Should You Get Ark Survival Evolved in 2019? | Ark Survival Evolved Review

Ark Has Gotten a Lot Better

Studio Wildcard

Credit: Ark Survival Evolved

Ark Survival Evolved blew up a while ago but all the hype died down when the game’s developers decided that the game was done and released it on Steam. They also released DLC for the game which mad players very mad as the base game was still unfinished and filled with issues. I revisited the game and found that the $30 I spent on the game was worth it.

Ark Survival Evolved Has Really Improved

I wrote an article about this game a year ago explaining how the game was extremely laggy. I had an I7-7700k, 16gb of RAM and a GTX 1070 but I couldn’t run the game at high settings without frame rate issues. Even when I reduced the graphics settings to medium, the servers were still laggy and ruined the experience. Even the official servers had really bad ping. It was basically impossible to do PVP as the game was so laggy when you fought another player and hunting was really hard because the animals kept lagging so it was hard to follow them. I revisited the game and it was a lot better. Although it still feels like an unfinished game, it’s really fun. The lag has really decreased and the optimization has gotten so much better that I’m actually able to run the game at high settings 1080p ay 60+ FPS. 

A Steep Learning Curve

One of the issues that I had with the game was the steep learning curve. For the first few hours, I really had no idea what I was doing. I have to admit, I had to get help from Google a lot in my playthrough. The good thing was that I like survival games so I didn’t give up on it so you have to be patient. After you get through the learning curve and make your first building and reach a high level, the game becomes enjoyable. At first, survival is a struggle and that might be a bit annoying but after you level up, basic things such as water and food don’t become as big of an issue.

Player Interactions

Ark is an online PVP game so, you can expect to see a lot of griefers. There is always that one high-level kid that makes the game frustrating by continuously killing you and griefing your buildings but when you find a friend on that server, the game becomes a lot more enjoyable. Suddenly it’s not you alone in this jungle, you have to work with other people in your tribe to fight off enemy players and even raid enemy bases. The game became really fun for me when I found a few other guys and joined their tribe.

We had fun for a few hours and tamed some dinosaurs and made a big base but, it was raided by enemy players and we lost everything. That might be the most frustrating part of the game for many players. When you log off, your character and your base still exist on that server so, anyone can raid your base, kill you, and destroy everything that you had been working on for weeks. This also forces you to be active a lot and consistently upgrading your base so enemy players can’t get in. If you don’t have the time or don’t like this feature of the game, Ark isn’t the game for you.

Should You Get it?

I have given you a lot of pros and cons about Ark so the final question is, should you get it? If you are into survival games and don’t mind the steep learning curve and player interactions, Ark is the game for you. If you aren’t really looking for a game in which you have to be online a lot and don’t want a steep learning curve, Ark isn’t the game for you. Honesty, I think that even if you love the game you should wait for it to go on sale for $30 maybe $40 but no more. Ark doesn’t deliver the same quality as a $60 triple-A game. Ark is still filled with issues and glitches. Although not as many as it did a year ago, it still has a lot of problems.

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Technology, Video Games, Survival Games, Studio Wildcard, ARK: Survival Evolved, Review

Ali F
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