Rating
Ark: Survival Evolved
Ark: Survival Evolved takes on the survival genre with a unique blend of emergent multiplayer cooperation and competition. Players awake naked and starving on the beach of a mysterious island among a herd of other confused humans. On ARK, they must then hunt, harvest, craft, research technology, and build shelters to protect against scorching days,...
Details
- Released
- August 27, 2017
- Developer
- Studio Wildcard
- Genres
- Survival · Shooter · Action · Role-playing (RPG) · Simulator · Adventure · Indie · Battle Royale · MMO · Open world
- Publisher
- Studio Wildcard, Snail Games, Snail Games USA
- Platforms
- PC · PS4 · Xbox One · Switch · Xbox Series X|S
How it plays
Up to 127 players
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Ark: Survival Evolved Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
ARK: Survival Evolved was probably the harshest introduction to a game that I’ve ever experienced. With little in the way of a tutorial or mission markers, I
ARK: Survival Evolved has ideal mechanics for a survival game, but the absence of a tutorial makes it unwelcoming for new players.
ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition had a suspect launch, but with the commitment and care of the developers, they have rallied back and the game makes for a fun time with friends or by yourself. The Island and Scorched Earth will test your survival instincts for sure. With the addition of the lovely ARK Dinosaur Discovery game you can download from the eShop for the kiddos and the new maps having a timeline in the future, you and your family will have plenty of things to do for the near future.
Like a lot of of titles in this genre, Ark: Survival Evolved has a steep learning curve and requires quite the time – and possibly financial – investment. But once you get into the rhythm of it, the endless need to survive, set against the simple satisfaction of slowly building up your capacity to do so, makes this a game that could well turn into a hobby for you, all in itself.
But apart from all this, aside from all the little flaws and the feeling of tedium that permeated large portions of my experience with ARK: Survival Evolved, I can’t fault the game for what it is, which is one of the best in its genre — even if after playing it, like Willard after his mission from Apocalypse Now, I’ll never want another. If any of this sounds good to you and the prospect of a straight climb up a wall full of spikes to experience the multiplayer is not intimidating, add a couple of points onto my final score; you will probably find a lot to love here.
ARK: Survival Evolved is probably the most controversial video game I’ve played since No Man’s Sky (perhaps more commonly known as “No Game Buy”). Despite being one of Steam’s most popular titles and having been rated by over 127,000 players, the game has a mixed reception with a sixty-seven percent positive rating. Ark is one of my most played games on Steam, yet I find myself agreeing more with the negative reviews than with the positive ones.
Ark: Survival Evolved is a survival PvPvE game that draws inspiration from games such as Rust whilst giving it’s own unique spin on the genre. I’ve played Ark before and enjoyed the unique and interesting Sci-Fi world. However after just a few hours of the Switch version, I’ve encountered a host of technical issues and am deeply underwhelmed.
I found ARK unplayable in handheld mode. I just couldn’t tell what was going on most of the time. Coupled with both online and offline crashes it just didn’t feel like a finished game. Things improve somewhat docked, and that's why I refer to it as borderline unplayable. When docked you could probably make real progress, but this is a Switch game. Is a Switch game that can realistically only be played in docked mode actually playable? The entire point of this system is to be able to take your games with you, but ARK can’t really offer that. It draws into question the sanctity of the Nint…
It remains to be seen if Studio Wildcard responds to the backlash, otherwise, it would mean that players would need to pay once again for the same game, with some extra bells and whistles.
While ARK can be a lot of fun – grabbing another player off of a raptor with an Argentavis feels bloody brilliant – it's rarely worth the hours of tedium. If you can spare the 100 or so hours it takes to get your teeth into it then I'd recommend you spend them elsewhere.
Ark: Survival Evolved is as brutal as it is tedious. This action survival game promises and gives a lot, but you need to work for it.