ARK: Survival Evolved

 PC
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Games Master UK
    Oct 6, 2017
    85
    It'll delight you, it'll make you despair, but ultimately Ark will leave you with a real sense of satisfaction. [Nov 2017, p.76]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. games(TM)
    Oct 6, 2017
    80
    Ark is near masterful in its ability to keep you caught up in a sense of discovery. There always seems to be more. [Issue#192, p.74]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. PCGamesN
    Aug 29, 2017
    80
    Ark’s ambition pulls it in the right direction with more force than its clunkiness tugs it the other way. It’s always more enjoyable to spend time with a game that tries something new and exciting, stumbling along the way, than a game that tries to tick focus group-inspired boxes. If that game also happens to simulate an entire prehistoric ecosystem, and produces bewildering emergent scenarios like clockwork, all the better.
  5. Multiplayer.it
    Sep 5, 2017
    78
    ARK: Survival Evolved should be the first triple A survival game, but It is not completely true.
  6. IGN
    Sep 1, 2017
    77
    When I’m having a good time in ARK, I’m having a really good time. The problem is that those moments are usually one part to every nine parts menial grinding and crafting - especially at the later tech tiers. Having to repeat so much work after failing an attempt at a boss feels far too punishing, and some really dumb dinosaurs can take a lot of the challenge and sense of danger out of the many primal locations. Even with all of those quirks, however, I’m still hungry to play more after the 60 hours I’ve spent so far.
  7. Everyeye.it
    Sep 10, 2017
    75
    Pretty good. It's definitely not a clean product, free of bugs and performance problems, but it's definitely a complete and complex title, full of content and possibilities.
  8. Vandal
    Sep 1, 2017
    75
    ARK is a good survival game with a great setting. It's one of those titles where you can spend hours trying to survive, while building a house and taming a dinosaur, and even though it still feels a little bit like in early access, if you like the concept you'll probably enjoy it.
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In Progress & Unscored

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  1. Eurogamer
    Sep 1, 2017
    This ambitious survival game emerges from Early Access fully featured but just as in danger of toppling in on itself as ever before.
  2. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Sep 13, 2017
    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.

Awards & Rankings

22
#22 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
72
#72 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 652 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 348 out of 652
  2. Mixed: 124 out of 652
  3. Negative: 180 out of 652
  1. Nueshak
    Jun 3, 2015
    9
    GIVE THIS GAME A SHOT! Great "next/current" gen survival game! Has a lot of great promise but a rather steep learning curve if playing aloneGIVE THIS GAME A SHOT! Great "next/current" gen survival game! Has a lot of great promise but a rather steep learning curve if playing alone (similar to Don't Starve), but has a ton of potential for being the next great survival game. Lots of solo and community driven gameplay elements and a pretty immersive world to be in. Not the most "realistic" survival game in existence but it does take a more grounded approach to movement and fatigue (i.e. If you are swimming to long and you run out of stamina you may actually drown just like in real life).

    Biggest issues are that it does take a pretty meaty rig to take full advantage of the graphics (seems like a modified Crytek engine) on the highest settings. This game is JUST in early access so I expect to see some of the animations, bugs, and slight clipping issues get resolved over time. I only have about 8ish hours with this game so my review is based on initial impression and overall potential the game has.    … Full Review »
  2. theirrelephants
    Oct 24, 2017
    10
    While it has its problems, I can't justify giving this game anything less than a 10. I have over a thousand hours in it. A THOUSAND HOURS.While it has its problems, I can't justify giving this game anything less than a 10. I have over a thousand hours in it. A THOUSAND HOURS. That's ~41 days of nothing but playing this game.

    It's fun, but incredibly un-optimized. Even if you have a good card, be prepared to turn those settings down to medium or low to get playable fps.

    A lot of the bugs people have mentioned have been fixed since well before EA, I'm not sure what they're going on about. Yeah the game's support is genuinely terrible, but I only had to use it twice, once when I got a dinosaur stuck underneath the terrain (back in early access - and this only happened once) and second when I messed up with tranferring tribe ownership. Couldn't get any help with the first one because I couldn't remember the dino's name and it had been a few days (it was dead, jim), but the second one got resolved speedily.    … Full Review »
  3. stanislaw
    Sep 7, 2017
    8
    I enjoy this game a lot. Been playing it since early access, so it's countless hours already. Yeah it demands quite a high spec PC/laptop (espI enjoy this game a lot. Been playing it since early access, so it's countless hours already. Yeah it demands quite a high spec PC/laptop (esp VGA and RAM), but it all pays off with the excitement I have every single day: building stuffs (THE SIMS), exploring the world (FAR CRY), taming dinos (POKEMON) etc. Nothing's perfect, but the devs always give game updates. Bring your friends along to conquer this game, or if you play single, there's always cheat codes to help you get through things.… Full Review »
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