be the time you make a game stable, not add more stuff to break it.
Ark: Survival Evolved on the Switch is absolutely the worst version there is, you are better off with another version.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Studio Wildcard has built a game that feels like a rough framework for players creating their own experiences, rather than a whole, cohesive experience in and of itself. There's a lot hear to see and do: gathering, crafting a wide variety of items, taming animals, and building tribes. But it's hidden behind an elder game that teaches players nothing and a mid-game of maintenance and tedium. But there's promise here underneath the cruft and rough edges. That promise just isn't full realized yet.
If you are willing to put the time in and overlook the flaws, This is a great game.
This has got to be one of the most fun survival/crafting games since Minecraft. With the dinosaurs, diverse crafting options and detailed graphics, Ark truly delivers an immersive experience. Taming time, limited player space and a HUGE (too big) open world are things that Studio Wildcard could look to change, without altering server settings.
It can be frustrating at times, the game isn't always fair and a lot of its mechanics are downright frustrating. Yet after all the time I've put in, the bugs, and the horse crap. I still want to play it, because it is so much fun. I under no circumstances recommend you so just blindly buy the game, but I think you should try it. Catch it on sale or play the base game through Xbox game pass, if you like it, the rabbit hole is a deep one. I have over a thousand hours in and I'm still going strong.
WORTH CONSIDERING - Unless portable ARK is the number one reason for picking it up, I would recommend getting it on something other than the Switch. PC is really the best way to play it, but the Switch does offer portability, which the PC would only give you with an expensive laptop. I did have fun playing on the Switch and taking it with me when I left. But wherever you do go, remember it's an online game so you will need a decent connection to the web should you want to play on the official servers.
Scoring ARK: Survival Evolved is tough because while it has a substantial number of strikes against it I’m well aware that the unique experience it has to offer can help some people overlook its issues. There really is no game out there quite like it, and I do applaud the ambition the developers had in this undertaking to both initially create and then stick with trying to step by step get this title closer to being all it set out to be. All that said at the same time there’s no denying that the Switch implementation of this game has some very serious flaws and issues, and based on observing this game’s development over time there’s absolutely no guarantee that all or even any of it may be addressed satisfactorily. If you’re in love with the premise and have pretty abundant patience there’s no doubt it’s the only game of its kind, and I wish you luck with it. For everyone else though it just has too many issues from the fundamentals to the specifics of the Switch implementation to recommend with any enthusiasm.
Ark: Survival Evolved is not a reliable game. It crashes more often than you are able to save your progress. It provides a vast area for gameplay, but most of it is not accessible unless you are a god-like. It can be used a creative tool for your mind, but you need to endure tediousness of the grind. It's like Minecraft, but less fun in single player, more deadly and without as much content.
Review in Polish | Read full review