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Hating trees and loving collecting

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Palms, rocks, fallen trees and other natural fragments lay scattered on the ground. I walk up to a tree and push tentatively at RT, then my character throw away his fist straight into the bark. I got three wooden chips in my inventory for my little display of tree-hate. Then I looked straight down into the ground and pressed Y, as tentative as last time. Hey presto, I had been blessed with a few berries. Then I heard an irritated, rumbling sound just behind me.

It proves to be a huge dinosaur staring at me in surprise (maybe I had wandered into his territory?). It is at least two meters tall and suddenly I feel very vulnerable to what this beast may have in mind. But it turns just lazily on its head and marches off, to my great relief. After this meeting, I decide that it is probably a good idea to produce a weapon to defend myself with, because soon it feels as if the island is full of prehistoric animals that sees me as their potential lunch. It's also wise to build a hut, make a fire and last but not least ... make some clothes to wear.

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I never stop getting surprised by the impressive beasts I encounter in this world.

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There you basically have the basics of Ark: Survival Evolved; While you're alive, it's up to you (or you and your friends) to accumulate resources for which you are building civilization. I say civilization but obviously mean settlement (though one may well call a dwelling in a world consisting of ancient lizards civilization, right?) Some things that may make sense to invest in during the early stages is something to use as defense against the mighty beasts whom roam this world (pickax, stone ax or spear).

Taming thy beasts of old

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Using different servers can be good as the economy varies depending upon the server you are in. By that I mean that different resources are worth more or less depending on where you are. You don't need to do this though, it works perfectly well to play the game without the need for switching servers and getting the most out of your resources. Worth noting, however, is that Ark: Survival Evolved is meant to be played with others, as it is very challenging to go solo. As you probably already understood, resources are a big part of the game and the collection of these can take forever. Fortunately, you can tame different animals and then use them as transport vehicles.

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Riding ancient dinosaurs and having them as your own pet is as cool as it sounds!

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But taming is easier said than done. To tame an ancient lizard it requires that you first put him to sleep (which is done through sleeping pills or pure arm muscles) and then feed the animal until he see you as a buddy instead of as an potential snack. Depending on animals, it may take minutes or hours before the creature appears to you. And we also then have to assume that it does not kill us before we get a chance to become pals.

Enjoyable building, but a bit to high difficulty

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Once you have accumulated material, you start building, and the construction mode reminds me very much of the one in Fallout 4. You place the base, floor, walls and ceilings from your own point of view and sometimes the placement feels like a direct copy. Once you get your hut built up you have to defend it against enemies who would rather see it in their own hands then yours. Not to mention expanding it with more durable material for increased defense. Or create various tools that make it easier to get more valuable raw materials, thus making yourself more efficient in creating your fortress.

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The environments are nothing short of beautiful, absolutely no question about that.

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Another aspect of survival is not only building the huts, but living in them as well. Use them to eat, drink, stay warm and go to the loo. The game requires you to keep track of your body temperature, fluid level and hunger. In my opinion, hunger reduces too fast and to often I have had to search for mysterious berries at my feet or even raw meat to not die of starvation (and i have died from starvation. A lot.)

There are also no missions in the form of regular "quests", but rather it will be up to you to just start collecting resources from the start. A small series of tasks had not been wrong and I think it had acted as an well-needed introduction of how the game works.

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The dragon battles shows Ark: Combat Evolved in its best light.

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Then the game is very challenging in my opinion. Yes I know, it's a survival game and the idea is that you are going to try and survive. But when I play normal, it seems a bit too difficult. When you die (which you will do a couple of times, especially in the beginning), you lose everything you gathered. This applies to everything that is in the inventory and it just disappears. Poff ... Gone. A better solution in my opinion would to have let them been dropped where you died for either you, or another player to pick up.

Final thougts

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The graphics then? Nice, obviously. Very nice. If you have enough power, that is to say ... For the PC version of Ark: Survival Evolved (which I played) its very visually prestigious, and even though I have a computer that is far beyond the system requirements, it's impossible to run it on ultra without some messy technical problems. I have also noticed "screentearing" to a mild extent, but enough so that I was annoyed by it. It is not that hard that the system requirements listed on Steam are minimum-specs, but to play it at the very top settings would require a computer that even NASA would have difficulties locating.

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In some of the more intense sequences the graphics can have some technical difficulties in keeping up.

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But how are the graphics on "high" then? It's very nice and with intense and crackling colors it creates the beautiful South Sea feeling that I'm so weak for. Even the sunshine throwing its roaring rays makes me stop and look how they dazzle beautifully in their places. It is a compromise between smoothness and high graphics though.

If I would try to summarize Ark: Survival Evolved, I would say this: I do notice that the ambition to create a comprehensive and challenging survival simulator is there, and the desire to paint a detailed and inviting presentation of it. But as it seems at this moment, I find the difficulty somewhat overwhelming and that along with a handful of bugs its hard to give the game my full loving support. I had honestly expected more of Ark, especially when it was in beta (early access) for over two years, but still i would like to end on a good note in saying that the feeling of an epic survival adventure is strong when playing Ark and I have put a significant amount of hours filled with joy into it.

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ARK: Survival Evolved - Scorched Earth Trailer

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Sources

1. https://ark.gamepedia.com/

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