ARK: Survival Evolved

 Xbox One
User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 120 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 120
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 120
  3. Negative: 36 out of 120
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  1. Eventuating
    Oct 10, 2018
    7
    ARK: Survival Evolved is an open world survival game with thousands of possibilities and is every dinosaur lover's dream game, waking up on the vast empty shores of the Island to the dangerous depths of Aberration. You can be caged by your worst enemy or eaten by the infamous Giganotosaurus. Whilst the game is very intensive on whichever platform you decide to play on, it still has manyARK: Survival Evolved is an open world survival game with thousands of possibilities and is every dinosaur lover's dream game, waking up on the vast empty shores of the Island to the dangerous depths of Aberration. You can be caged by your worst enemy or eaten by the infamous Giganotosaurus. Whilst the game is very intensive on whichever platform you decide to play on, it still has many upsides. It is the leading survival game of its time. There are two main game modes that you can play which will ultimately determine which community you'll become a part of, the pvp community and the pve community. Whilst the game is primarily multiplayer it also has a lore behind the official maps which leads a mediocre back-story of various survivors throughout the different maps, however this is often pushed to the side by many players as they play for the experience and not the lore of the game.

    The pvp experience is very different to its pve counterpart. When playing on a player versus player server it tends to be the case that you need to think more tactfully than aesthetically. You need to learn how to trust strangers in order to succeed in this community as larger tribes will stop at nothing to destroy you when provoked. This community is also a harsh environment and is perfect for those who enjoy others suffering, however not for the young or light hearted. People have no limit to what they'll say in this community and will not care if they offend someone. Tribes will often form alliances to cause reckoning amongst the various servers. However this can be fun to those who like challenge and like the thought of looting others.

    The pve experience is a little more forgiving than the pvp experience as people tend to be nicer. However you should not start playing expecting it to be a walk in the park. The game still has the natural challenge of dinosaurs and other wildlife and occasionally someone will try to give you some trouble whether this be surrounding your base with pillars so you can't expand or leading wildlife to destroy your beloved tamed dinosaurs. If you want to get anywhere far in this game then this is the game mode for you.

    The graphics of this game can be excellent if you have the hardware that the game requires to run it. I would personally recommend a top tier computer or if you want to play it on a console then the Xbox One X is probably your best bet for graphics in particular, however the framerate is also unreliable when exploring new terrain or clustered structures. The official wildcard hosted servers are horrific when it comes to uptime and stability and even worse when it comes to being updated. These are often what ruin the experience as they can cause loss of items or even characters and dinosaurs.

    This game has a multitude of mechanics from combat to building to taming wildlife, these are all key aspects of the game and are almost all perfected. However this doesn't stop the cheaters or "hackers" in the entirety as many in the pvp community find ways to cheat whether that be duplicating items to cause an unbalance or raiding people from under the map, this is a major issue which Wildcard seem to be ignorant to.

    Throughout playing the game I have met so many great and horrible people. Some people are kind and you'll end up playing various other games with however some are not so nice. Over my time playing the game (3500+ hours) I have met more nice people than not. These people are people I have bonded with making the game a lot more enjoyable and fun. I do believe this game is better when you're playing with people you enjoy talking with.

    Overall I would say that this game is a great game if you have the time to play it. The grinding of resources and taming of dinosaurs takes a extortionate amount of time but that time is minimised if you play with people, which also makes the game more fun. If you are easily distracted or are likely to get upset when something dies then this is not the game for you.    … Expand
  2. countyourmacros
    May 31, 2021
    7
    This really is a game meant to be played on the Series X, not the One. The small dev team did a great job on this game, and its reviews are due to the rocky start as, some bugs, as well as brutal lag on the Xbox One and PS4. On Series X, it runs fine, and on a good PC it also runs fine.

    I personally found it was not horrible on XB1. You don't have to play the story part of the game and    This really is a game meant to be played on the Series X, not the One. The small dev team did a great job on this game, and its reviews are due to the rocky start as, some bugs, as well as brutal lag on the Xbox One and PS4. On Series X, it runs fine, and on a good PC it also runs fine.

    I personally found it was not horrible on XB1. You don't have to play the story part of the game and if you want you can just mess around in an open world dinosaur game. It's best with friends.

    6.5/10.    … Expand
  3. Jarody
    Mar 11, 2018
    7
    Ark: Survival Evolved is a very interesting game. The developers of this game deserve a lot of praise, especially when the game was in early access, with them pumping out updates like it was nothing. Even now when the game is released they seem to be working hard on DLC's and future updates. As for the graphics, they are very inconsistent. Sometimes they can be beautiful, and other timesArk: Survival Evolved is a very interesting game. The developers of this game deserve a lot of praise, especially when the game was in early access, with them pumping out updates like it was nothing. Even now when the game is released they seem to be working hard on DLC's and future updates. As for the graphics, they are very inconsistent. Sometimes they can be beautiful, and other times all you'll see are pixels. This game has also a significant amount of bugs, although that's expected from a game of this calibre. However, unlike a lot of other games I never seem to get bored of this game, because there's so much to do and explore. I'll take a month off it, and become interested again. So despite this games buggy nature, I can't help liking it.… Expand
  4. Jaxxomi
    Dec 6, 2018
    5
    ARK: Survival Evolved or as I liked to call it... Die within two minutes.
    So yeah I am not a big survival fan, but after seeing how amazing the game looked in trailers, I wanted to know more... I mean I got into the game and was instantly impressed by the look of it, the animals were very detailed and their was a realistic tone to them... Then I was killed by three level 150 creatures and    ARK: Survival Evolved or as I liked to call it... Die within two minutes.
    So yeah I am not a big survival fan, but after seeing how amazing the game looked in trailers, I wanted to know more... I mean I got into the game and was instantly impressed by the look of it, the animals were very detailed and their was a realistic tone to them... Then I was killed by three level 150 creatures and then I ran into the issue of not knowing how to build and then that eating berries was only slowly keeping me alive... I just kept running into balancing issues over and over again that made me feel discouraged for playing the game.
    If you are hardcore into survival games than this is the game for you, if you like really hard games than this is the plan for you... But for me who likes to enjoy the game thoroughly this game was not for me.
    Good game, just not for me    … Expand
  5. westfam4190
    Apr 22, 2019
    7
    This game is fun but hard. I enjoy playing with friends on their servers, but single player is super hard because I keep dying. It might just be a me thing. Let me know.
  6. Rubiales
    Apr 15, 2020
    6
    I feel really bad with this game, because i was expecting an awesome open world game with dinosaurs and other creatures that would be more solid and not so boring. It has a lot of creatures and they are awesome, but the game for me is quite slow. The game would have been a masterpiece if it were faster and more dinamic.
  7. Bump4
    Jul 24, 2021
    7
    Not as good of a run as on PC, but still enjoyable beautiful soundtrack is retained.
  8. Ullaa
    Jul 27, 2021
    7
    Good game, the only bad thing is the glitches that are awaiting a fix but other than that totally worth it...
  9. Daredev
    Aug 5, 2021
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I play on PC and Xbox One and the game is beautiful and has a great concept, but servers can be pretty tough at times.… Expand
  10. SuperkenGaming
    Aug 31, 2017
    6
    ARK Survival Evolved
    Theres something here, but its half baked
    ARK Survival Evolved is out of BETA, but unfortunately it doesn’t quite feel like it.. Fair Warning im awful at survival games and they don’t keep my attention for long…so if youre looking for an in depth review on all the survival stuff, youre not going to get it here, As a casual survival game fan, Ark survival is    ARK Survival Evolved
    Theres something here, but its half baked
    ARK Survival Evolved is out of BETA, but unfortunately it doesn’t quite feel like it..
    Fair Warning im awful at survival games and they don’t keep my attention for long…so if youre looking for an in depth review on all the survival stuff, youre not going to get it here,
    As a casual survival game fan, Ark survival is probably the most half baked one ive played..
    The hardest part of this game is actually getting into a server…
    the server numbers don’t make sense as there are some with numbers way over the limit and others that say they are under the limit until you try to join it..
    but once you do find a server, this server is basically your home unless you want a fresh start..
    There are 2 modes you can play in… one having modern technology and one focusing on just primitive technology, but you choose an area to spawn in at ..all with different difficulties with your fresh character and you get to surviving…
    |Knowing how to survive is one thing..
    knowing how the game works is another because this post beta game has no proper tutorial to teach you the game. I had to go to youtube to learn how to pick up stones, im not even joking…
    I found myself doing this a lot when I ran into questions like how to tame a dinosaur..
    oh did I forget to mention dinosaurs..
    theres dinosaurs…
    This game is full of them but theyre not as cool as I thought they would be..
    Theyre essentially jerks that try to kill you while you collect sticks rocks and berries… .
    the game is a pretty steady evolution of equipment which is cool..
    youll level up as you craft, collect, and hunt.. and you can dump skill points into stats but you can also learn how to craft new items like fires to cook raw meat.. btw another youtube trip.. how do you start a fire…
    the higher level you are the better items you can craft and the better dinosaurs you can tame, ill save you the trip.;. you beat them until theyre unconscious and throw a saddle on them,...
    But as a survival game you have to manage your health, hydration, hunger, and body temperature…
    This is done by collecting berries, building shelter, hunting animals with the weapons you craft, or going for a swim..
    this was the coolest part is how easy not dying of thirst is here…
    finaly a survival game gets it.. let me just drown myself until im not thirsty anymore..
    it works in this game as it should…
    but there are pvp and pve servers.. there are other people running around, theyl lbuild huts and fires too, these items cant be destroyed as youre able to lock them, but you can squad up and join tribes.. or be a lone wolf like me cause youre awesome at surviving and you don’t need a tribe…
    theres no real task here… its just dumb fun of running around a map and try to build the coolest stuff you can, sort of like minecraft with none of the fun stuff but with dinosaurs…
    which again are here to kill you…
    when you die you have all of your blueprints and levels… and youre able to rush to your dead body fr your gear if you can remember where you died at.. but other players can pick your gear too so good luck…
    I see the good in this game, I can understand why people love it and how they can have fun within its world…
    of creating your own survival goals and setting out to accomplish them..
    but it’s a half baked game that still feels as though its in beta…
    I cant argue that this game isn’t fun.. but I can argue that there are plenty of better more polished survival games out there on console
    I give ARK Survival Evolved
    a 6/10    … Expand
  11. Timinator2911
    Jan 4, 2022
    7
    This Game is not finished yet. There are still so many bugs, but it is possible to play it. Another problem is that the game is not running well on XBOX One. I tried it on Series X and it runs without lags.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Oct 21, 2017
    60
    Performance issues and progression complaints compromise this survival fantasy. [Nov 2017, p.86]
  2. M3
    Oct 17, 2017
    70
    Ark: Survivor Evolved is not a game for everyone. But if you have patience, and are willing to learn the basics the hard way the payoff is huge. A bit clumsy control on the consoles aside, this is one of the most addictive games this year.
    Read full review
  3. TrueAchievements
    Sep 8, 2017
    70
    Amazing things are possible in the ARK — the gun-wielding soldier set high atop the most badass predator of all time comes to mind — but the experience is clouded by the best ones being locked behind excessive grinding, boring farming and the need for a large group. System commands and customizable settings can ease some of the pain, but the base concept remains a chore. A messy UI and the lack of a tutorial leave you alone in the dark, forced to spend hours researching on your own in order to figure out what's what. But there's no denying that if you're willing to put in the time, you will be rewarded with some incredible gameplay moments, especially if your friends join you on the ARK.
    Read full review
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