ARK: Survival Evolved

 PC
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

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  1. DJKrimson
    Jan 5, 2021
    3
    Played this with my friends for around 35 hours. Seemed to have potential of being fun at first but we got very sick of it after a while because we didn't know what to do, where to go, where to find the resources we needed for crafting or anything.

    It feels like it takes eternities to farm materials for upgrades and that makes it really annoying that you can't fast travel with your    Played this with my friends for around 35 hours. Seemed to have potential of being fun at first but we got very sick of it after a while because we didn't know what to do, where to go, where to find the resources we needed for crafting or anything.

    It feels like it takes eternities to farm materials for upgrades and that makes it really annoying that you can't fast travel with your inventory (at least we didn't find out how). Also you'll die pretty often which makes you lose all your stuff you collected + the gear you had so at those times you might have to start farming smaller stuff for the 100th time so you can build basic gear and weapons again.

    If you don't have a dedicated server then playing together is a mess, you can't move 100 meters away from eachother.

    A few of my steam friends have 1000+ hours in this game so it might be fun if you really know what you are doing, but I can't be bothered to find out.    … Expand
  2. YuriRys
    Jan 3, 2021
    10
    Легендарная и не побоюсь этого слова лучшая выживалка, которую превзойти сможет лишь ARK 2)
  3. Define
    Jan 2, 2021
    0
    I have never seen a worse game than ARK. Bought it on Epic Games, I couldn't join a freaking game after trying for over 10 hours and reinstalling it several times just to get it running. Don't give idiots like the developers of Ark your money, it would have been better if i burned it. Just made me mad and frustrated, thank you guys for this great experience!
  4. SimpleBunny
    Dec 31, 2020
    3
    Simply put, this just isn't a fun game. You start off at a location (often, I spawn at the "easiest"), then began to fend for yourself immediately. You may die from a dino attacking you literally upon spawn. Or you may all of a sudden start to hallucinate, then die. You run out of storage in no time. You become dehydrated quicker than anything. I can see how others enjoy the game. ButSimply put, this just isn't a fun game. You start off at a location (often, I spawn at the "easiest"), then began to fend for yourself immediately. You may die from a dino attacking you literally upon spawn. Or you may all of a sudden start to hallucinate, then die. You run out of storage in no time. You become dehydrated quicker than anything. I can see how others enjoy the game. But unless you have multiple hours to sink into the beginning (they don't call the start a "berry-picking simulator" for nothing), and have the utmost patience, it simply isn't worth it. There is a bunch of performance issues I ran into as well, including stuttering frames and game crashes. There is no V-Sync option, either, which helps with screen tearing. Honestly, I don't think I could recommend this game to anyone except those looking for a really hardcore survival-type game based in the stone age. Not my cup of tea.… Expand
  5. p0s
    Dec 17, 2020
    7
    Note: This review covers single-player only and is based on the version in the Epic Games Store.

    I love the idea and sandbox style that this game employs but absolutely HATE the bugs and design flaws that greatly impact the potential this game has. This game plays good when you are exploring on the surface; I really hate when a dinosaur ambushes and kills you, especially if they stun    Note: This review covers single-player only and is based on the version in the Epic Games Store.

    I love the idea and sandbox style that this game employs but absolutely HATE the bugs and design flaws that greatly impact the potential this game has. This game plays good when you are exploring on the surface; I really hate when a dinosaur ambushes and kills you, especially if they stun you for more than a second or tranquilize you so they can eat you. In addition, the cold environments require you to acquire a ridiculous amount of materials that are seldom found in the warm or temperate side in order to craft warm gear, or greatly restrict your movement by crafting a line of torches so you can keep yourself cold instead of freezing. However, these problems can be worked around not just by getting good, but also using the settings provided before starting a game to make a challenge more reasonable.

    Where I lose my mind are the caves: All too often, you will enter a cave, only to have a TON of monsters/bugs spawn and kill you without warning. There are way too many monsters in the games, and in the hard caves, they are insanely powerful to the point of god-like status. In addition, they will respawn very quickly the moment you leave the cave, so if you go into the cave, you better do everything you intend to do before you leave or you might as well have never entered. The one thing I REALLY hate about the caves is that monsters can show up out of nowhere through the walls; apparently the developers thought it would be a clever idea to have them spawn behind the walls, but that backfires as both a bad game design and a bug as a few (but not enough) monsters can get stuck behind the walls. It gets even worse as if there is water in the caves, and you jump in, monsters will quickly spawn in front of you and eat you alive by the time you see them and attempt to swim away from them. With the exception of at least one cave, the caves also get ridiculously cold, even if you are in the middle of the jungle; I expect them to be a bit chilly as you go deeper but I find it absurd that you can go from being 80-90 degrees in the jungle to 20 degrees the moment you step into the cave. If you have not adjusted the gameplay settings before the game, you absolutely will need to as the base settings are not playable.

    The bosses are absolutely undefeatable on base settings. I will explain later, but if you adjusted the base settings to try and provide some kind of reasonable challenge you will need to adjust them further. The main problem is the bosses not only have insanely high HP, but they also have a hidden timer, and if the timer runs out, its death for everyone against the boss. You may think that's no big deal, but if you die, you lose EVERYTHING and cannot retrieve a single thing. Even the artifacts you used to open the portal are gone and cannot be reused on defeat. There is a feature in-game that allows you to 'save' your character and items by uploading it to the arc, but I cannot get it to work in Single-Player. It would be nice if it worked as it would save me from having to quit the game, make a backup of my character data, then start the game again and hope I don't get killed by the boss. I really wish I could retrieve my items or that the save feature worked properly. For what its worth though, the bosses are definitely more enjoyable than the caves, though not perhaps as much as exploring.

    When the duct tape (AKA sandbox settings and console commands) holds, this game is somewhat enjoyable, and is probably way I have so many hours playing it. When it falls apart, its when I hate this game because its such a mess. I think I would enjoy this game a LOT more if I could utilize mods, but for some reason, Epic Games does not have mod support enabled for this game. If you can get this game for $10 or less on steam when it goes on sale, DO IT. Unless you can acquire it cheaper and with mod support from another digital distribution service, I would recommend buying it from Steam for no more than $10. If it is free on another digital distribution service, you can try it without mod support, but it will leave quite a bit to be desired.    … Expand
  6. Brodmaar
    Dec 17, 2020
    7
    Gamers: You should optimize your game!
    Ark Devs: xd
    Gamers: Or fix physics and collisions?
    Ark Devs: lol, nope

    But I had fun ;)
  7. doproyee
    Nov 15, 2020
    3
    if you have many friends and make your own server, this game is gonna be pretty good experience. otherwise, it's not good at all.
  8. Lidergelm
    Oct 12, 2020
    3
    Реализация не плохал, но есть огромное НО. Ты не можешь спокойно нормально строиться и развиваться, так как ебаные мудозвоны максимального лвла прилетают на неебических драконах и разъёбывают всё что ты сделал, просто так. Играл часов 10 и за это время мне расхреначили, на 3х разных серваках, 3 чертовых дома. Нахуй эту игру со всеми гандонами!Реализация не плохал, но есть огромное НО. Ты не можешь спокойно нормально строиться и развиваться, так как ебаные мудозвоны максимального лвла прилетают на неебических драконах и разъёбывают всё что ты сделал, просто так. Играл часов 10 и за это время мне расхреначили, на 3х разных серваках, 3 чертовых дома. Нахуй эту игру со всеми гандонами!
  9. zeckgelander
    Sep 29, 2020
    9
    Currently no games can make the same play-mode of ARK. Even this game was released at 2017, but this still is my favourite game in 2020. You can build, craft, raid and it support so many mods that allows you create mother-ship or even npc human.
  10. IrongamerX
    Sep 21, 2020
    9
    Such a beautiful game, if you want to have 3x fun, just play with your friends! It's a bit laggy, you should have a good PC to run at Low/Medium settings, and it have a lot of bugs, but the amount of content you have on this game, is unbelievable, 8+ maps to play (half is DLC, but worth the money) and, if that's not enough, you can also play on servers, which are a bit stressful for someSuch a beautiful game, if you want to have 3x fun, just play with your friends! It's a bit laggy, you should have a good PC to run at Low/Medium settings, and it have a lot of bugs, but the amount of content you have on this game, is unbelievable, 8+ maps to play (half is DLC, but worth the money) and, if that's not enough, you can also play on servers, which are a bit stressful for some people, if you don't like the servers, there's mods too, hundreds of mods and some extra maps made from the community. Its a fantastic game, with good graphics, a lot of content and things to do, and some bugs.… Expand
  11. storygamer
    Sep 15, 2020
    6
    Ark: Survival Evolved has tons of great ideas. The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is real fun if you like survival games. But you need a lot of time for crafting and dinosaur education. And if you´re willing to spend this time, it will satisfy you in many moments. The only problem is, that it always stays repetitive. Also, Ark has some serious technical problems. I got it free onArk: Survival Evolved has tons of great ideas. The graphics are beautiful and the gameplay is real fun if you like survival games. But you need a lot of time for crafting and dinosaur education. And if you´re willing to spend this time, it will satisfy you in many moments. The only problem is, that it always stays repetitive. Also, Ark has some serious technical problems. I got it free on Epic, but as a full prized title it´s too mediocre.… Expand
  12. Mateus1999
    Sep 8, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. melhor jogo que existe nao tem micro transaçao tra otima experiencia diferente do jogos da EA que manipula jogadores a gastar ninheioro em micro transaçoes.MELHOR JOGO QUE JA JOGUEI.
    ta bem otimizado otimo suporte.aconteceu um crash no meu jogo uma ves na mesma hora conversei com o suporte e enviaram um pedido de amizade na steam e ajudou a concertar.
    ta otimizado nao precisa se um pece bom para jogar.um pc +- ja serve............APROVADO    … Expand
  13. havrillal
    Aug 18, 2020
    2
    Túlértékelt, túlbonyolitott, érektelen, bugos, irritáló szenvedés az egész játék. Mellesleg mi ez az ár? Ennyiért nagyon nem éri meg
  14. Drakman
    Aug 12, 2020
    8
    I love this game, and have put a LOT of hours into it. The devs have some frustrating ideas of what makes the game fun, but with proper mods it's bloody fantastic.

    The modding community made this game really shine, without them it wouldn't be half the game it is.
  15. Mehrad9
    Aug 3, 2020
    10
    truly a must have experience! any1 should feel the moments that you are naked on a beach , running away from a dino :)
  16. Tofiacz
    Jul 25, 2020
    0
    On plus
    Dino and their breeding.
    Building bases. A large map to explore. Possibility to set up your own server not dedicated to friends. On the downside. - Community Pathology, psychopaths and a lack of any empathy. People on official servers act as if they let go of their brakes and can do anything. Someone who can spend a few hours or even several dozen in some cases just to    On plus
    Dino and their breeding.
    Building bases.
    A large map to explore.
    Possibility to set up your own server not dedicated to friends.

    On the downside.
    - Community
    Pathology, psychopaths and a lack of any empathy. People on official servers act as if they let go of their brakes and can do anything.
    Someone who can spend a few hours or even several dozen in some cases just to bully, stalk and tease someone is not a normal person.
    - It's not a game for a moment or for a solo. To play multi (smalltribes, for example) you need a full team ready to spend the lion's share of your time and it will not be enough.
    - PvE official servers.
    You need miracle and luck to find a place to build there, and even if you find a place, it may turn out that a group has blocked access to even metal. I saw whole mountains surrounded by walls so that no one came in, or empty bases where they spawned. Constant greefing and disturbing.
    - PvP official servers.
    The habitat of all pathology. Ubiquitous toxicity and hatred towards another person.
    - Bob
    One of the proofs of how toxic this community is. Being new to this game, roleplay or just wanting some simple fun, for example, growing a high-level dodo and sending it to Carno is considered streak and everyone must be pros in pvp. I can't understand why others are bothered by the fact that they want to play in their own way and how they don't stick to the set goal.
    - Character transfer
    It's a cool mechanic that you can transfer your character to another server, but if you are a beginner, you are fk ... because people with 2000 + h enter the server quickly farm late game gear and destroy everything they see - out of boredom. And to the next server because people escaped on their server long ago. Paranoia.
    Of course, as long as you manage to transfer your character, because building turrets or walls next to obelisks or drops is almost a standard.

    I also do not recommend unofficial servers because although the toxicity is a bit smaller, it is still there.    … Expand
  17. EmeraldKnight
    Jul 23, 2020
    7
    It is not a great game but it is a good game. Very enjoyable if frustrating at times.
  18. Delementalz
    Jul 18, 2020
    0
    Lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao lmao
  19. Sezo8Gamer
    Jul 11, 2020
    10
    Its amazing.
    Me and my friend play this all the time, although we are not quite there yet.
    120+ Creatures to tame or kill
    Definitely Recommend Buying
    Many DLCs too
  20. Dinoslasher
    Jul 1, 2020
    8
    Ótimo jogo mais a sua evolução e difícil e demorado e isso pode não agradar a todos
  21. junior_mello91
    Jun 23, 2020
    3
    I have about 300 hours of game time and the feeling is frustration.
    at first I really liked the idea of ​​the game, start with nothing, just naked and start looking for food, shelter, weapons, create fire, defend yourself from animals, the graphics are beautiful, I was very enchanted, but everything started to decay when I started let me know that I was spending more time on the game's    I have about 300 hours of game time and the feeling is frustration.
    at first I really liked the idea of ​​the game, start with nothing, just naked and start looking for food, shelter, weapons, create fire, defend yourself from animals, the graphics are beautiful, I was very enchanted, but everything started to decay when I started let me know that I was spending more time on the game's wiki than actually playing, the game doesn't teach you anything, it doesn't give you a hint on what to do, it doesn't give you merits for achievements, you keep asking yourself, I killed the T-Rex , and now? Nothing.
    no merit no achievement nor **** a percent completion bar for the game this **** has
    and it gets worse when you are level enough to complete the caves, bugs on all sides unreal difficulty, you clearly see the animals standing just waiting for you to get close enough to try to kill you.
    I tried to play until I got to the obelisk heads but I will give up on this game
    I bet that when I defeat the bosses, I’ll get Tek armor, and what’s next? Nothing, you’re still on the island not knowing what to do with better armor.    … Expand
  22. poks
    Jun 22, 2020
    9
    Не многие игры живут игры по 5 лет и постоянно обновляются и там нет лутбоксов
  23. mgrandy1984
    Jun 21, 2020
    0
    Don't waste your time with this triple A rated game.

    bug that infests the main game which removes all of your items. You can spend countless hours in this game and all of a sudden your items that have taken you hours to collect are gone in the blink of an eye. From a previous rust owner this falls far short of rust. granted it has a single player which lets you get used to the game    Don't waste your time with this triple A rated game.

    bug that infests the main game which removes all of your items. You can spend countless hours in this game and all of a sudden your items that have taken you hours to collect are gone in the blink of an eye.

    From a previous rust owner this falls far short of rust. granted it has a single player which lets you get used to the game but this is the only benefit and is of no use when items just disappear from the face of the planet that your on.

    If this game was on fire at £44.99 I would not piss on it to put it out. IMHO graphics are better than rust, gameplay is better due to the single player mode but this is let down by a game breaking but your survival depends on items and the countless hours to obtain them for them just to disappear is unacceptable 5 years down the line its still not fixed    … Expand
  24. chiwire
    Jun 20, 2020
    10
    el juego es demasiado buenocomo para tener que ser tratado con los demas, aquellos que le han dado votos bajos seguro se metieron en pvps y basaron su mala reseña en la mala experiencia, sin darle una mejor oportunidad al juego de demostrar que es el mejor jamas creado y que NUNCA habra uno mejor
  25. Basilol
    Jun 18, 2020
    0
    A unplayable game free on epic game... Free cuz it just suck, I can't play since all maps are dlc or an other version of mine. The only dedicated serv I can join were full of opti toxic kido who just kill on sight.
    Bugs and other are just a the icing on the cake.
  26. Sakisensei
    Jun 18, 2020
    0
    Do you like staring at the "connection timeout" screen for the whole afternoon? Then definitely give this game a go. Literally unplayable. I got this game for free and i still want my money back.
  27. DobbleU
    Jun 15, 2020
    2
    I played the game because it was free in Epic Store.
    I am totally stunned that this game is sold for real money over the rest of the year.
    It is full of Bugs and the biggest problem is the server performance. Laggs out of hell. On top of that it is full of people who kill you with a one shot for no reason. I played it for a few hours on different servers and it was just disgusting    I played the game because it was free in Epic Store.
    I am totally stunned that this game is sold for real money over the rest of the year.
    It is full of Bugs and the biggest problem is the server performance. Laggs out of hell.
    On top of that it is full of people who kill you with a one shot for no reason.

    I played it for a few hours on different servers and it was just disgusting

    The idea of the game seems great because of that it gets 2 points.
    But the technical Status of the Game is dreadful.
    I am angry that there are people who earn their money with this Alpha Version of a Game.

    Btw, i own a High End Gaming PC, because of that i am sure that my PC is not the problem.

    I really would like to give it a bad review on Epic Store but they don't give us the chance....    … Expand
  28. daviddavidson
    Jun 13, 2020
    0
    Spawn in.
    Die. Spawn in again. Die again. Finally get some hide by hunting the only available creature on the island. Accidentally start a tribe. Leave it to start another tribe. No warnings that leaving your tribe makes everything you own inaccessible to you even though your player name is on it.
    Spawn in again. Quickly harvest hide for a second bed. Stop for thirty seconds to try to set    Spawn in.
    Die. Spawn in again. Die again. Finally get some hide by hunting the only available creature on the island. Accidentally start a tribe. Leave it to start another tribe. No warnings that leaving your tribe makes everything you own inaccessible to you even though your player name is on it.
    Spawn in again. Quickly harvest hide for a second bed. Stop for thirty seconds to try to set up a house in a fairly safe area. Get killed by a cockroach. Try again. Get killed by a compy (basically a midget raptor that you could stomp).
    Rinse, repeat. Peak gaming! Such fun. Much wow.
    Totally worth the 220GB that this piece of 'modern art' takes up.



    Also the soundtrack is headache inducing.    … Expand
  29. turru
    Jun 13, 2020
    0
    Worts game ever, impossible to play whit friends. DO NO BUY IT, graphics are like you were living in 90' whit 2mb internet connection.
  30. subjectshadow
    Jun 13, 2020
    2
    TLDR: This game is fundamentally flawed. It does everything to prevent you from enjoying it. It doesn’t allow you to explore, while making exploration mandatory. If you want to play this: don’t play it alone, you’ll be in for a bad time.

    So I just received this game for free on Epic Games Store like many other people and as a fan of the survival game-genre (with base building, crafting    TLDR: This game is fundamentally flawed. It does everything to prevent you from enjoying it. It doesn’t allow you to explore, while making exploration mandatory. If you want to play this: don’t play it alone, you’ll be in for a bad time.

    So I just received this game for free on Epic Games Store like many other people and as a fan of the survival game-genre (with base building, crafting and so on) I have looked at this game many times and found it interesting. But the fact that this is an MMO has always be off-putting for me because I simply don't like that genre all that much, I am more of a lone wolf when it comes to those kind of games, a coop-guy with friends at best.

    But getting this game for free I wanted to give it a shot since it CAN be played in single player as well. But as you can see with my rating: it's a horrible experience since it's fundamentally flawed. And after reading some reviews here where most of the high-rating critics wrote something like "You just have to learn how to play and git gud" I thought I'd give you my opposing impression, because those guys are blinded fanboys, nothing more.

    As I said, this game is fundamentally flawed and you start to realize that pretty early on. I only played this for 2 hours and while playing the only thing I learned from this is that the games doesn't want me to play it.

    A good game is self-explanatory or at least gives you a few guidelines, tutorials, a starting quest or whatever. All of this is absent in this title. There is a guide in the menu that tries to explain the basics but that's it. You get thrown into a world; you have this thing on your arm that seems to indicate some kind of plot but the game never tells you that there is any. You are left with exploring things on your own. And don't get me wrong: I like that. I am not criticizing the fact that this game has either no story or wants you to find it. I am in fact a huge fan of 7 Days to Die which does it in a similar way, but at least in 7 Days to Die you get an incentive: After 7 days you are overrun by Zombies. ARK has nothing of the sorts. It gives you an open space, lots of wood, stone, plants and dinos obviously and that's it. I think that's a bit lackluster but alright, I can get past that. My problem is a different one:
    So you find yourself in this vast but seemingly empty world to explore but the game PUNISHES you for exploring it. After setting up a small camp somewhere I started exploring only to be 2-shotted by the first bigger dino I encountered. That in itself wouldn't be too bad if you wouldn't lose ALL OF YOUR INVENTORY. But where most games (like Terraria or 7 Days to Die btw) offer you the option to turn this off, ARK has NONE of the sorts (there are options before starting the game, but this missing, you can however install a mod to fix this, but honestly? This shouldn’t be fixed by a mod…)! Your stuff lies around where you die so that you can pick it up but that means that you either have to run back to your corpse which is tedious or you leave your stuff behind and craft/gather everything you had anew which is also tedious! And even if you try to get your stuff back, chances are that you just die again and again and again, every time since you respawn with NOTHING and whatever killed you will probably just linger around the place where it killed you anyway. And it's not that this happened in a high-level zone. I started in the easiest zone I was offered. The enemies were level 2! But that seemingly doesn't matter in this game because they just either kill you in an instant or withing a few seconds anyway! Normally I would just avoid said area and explore somewhere else, but then again: what to do about the stuff you lost? You can easily see that this is bad design.

    And so you are left with the question: What to do in this game? And the only real answer is: Uninstall it and play something else because: You can only craft that much and crafting because boring after a while as well. So you want to start exploring but that only leads to you getting killed all the time because out of nowhere raptors jump in your face and kill you before you can even draw your weapon or turn around. And besides that: I am not sure if the game even offers you something for exploring it's world. I doubt that you can find weapons, armor or tools lying around.

    I mean: I guess it's an MMO in the first place and I am at fault here for trying to play it alone. But honestly? Why would I invest any kind of money into this game when it only offers player interaction, where non is wanted? If you want this as a single player experience: Don't waste your money, don't waste your nerves.

    And for those you write stuff like “git gud”: That’s not how a game should be designed. Also: How will you ever learn to play a game, when said game does everything in it’s power to stop you from learning it? This is bad design so stop defending it and face the truth.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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. PC PowerPlay
    Nov 12, 2017
    70
    Specialises in trick shots before mastering the fundamentals. Deeply flawed, but hard to ignore. [Issue#267, p.58]
    Read full review
  2. DarkStation
    Oct 9, 2017
    70
    Like so many survival/crafting games, from Minecraft to Subnautica, ARK presupposes a player with a lot of time to dedicate to the experience, a high tolerance for repetition, and a fondness for chaos and the unexpected. With its sci-fi inflected single player campaign, ARK at least offers a solo player the chance to get the gist of the game without the threat of anti-social humans ruining whatever progress has been made. For the past two years, ARK has been helping to shape the genre and now that it's finished, it feels like the genre is due for the next stage of evolution.
    Read full review
  3. 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]
See all critic reviews »