ARK: Survival Evolved has finally made it to the shores of consoles and PCs across the globe. Was the game worth the wait?
Read on to find out
When was the last time you ran into an “Early Access” version of a game that actually turned into a finished product and released? I honestly can not remember any off the top of my head. That is until Ark: Survival Evolved. Early iterations of this game showed promise and players dedicated to spending copious amounts of time on it were rewarded. They even released somewhat of a companion or expansion in Scorched Earth. I can honestly say, I was not one of the few that was able to devote hundreds of hours to the early access versions of this game. I was, however, intrigued by the concept and the ambitiousness of all the content the game provided. After playing the full release version, I would wholeheartedly recommend giving this game a shot…
With a few caveats:
The biggest factor you should use when deciding to purchase this game should be whether you have hundreds of hours of time that you wish to devote to a new venture. The game starts out very slow and will take enormous amounts of patience and time to master it and get to the good stuff. All of the things you have heard about this game are true. People who complain that it takes too long to do things are right. People who say the payoff is worth it and to just do it are right.
When I first opened my eyes on the island and looked around, I didn’t really know where to start. I suggest finding a basic walkthrough. It can get you through the first few hours of the game and can get you set up and ready to start progressing. I also would suggest starting on single player and getting a feel for the game, I tried jumping into multi-player and just ended up being overwhelmed and dying over and over. When you die, you lose all of your items on your person. You do drop a box where you die and when you respawn you can go back to your body and pick up anything that you had, but depending on how far you strayed from your starting point or one of the beds you have crafted, that could be a chore.
The graphics are on par with some of the best games out there and considering how enormous the game is, that is very refreshing. The game play can be clunky at times and the combat can be frustrating at first, but overall it is completely satisfactory. You can tame animals to work for you and collect resources for you. There are ways to join Tribes with other players online and, depending on your play style, either work together to create an enormous city or raid other Tribes and kill other people (there are dedicated PVE and PVP servers.) Collect resources, cook food, craft armor and weapons, fight dinosaurs while mounted atop other dinosaurs! The best part of the game is that you can literally do whatever you want. You can spend 50 hours walking around and killing dinosaurs. You can spend all your time building the biggest home base with the best defenses you can muster. You can play online. You can play all by your lonesome. The only thing that limits you in what you would like to achieve is the amount of time you are able to put into the game.
Overall I would fully recommend it to anyone who has the time needed to play the game the way it is intended