ARK: Survival Evolved, a game that can be classified as a action/adventure survival based game, was released on June 2nd, 2015 as an early access game on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. I have been hearing rumblings since the trailer had been released from my friends as well as work related colleagues that this game was suppose to be superb. They all said that this game was on high on the list of anticipated games they had for this year, despite the full release of ARK not being planned until June 2016 in order to release the full PC version with the console versions that are in the works.

A game with that much hype and conversation, combined with the fact that all of this anticipation was for an early access game, was more than enough reason for me to pick this title up when it released. ARK: Survival Evolved has not disappointed. This game is packed full with a plethora of content, combined with a very solid RPG style progression system, as well as unique twists to multiplayer with innovations to the standard ‘Clan’ system of typical MMO games with the Tribal System. Let’s not forget the most important and most challenging aspect to this survival adventure: Dinosaurs. There are over 70+ unique creatures that are planned for the final release in the game. Currently there is around 40 unique species to discover. On top of all of this, you have the ability to tame the creatures and make them your own pets. These dino pets become extremely useful by protecting your home base, or using them to travel quickly around the world as mounts. The use of prehistoric creatures gives this game a special flavor that has the potential to become one of the most popular survival games on the market today.

Briefly it must be stated, however, that it would be dishonest for me to write this review without clearly saying in the introduction that this is being released by the developers as an early access game. This means that there are bound to be instances in early access or beta games where bugs are found and the game might tend to run poorly. ARK: Survival Evolved is no exception to these problems. This is not the final version of the game. There are optimization issues as well as underdeveloped and awkward portions of the games mechanics. These are things that have affected the gameplay.These are all things that should be expected going in. The developers are well aware and have been very active in fixing the issues, patching the game multiple times a week if need be to quickly resolved problems. Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, let’s focus on the rest of this review on ARK:Survival Evolved!

Gameplay:

The first thing that is noticed when loading into the game is that ARK: Survival Evolved is breathtaking. When you first spawn into the world, no matter what side of the island you choose to spawn on, you find your character gazing up into the sun while trying to adjust your eyes to the brightness. When you finally look around, you can see the lush forests and expansive deep blue oceans that are surrounding you on this island with a number of ancient creatures. I cannot think of another game that within first few moments captures my attention this quickly. After this is accomplished you find yourself stranded alone on a beach with no resources and no clothing warmth. From this moment forward, you are thrust into a typical survival situation with little to no instruction on how to actually play the game itself. You are left alone surrounded by creatures and dinosaurs from the very beginning and you have to discover as the player what your first steps should be.

The first few things that I chose to do during my playthroughs of the game, were pretty standard for most players. I spent time punching down trees to collect wood and thatch in order to craft items. I also spent time exploring around the world collecting Fiber, and various sorts of berries in order to keep my hunger and water consumption levels in check. The next step was to start crafting various items such as picks and hatchets in order to better harvest resources such as trees and stone that I found on the island. These experiences allowed me to take a closer look at the way that the crafting and progression systems worked inside of the game.

The progression system of ARK: Survival Evolved is more centered around an RPG style system as opposed to a standard survival game. The menus in the game are relatively slick with blue themed icons and colors that are appealing to the eye. On the right hand side of the menu in game for you character, you have all sorts of abilities to upgrade through leveling such as Health, Stamina, Oxygen, Food, and Water. These are all things that can be improved by leveling up.

You gain xp by harvesting resources and killing wild dodos and other creatures in the world. By leveling up in XP, you receive Engram Points which provides you with a pretty diverse skill tree. For example, if you prioritize building a shelter first, you can spend your Engram Points on crafting a Thatch Foundation. However, if you would rather spend time killing dinosaurs and harvesting the remains for other items, you would place your Engram Points into crafting a Spear. The biggest strength of this system is it allows players to each build the respective character in a personal way. You are allowed to have diversity in the game on how you survive in the world. This also plays a big part into the Tribal System that is implemented in the multiplayer side of the game.

In multiplayer you have the ability to form Tribes with your friends or other allies that you meet in the world. These tribes are formed in order to create a community of players that all have the ability to work together. Your Tribe can destroy other Tribes, defeat end game bosses and share Pets and other resources with your other Tribe members. When of the most interesting parts about this Tribe system is that it also allows you to share xp with one another, making progression into the deep end game stages extremely quick compared to your single player world.

How to Tame your Dinosaur:

For a moment I want to take some time to talk about what separates this game from other survival games and the real reason why a majority of players are so excited to play. The fact that you have the ability to tame and train dinosaurs and other creatures is really unique to this genre. These animals can be tamed for various purposes such as riding, item transportation, storage, hunting, harvest, and defending property while you log off. There is a pretty lengthy process in order to tame your dinosaur, sometimes taking up to multiple hours, and this process can change slightly depending on what type of creature you are trying to tame as well as what the level of the dinosaur is and so on.

The first step in taming whatever creature you are attempting to tame is to get the creature unconscious. This can be done in various ways. The first way would be to punch the creature with your fists. While this is not the most effective method, it saves on resources of you are low in that area. Another option is to craft and use a Slingshot or a Bow of some type with Tranquilizer Arrows. The final way that I know of is to sting the animal you are trying to tame with a Pulmonoscorpius (Scorpion) and tame the creature that way. If you wish to use the animal as a mount, you will have to craft a saddle specific to what creature you are trying to tame. Also it takes various levels on your character to create certain saddles so make sure you take that into account.

When it comes to the animals itself, it is important to take into account your character level as well as the animal level. Once the animal is tamed, it can be leveled up 50 times. For example if you have a level 5 animal and you tame it, it can level to 55. However if you had an animal and you tamed it at level 33, it can level all the way to 83.

After you have tamed your creature of choice, the next step is to open the creature’s inventory menu. You will have to begin feeding the creature the appropriate food item that is it prefers. For example, if you are taming a Carnivore, you are going to need a decent amount of Meat that you can get from killing other creatures such as Dodos. If you are trying to tame a Herbivore, you are going to need to spend a lot of time harvesting Berries. If you wish to speed up this process, most creatures also have a preferred kibble that you can craft at a campfire to speed up the process. Once the animal is tamed, it is yours or any member of your tribes. You can use the animal as a mount or as ‘pack mule’ for extra storage while going on your adventures.

When taming the animal, try to make sure that you minimize the amount of damage that you cause the creature. Damage that is dealt after the animal is already unconscious will cause problems when you are trying to tame the animal. Another important aspect of taming the creature is making sure it stays unconscious by feeding it Narcotics or Narco Berries.

Performance:

When it comes to the actual performance of this game and how it runs on most PC systems, however, the game is misleading. The performance of the game is the biggest downside to the title as of right now. Although this game is always being patched to help smooth out the issues, the game is very difficult to run the higher you try and push the settings. Despite the ingame menu recommendations of settings, in my experience I was barely able to hold 30 fps at medium settings with a GTX 660. This is an aspect of this game that all potential buyers need to consider. Due to this game being in early access this is something that you will need to decide for yourself if you are willing to work around the low frame rates and poor optimization of the game in order to get the experience you are looking for. These are things that are constantly being patched with updates, but for some users it can be frustrating to know that you have a system that can run other games on ultra or high graphics and then come to this title and be forced to play on low and medium settings due to poor optimization of the title and not your own personal hardware.

Another minor issue that is performance related that I have noticed during my time playing the game is that the load screens to get on to online servers can tend to be longer than what an average load time is for online play on PC. Again, this is due to the high popularity of the game and a vast majority of the online servers being full. Obviously this is not a major issue toward the game, however it should be noted that sometimes it took upwards of 20 minutes to find a decent server to play on that was not running poorly. The developers again are well aware and frequently patch this game, so I don’t see this as an issue. Even if you find this to be a problem, I generally would just log onto my personal local world and play for a few hours and by that time, the servers had cleared up.

Mechanics:

Personally, in regards to mechanics there are some aspects of this game that I feel should be looked at before the launch to improve the game that I refer to as simple quality of life changes. ARK:Survival Evolved is sold to people as a hardcore survival adventure experience. While it is everything that people say it is, there are some aspects of the game that do not make sense to me. The fact that when I become dehydrated in game all I have to do is find a mass of water and swim under it to become fully hydrated again is rather odd. I can also become fully hydrated by standing in the rain when the world rains. These are things that in real survival situations would not be as effective as they are in game. Some of the physics of the rocks breaking when being mined are a little awkward as once all resources are gathered, the rock explodes into numerous other large pieces and turn green before disintegrating into the earth. Although these are issues that are not major, again, it is the little things like this that take me out of the immersion of the gameplay overall that can easily be fixed before release.

Conclusion:

ARK: Survival Evolved is a game that shows massive potential to become one of the greatest and most popular survival games of all time. Within the first month of its release, the game has already sold over 1 million copies. For a game that is in early access, this number is quite impressive. Although there are graphical, mechanical, and performance issues inside of the game, the developers are constantly improving, updating, and providing new content.

I would recommend this game to anyone that is wanting a unique survival experience and suggest that you pick this game up on the Steam Marketplace. As long as you go into this game knowing you it has the potential to not run as smoothly as your system is capable, and accept that fact, players should go out ready and eager to get this unique survival experience that you cannot get from any other title.

Gameplay- 8.5/10
Graphics- 9/10
Performance- 6/10
Mechanics- 8/10

Thank you for reading this Review of ARK:Survival Evolved, I hope you enjoyed it!

-Zyrxa

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