ARK: Survival Evolved Review — Still Relevant In 2024

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In most games of the survival-crafting genre, you typically find yourself in a rustic environment filled with either lush greenery or hidden possibilities. However, ARK: Survival Evolved offers something unique by setting its world where primitive life forms and advanced sci-fi tech share the same space. The game maintains all the fundamental aspects of a survival title while providing intricate detail to each mechanic.

Gameplay

In ARK: Survival Evolved, you progress by leveling up your character, which allows you to discover new ways to create items (or ‘recipes’). You can earn experience points from various activities, starting with basic tasks such as crafting and collecting resources.

As you advance to higher levels, you’ll find yourself immersed in a truly futuristic environment, as you deploy your formidable, domesticated beasts against adversaries, engage in combat with advanced weaponry, and construct equipment capable of lifting you aloft to great heights.

In the early stages of this game, your crafting and resource-gathering abilities will be rather basic, focusing on rudimentary tools. But as you progress and level up, prepare for an authentic science-fiction experience by deploying your formidable, trained pets against enemies, engaging in battles with advanced weaponry, and crafting equipment that enables you to soar high above the world.

In a survival game, you’ll often need to collect resources, which is a key part of the gameplay. What I found disappointing though, is that there isn’t any clear guidance on how to locate the necessary resources for crafting crucial equipment. More often than not, I find myself searching for guides just to understand the basics of navigating and thriving in challenging environments.

Creating this is surprisingly fun, given the variety of recipes at hand. Simplicity defines the process of constructing a shelter, making it easily graspable. Stackable blocks ensure easy building, and you can even establish foundations or floors on irregular surfaces using clever techniques.

In the realm of survival games, one feature that truly simplifies my gameplay experience is the ingenious replacement method. Imagine you’ve spent hours constructing a wooden wall, but later decide to upgrade it to a sturdier stonewall. With this method, all you need to do is position your new structure over the existing wood wall and watch as magic takes place! The old wooden wall transforms into a robust stone structure, saving me valuable time and resources in my quest for survival.

The main issue I have with the gameplay is its lack of user-friendliness for beginners. It provides little guidance about where to go or how to meet essential requirements like obtaining food and water efficiently.

Leveling Mechanics Might Not Be Ideal For A Survival Game

In most survival games I’ve encountered, the exploration aspect plays a significant role, however, that’s not entirely true for ARK: Survival Evolved. While exploring is indeed crucial to the game, certain restrictions during the initial stages can limit your extended wanderings into the wilderness.

Additionally, not being at higher levels doesn’t expose much about the crafting facet, since recipes are unveiled and shown exclusively upon leveling up.

The map has been sectioned off into areas according to their difficulty. You begin your journey in an area suited for beginners, with opponents of comparable strength to yourself. This makes it simpler for you to defeat them in direct confrontations.

As a gamer, I understand the necessity of hunting. It’s about whether to tame the creature or eliminate it for its loot. However, don’t underestimate the opponent, even in easy regions. Engaging a higher-level beast could spell certain doom for me.

As a newcomer in this game, I find that my low-level status keeps me in the dark about the crafting side of things. It’s only when I level up that recipes become accessible, leaving me oblivious to what I’m grinding for and what hidden gems lie ahead on the higher levels.

Concerning the treasures, various loot boxes are scattered throughout the map, filled with valuable items that are worth the effort to obtain. But, opening these loot boxes demands a higher character level, and being trapped at a low level with minimal activities and restricted access areas slows down the game’s pace significantly.

In my view, the game’s mechanics are enjoyable and hard to walk away from once you understand them, especially if you’re not afraid to make mistakes. At first, playing ARK can seem laborious for newcomers since it doesn’t offer much guidance, but those willing to persevere will eventually uncover a gameplay rhythm that’s incredibly engaging.

Visuals And Performance

What stands out about ARK: Survival Evolved is its stunning graphics. When it first came out, the game’s graphics were truly groundbreaking and ahead of their time. Even today, they continue to captivate players.

The revamped lighting complements the motion blur nicely, and during the night, the light sources sparkle with increased brilliance, making it a strikingly captivating sight to behold.

The new lighting design harmonizes beautifully with the motion blur effect, and the lights shine brighter and sparkle more vividly during the night, creating a strikingly captivating scene. Additionally, the intricate ambient occlusion contributes significantly to gameplay as it influences resource collection.

As a gamer, I’ve got to say, the textures in this game are just spot-on, whether it’s the creatures or the flora. However, there’s one thing that occasionally bugs me – and no pun intended – the particle effects. For instance, when I smash a stone with my pickaxe, instead of breaking naturally, it sometimes looks like the pieces go flying erratically, as if the game had a tiny glitch.

Playing this game on a powerful computer didn’t encounter any performance problems, and it ran exceptionally well with the highest graphic settings.

About the controls, I strongly advise against using a keyboard to play ARK on a PC. The key mapping is chaotic, with numerous keys to remember. On the bright side, using a controller offers a smoother gaming experience, which I think is the best approach for playing this game effectively.

In essence, I find the game’s visuals captivating to this very day, with no imperfections in its graphic presentation. The intricate detailing of the landscape and creatures is what makes ARK stand out, ensuring that you won’t encounter any lackluster visual scenes.

Verdict

Survival Evolved has excellent mechanics for a survival game, yet it can be off-putting for beginners due to lacking a tutorial. However, when you get the hang of its mechanics, the game becomes captivating with its intriguing and rewarding progression dynamics.

From its captivating graphics and well-crafted survival elements, I believe it remains contemporary, given that numerous survival craft games share this design. Furthermore, ARK: Survival Evolved continues to receive updates and maintains a substantial player community, which has enabled it to thrive for an extended period.

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2025-04-14 16:08