ARK: Survival Evolved

Ark: Survival Evolved has a bunch of interesting ideas. But by attempting to be a jack-of-all-trades, it doesn’t really feel like it has mastered any particular element. This doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had in the ARK; if you enjoy the brutal survival mechanics on offer here, then you will likely spend many dozens, if not hundreds, of hours in the quite lengthy grind as you conquer the primitive world.

ARK is fun, for amazing moments, but it has plenty of bugs that often spoil the fun. In its best moments this survival game is a dream for every dinosaurs fan, but it can be very repetitive and boring due to grind-based game mechanics.

We were really eager to see such a successful game as Ark: Survival Evolved running on PS4 and it ended up being something really close to what we already saw on PC. Many possibilities and solid in technical aspects. However, we must not forget that we have something that is not really finished, that still has some instability and that PC vibe that might make many players to take a step back.

Ark: Survival Evolved has more bugs than the grill of a Mack truck and your first introduction to the game can feel akin to the sensation of being hit by aforementioned truck, but peel away the layers of abstruse game mechanics and you’ll find a strangely compelling game that’ll make you feel like the Pope of Dino-Town at times and want to open a vein in a hot bath at others.

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.

ARK: Survival Evolved is a complete survival experience. It could be a little frustrating at the beginning, but once you learn the mechanics and get used to the gameplay, the player has multiple options to develop their characters and enjoy the beautiful but dangerous open world created by Studio Wildcard. However, the console interface isn't intuitive enough, and the performance isn't perfect, with some framerate issues. Even so, it´s very enjoyable to interact with the wild creatures living in this prehistoric island.

If you have friends, Ark: Survival Evolved is a fun survival game, with options such as PvP or PvE servers to make every player happy. If you primarily play alone, however, this game will require a heavy set of grinding and repetition, turning off any players hoping to just get a taste of some dinosaur action.

It's incredibly ambitious, but without spending hours upon hours building a safe haven to protect you from the brutality of PvP, the single player feels a bit redundant without anyone to play with.

Ark: Survival Evolved is far from being complete, what with its many bugs and a feature bloat that doesn’t always hit the nail on the head. And yet, it’s still an addictive grind that proves that life can find a way.

When you finally get over the initially steep learning curve and find fellow like-minded players that you can group up with, ARK: Survival Evolved becomes a truly enjoyable sandbox game where anything goes. But not even the impressive dinosaurs and cool tech can cover up just how repetitive the game really is, and how you’re forced to sink in hours and hours of grinding before you can finally start to get to the ‘good’ stuff.

ARK Survival Evolved has the potential to be a very good survival game, but it's quality core is covered by layers of bugs, optimization problems, toxic community and a dev team that's borderline crook.

There's a lot of depth to ARK: Survival Evolved, though players will have to dig deep to find it. Technically, the game's also a bit of a mess, leaving ARK firmly lodged in the 'mediocre' section of your gaming library.

Battling and taming dinosaurs is undoubtedly a joyous pursuit. Unfortunately, the excitement is marred by the game's overly grindy nature and your lack of purpose. [Oct 2017, p.86]