Ark: Survival Evolved
Ark: Survival Evolved | |
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multiplayer |
Ark: Survival Evolved (stylized as ARK) is a 2015
The game is played from either a
Development began in October 2014, when it was first released on PC as an
Ark: Survival Evolved received generally mixed reviews, with criticism for its "punishing" difficulty and excruciatingly time consuming activities, reliance on
A remake, Ark: Survival Ascended, was released in early access for Windows on October 25, 2023.[3]
Gameplay
Ark: Survival Evolved is an action-adventure survival game set in an open world environment with a dynamic day-night cycle and played either from a third-person or first-person perspective. To survive, players must establish a base, with a fire and weapons; additional activities, such as taming and feeding dinosaurs, require more resources.[4] The game's world, known as the "Ark", is approximately 48 km2 (19 sq mi) in size:[5]: 20:20 there is approximately 36 km2 (14 sq mi) of land with 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi) of ocean.[6]
There are currently 194 creatures that populate the world of Ark. In the early versions of the game, nearly all creatures were real dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, but as the storyline progressed, mythical creatures such as the wyvern, griffin, golem, and phoenix were added. As expansions were released, completely original creatures, such as the Karkinos and the Velonasaur, also made their way into the game, as well as original robotic creatures such as the Enforcer and Scout.
One of the primary game mechanics of the game is
Players must keep track of various meters, such as health, stamina, oxygen, hunger, thirst, and "weight", or how much they can carry. Should players take damage, their health meter will gradually regenerate if they have consumed the necessary food, or if they craft items that regenerate the health meter at a faster pace. Otherwise, a player's health meter will gradually regenerate slowly over time.[5]: 41:02 Players can gain experience through harvesting materials, crafting, killing, or discovering explorer notes. Once the player has obtained enough experience, they will gain a level point, which can be spent improving one of the player's stats, which include max health, max stamina, max oxygen, max food meter, max water meter, max carry weight, melee damage, movement speed, and crafting speed. As of June 2022, the maximum player level is 105, an additional 60 levels to be gained by defeating end-game bosses, 5 acquired by leveling up a chibi (cosmetic pet obtained through an in-game event), and 10 extra levels through obtaining all of the explorer notes throughout the base game and all the DLC and 10 extra levels by getting all the runes found on the custom ark Fjordur. Tamed creatures can also gain experience and level points, which can be spent on similar stats. Creatures spawn into the game at levels ranging from 1 to 150, and, when tamed, can gain up to 75 more levels by gaining experience. There are also dinosaurs that can be tamed at a higher level, the tek dinosaurs. These spawn at a maximum level of 180. There are specific varieties of creatures, for instance, the Rock Drake, or the Wyvern variants, which are able to spawn up to level 190, but they are untameable in the wild, and instead must be hatched from their respective egg.
Players can build structures throughout the world. To build a base, players must acquire structure components—such as floors, doors, and windows built with the resources littered throughout the world—which are earned as they progress and gain levels, then collect the necessary materials to make them. These components can then be crafted and placed in the world. Players can create any structure, as long as they have the logistics and resources; the structural integrity of the building is compromised when the pillars and foundations are destroyed.[4] Structures can be built from various tiers of materials, with better tiers providing more protection, but costing more resources to create. Players start out by creating thatch structures, then moving on to wood, stone, metal, and finally tek, a futuristic and late-game material. There are also glass structures that can be used to gain a greenhouse effect on plants grown inside. Adobe structures block heat from outside for an ideal temperature in the building. Players can also craft items in the game, such as weapons, by collecting the resources and technology required for crafting.[5]: 31:31 In addition, players can craft and attach accessories to their weapons, such as a scope or flashlight for a pistol or assault rifle.[5]: 31:51
Development
Preliminary work on Ark: Survival Evolved began in October 2014.[5]: 7:38 Studio Wildcard, the Seattle-based team behind the game, co-opted Egypt-based developer Instinct Games to facilitate development;[8] Efecto Studios and Virtual Basement later assisted development.[2] When researching for information about the game's prehistoric species, the development team read "general audience books" and online articles, and sought assistance from friends who studied in the fields in biological sciences.[6] When creating the species and world, the team took creative license for gameplay purposes, although there is an in-game reason that the species have diverged from their historical counterparts.[6] Many of the development team members were inspired by dinosaur films such as Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time.[9]
The team added features to the game that would appeal to all players, as opposed to specific players of the survival genre, such as the ability to simply explore the island and compete against large bosses, as a reward for uncovering secrets of the island.[5]: 38:59 They also added an end-game for players to strive towards, as they felt that most survival games lack a final goal. They wanted to "provide a depth and scope that allows for the world to not just be a means to an end [...] but also a place to explore", said creative director Jesse Rapczak.[4]
The game, powered by
The game was initially released through
On April 1, 2023, Studio Wildcard announced a remaster titled Survival Ascended to be released in August 2023,[24] however this release window was then delayed until October 2023.[25] Survival Evolved's official servers were set to be shut down at the same time,[24] with the shutdown date being delayed until September 30, 2023 when Survival Ascended's release window was pushed back.[25] Unlike previously stated by the studio co-founder, the remaster would not a free upgrade.[24] Survival Ascended was eventually released in early access for Windows on October 25, 2023.[26]
Game modes
On March 16, 2016, the Survival of the Fittest game mode was released in early access as a free standalone game with no microtransactions; it was scheduled to fully launch in mid 2016,[15] but was eventually merged back to the main game as the development team did not wish to monetize on its release, and wanted to ensure that modders can apply the development kit of Survival Evolved to create mods for Survival of the Fittest.[27] There will be various esports tournaments of the game mode, with a prize pool of US$50,000.[28] Players who played Survival of the Fittest before it was merged back into the main game can continue to play the game without paying an extra cost, while new players must pay before getting access to it. It will be available for every player who purchases the main game.[27][29]
On March 25, 2019, game developers announced a new mode of gameplay: Classic PVP. The new game mode was made available on PC April 2, 2019. The update aims to revert the PVP meta back to the younger days of Ark via clustered servers with limitations such as: no official tribe alliances, limits to tribe size, lack of evolution events, un-tame-able Tek dinos, no access to Aberration and Extinction content, no Tek Engrams and reduced scaling of weapon damage.[30] In late December 2022, a new version of Survival of the Fittest was released for PC. This later came to consoles in February. It is just like its 2016 predecessor, except for being remastered. Survival of the Fittest was also added to Xbox and PC in January 2023.
Expansions
On September 1, 2016, Studio Wildcard released the paid
The release of paid DLC for a game still in early access caused a negative reaction among players of the game, resulting in many negative reviews on Steam right after the expansion launch.[31]
On December 12, 2017, the paid DLC Aberration was released, adding a new underground/alien-themed map and 15 new alien/underground themed creatures, such as a feathered
On November 6, 2018, the third paid DLC expansion, Extinction was published by
On February 25, 2020, the fourth paid DLC expansion, Genesis Part 1 was published by Snail Games USA.
The fifth and final paid DLC expansion, Genesis Part 2 was teased on November 7, 2020. It was released on June 3, 2021.[35]
The map is set aboard the massive Genesis-Ship, a
Unlike other maps, Genesis: Part 2 is more story-oriented. It follows the player and HLN-A (voiced by Madeleine Madden) protecting the Genesis ship from Sir Edmund Rockwell (voiced by David Tennant), a mutated survivor who is trying to take over the colony ship for his own intentions.
Following the release of Genesis: Part 2 an expansion to Ark Survival evolved, called "Ark Survival Ascended" was released on the 25th of October for PC and later was released on the 21st of October for Xbox Series S/X and on the 30th of November for Playstation 5. This expansion is supposed to continue on Ark Survival Evolved's story.
Reception
Aggregator | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | PC: 70/100[36] PS4: 69/100[37] XONE: 69/100[38] NS: 29/100[39] |
Publication | Score |
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Destructoid | 7/10[40] |
GameSpot | 6/10[41] |
IGN | 7.7/10[42] |
PC Gamer (US) | 72/100[43] |
Ark: Survival Evolved received "mixed or average" reviews for the Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions, while the Switch version received "generally unfavorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[36][37][38]
TJ Hafer's 7.7/10 review on IGN stated that "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. There aren't a lot of survival games that have legitimately held my attention that long."[42]
GameSpot gave the game a 6/10, saying: "This outstanding sense of place and mood is offset by the sheer difficulty of everything that you have to do, the spectacular amounts of time necessary to experience even a tenth of what the game has to offer, and the randomness of death constantly destroying everything that you have built."[41] Ian Birnbaum of PC Gamer gave the game a score of 72/100, stating it to be "a bloated, grindy mess, but so packed with options that a better game is hidden inside it."[43]
The Switch version was panned by critics for being notably downgraded in order for it to adequately run on the console, being criticized for its low resolution and frame rate, minimal level of detail, blurry texturing, low poly models, stability issues, and loading times.[44] John Linneman of Eurogamer likened the port to a "poorly compressed JPEG version of an impressionist painting".[45] However, a rebuilt version for the Switch developed by Grove Street Games and released in 2022 was praised by Linneman as "one of the biggest improvements we've ever seen, turning the game from a hideous, unplayable mess into one of the more impressive Unreal Engine 4 titles we've seen on Nintendo Switch."[1]
Sales
Within a month of its early access release on Steam, Ark had sold over one million copies.[46] By August 2016, the game had over 5.5 million sales across both Windows and Xbox One, with about 1.5 million from the Xbox One platform.[47]
Co-founder Jesse Rapczak explained that the release of the Genesis expansions was partially due to the unexpected market success of Extinction and the season pass, and partially due to his belief that the storyline of ARK could be expanded upon.[48]
Sequel and spin-offs
Two spin-off games developed by
An educational spin-off developed by Grove Street Games, Ark: Dinosaur Discovery, was released in November 2021 for the Nintendo Switch.[51]
A sequel, Ark 2, was announced at The Game Awards 2020.[52] The game will star Vin Diesel and Auliʻi Cravalho. Co-developed with Grove Street Games, and originally planned for a 2023 launch,[23] it was rescheduled to enter early access on Windows and Xbox Series X/S in late 2024.[53] The game is to be released using Unreal Engine 5, instead of Unreal Engine 4 used in the original game.[54]
Animated series
An animated series based on the game was announced at
Notes
- ^ The original 2018 Nintendo Switch version was replaced by a new port by Grove Street Games on November 1, 2022.[1]
- ^ Additional work by Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, and Virtual Basement[2]
References
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