There have been a lot of remakes, definitive editions and other remakes of very successful old games lately, and there are more to come. For gamers, this often means they have to weigh up whether they’ll have to pay for essentially the same game all over again, or whether they’ll get often-welcome graphics and gameplay upgrades. That’s exactly what’s happening with Ark: Survival Ascended. It’s essentially the same game as Ark: Survival Evolved, which came out in 2015, but with updated graphics and a number of improvements. So was Studio Wildcard a significant improvement over the original? This is my opinion as someone who has played the original Ark for quite some time.
Some time after Ark: Survival Ascended’s initial release date, I can look back and see that the game’s release was somewhat problematic at first. Originally, players were expecting a free update, but it turned into a paid standalone game. Then the console versions were unexpectedly delayed and there were a lot of glitches on the day the game was released on PC. However, over the past few weeks, Studio Wildcard has addressed a large number of these bugs with hotfixes in the days following release. The game is also released without expansions to the original, but these will be added to the game later. Additionally, some players were disappointed that dedicated servers can only be rented from a single partner at a relatively high price. So, a somewhat problematic beginning, as I already mentioned.
If you don’t know the original Ark, it’s essentially a survival game with a magical ingredient that almost guarantees excitement: dinosaurs and other (fantasy) creatures. In my opinion, one of Ark’s strengths is the variety of gameplay options, which is also the case in this remake. What I personally enjoy most is building fortified houses and collecting dinosaurs that I have tamed on my own single player server or on online PvE servers. However, it is just as possible to create a tribe with friends to collect powerful dinosaurs to fight in PvP battles and constantly raid enemy bases. There’s even a story you can follow, which I admit I haven’t done yet. But that’s perfectly fine in Ark.
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At the start of the game you are dropped onto one of the game’s maps, which when Ark: Survival Ascended was released only contained the original map called “The Island”. You must immediately start collecting resources such as stone, fiber and wood to craft simple tools and build basic structures. You also need to keep yourself fed and hydrated. As the level increases, more complex tools and structures become available to you. Once you have a forge and forge set up, you can start crafting metal tools and weapons such as a crossbow and metal armor. It’s also a good idea to start hunting and taming dinosaurs to increase your chances of survival. Over time, you can build entire factories to produce futuristic equipment and tame the game’s strongest creatures, like a T-Rex or giant griffins.
What does Ark: Survival Ascended bring to the original? The biggest improvement to Ascended is the graphical upgrade to Unreal Engine 5. And I may be giving away my conclusion, but I think it’s such an incredible improvement that it’s worth picking up Ark: Survival Ascended for that alone . The world around you is much more detailed. When I revisited familiar locations on the island, they seemed almost unrecognizable due to the improved details of the game world. And thankfully, the PlayStation 5 version doesn’t appear to have any of the issues that have plagued some PC gamers complaining about poor optimization. Simply put: it looks great.
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Visual improvements can be found in almost every aspect of the game. The other day I started a match with a beautiful rising sun shining through the jungle mist, adding a lot of atmosphere to the experience. The dinosaurs, which make up a large part of the game, also look much better, as do the water effects and structural details. The vegetation is also now much denser and more realistic. This time, instead of scattered plants decorating the ground, you have the impression of being in a jungle full of greenery. Essentially, it looks like a new game, so the Ark remake was worth it, at least in that regard.
The second thing I really like about Ark: Survival Ascended is the quality of life improvements to the buildings you can create. Laying walls and ceilings is now much easier, as the elements of the structures hold together much better than before. In fact, creating structures in the original Ark could be very frustrating due to common placement errors. I’ve found that I still have to squat or walk back and forth to properly place structures, but it helps that it’s now always possible to redo previously placed walls or foundations at any time, not just within a limited time frame to record. .
Also a big improvement to the base building is that the walls have been made slightly higher than before. It always bothered me that in a one-story house, your character’s head touches the ceiling. This has now been fixed and you can also use it to create quarter-height walls and quarter-wide plateaus, opening up more possibilities for creativity. Another big improvement is that there are no longer separate options for walls, doors and walls with windows, but you can switch from one basic option to another. In short, one of my favorite things to do in Ark has been greatly improved with these improvements.
I noticed a few glitches that I recognized from the original game, such as the exterior lighting incorrectly coming through the walls into a building. The altitude continues to cause crazy movements and from time to time dinosaurs get stuck. And I always had a hard time building a chain of wooden stairs to get higher in my buildings. For some reason this particular component doesn’t want to stay in the correct position no matter how hard I try. Another thing is that for some reason dead animals often cannot be harvested for resources because nothing happens when I try to hit them. And finally, I played the game in my native language for a while and the localization was just terrible. I’m not sure if this is the case in all languages, but at least in Dutch it all looked like a quick translation copied and pasted via Google Translate by a lazy intern.
Overall, it’s clear to me that the game has improved a lot. In addition to the improved base structure, the player characters have also been improved. For example, it is no longer possible to increase the speed when leveling up. This fixes an issue in the original game where players on PvP servers would focus solely on movement speed, causing them to run so fast that they were nearly invincible in combat. Additionally, there seems to be more animations, which makes the game seem more realistic. And there are also improvements in the impact boxes that I found very remarkable. Many times I was harassed or killed by flying creatures like the Ichthyornis in the original game that were simply impossible to kill because they were almost impossible to hit or hit with arrows. Luckily, this was fixed in Ascended.
Overall, I really like Ark: Survival Ascended despite some stubborn and new bugs. This is largely due to the massive graphical improvement that brings the world of Ark to life like never before. Secondly, there are some very welcome quality of life improvements that encompass almost every aspect of the game. From more comfortable positioning and more base building options to more animations and more mature player characters. One final addition that I haven’t mentioned yet, but which is very nice and in hindsight was a major omission in the original, is the addition of wild baby dinosaurs. They are truly enchanting and add to the feeling of wandering around an island full of creatures.
So if you’ve never played Ark before, I think you won’t be disappointed if you buy it now. For fans of the original like myself, the biggest downside to Ark: Survival Ascended may be that purchasing this game becomes a mandatory investment if you want to continue enjoying Ark. As far as I know, Studio Wildcard is actively working on removing the original game and has already shut down its official servers. This leaves players with no choice but to upgrade. However, once you get over the hurdle of paying for an upgrade again, there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying a nicer, improved version of a game you already love.