Ark: Survival Ascended

There have been plenty of remakes, definitive editions and other rereleases of successful older games recently and even more are still coming. For players, this often means weighing against each other the fact that you're paying again for essentially the same game, with the often very welcome graphical and gameplay updates. That's exactly what's up with Ark: Survival Ascended. It's pretty much the same game as Ark: Survival Evolved, which came out in 2015, but with updated visuals and a number of improvements. So, has Studio Wildcard delivered a meaningful upgrade to the original? Here's my take as someone who's played the original Ark for quite some time.

Writing some time after Ark: Survival Ascended's initial launch date, I can look back and see how the game's launch has been a little troublesome at first. Firstly, players were hoping for a free update, but it became a paid standalone game. Then the console versions were unexpectedly delayed, and there were a lot of bugs on the day the game launched on PC. However, in the past weeks Studio Wildcard has addressed a large number of these bugs with hotfixes in the days following release. The game also releases without any of the expansions from the original, but these will be added to the game at a later date. Additionally, some players have been disappointed by the fact that dedicated servers can only be rented from a single partner at a relatively high price. So, a bit of a troubled start, as I mentioned.

In case you don't know the original Ark: it's essentially a survival game with a magic ingredient that's almost a guarantee for excitement: dinosaurs and other (fantasy) creatures. One of Ark's strengths in my opinion is the multitude of ways you can play the game, which remains true in this remake. Personally, I've found it most enjoyable to build fortified homes and collect dinosaurs I've tamed on my own single player server or on PvE servers online. However, it's equally possible to create a tribe with friends to collect powerful dinosaurs to fight in PvP battles, with constant raids on enemy bases. There's even a storyline to follow, which I must admit I haven't done at all so far. But that's perfectly fine in Ark.

At the game's start, you're dropped into one of the game's maps, which at launch for Ark: Survival Ascended includes only the original map called 'The Island'. You must immediately start gathering resources such as stone, fibre and wood, to craft simple tools and build basic structures. You also need to keep yourself fed and hydrated. As you're levelling up, more complex tools and structures become available. Once you've created a forge and a smithy, you can start creating metal tools and weapons, like a crossbow and metal armour. It's also a good idea to start hunting and taming dinosaurs to increase your odds for survival. Eventually, you're able to build complete factories to create futuristic equipment, and to tame the strongest creatures in the game, such as a T-Rex or giant Griffins.

So, what does Ark: Survival Ascended add to the original? The single biggest improvement in Ascended is the graphical upgrade to Unreal Engine 5. And perhaps spoiling my conclusion already, I think it's such an incredible improvement that this alone makes it worth picking up Ark: Survival Ascended. There's simply so much more detail in the world around you. When revisiting familiar locations on the Island, I found them almost unrecognisable due to the enhanced detail imbued into the game world. And luckily, for the PlayStation 5 version, there seem to be none of the issues that have plagued some PC players, with complaints of bad optimisation. It simply looks great.

The visual improvements can be found in almost every aspect of the game. The other day I started up a game with a beautiful rising sun shining through the foggy jungle, adding a lot of atmosphere to the experience. The dinosaurs that are a big part of the game also look a lot better, as do water effects and the details on structures. The vegetation is now also much more dense and realistic. Instead of separate plants dotting the ground, you really get the impression of a jungle floor full of vegetation this time. It basically looks like a new game, so at least in this regard Ark's remake has been worth the effort.

The second thing I really like about Ark: Survival Ascended are the quality of life improvements to the buildings you can create. Placing walls and ceilings is a lot easier now, because structure elements stick to each other much better than before. In fact, creating structures could be very frustrating in the original Ark due to frequent misplacements. I've found that I still need to duck or walk back and forth sometimes to get the placements right, but it helps that it's now always possible to pick up previously placed walls or foundations at any time, instead of within only a limited timeframe.

Additionally, a big improvement to the base building is that walls have been made slightly higher than before. It always annoyed me that in a single storey house your character's head was scratching the ceiling. That's been addressed now, and it also allows you to create quarter-height walls and quarter-width plateaus, unlocking more possibilities for creativity. Another great improvement is that you no longer have separate options for walls, doors and windowed walls, but are able to cycle through these options from one basic wall option. In all, one of my favourite pastimes in Ark has become a lot better with these upgrades.

I did notice some glitches I recognised from the original game, such as outside lighting incorrectly shining into a building through the walls. Elevation also still leads to quirky movements and dinosaurs that get stuck every now and then. And I've had trouble every time when trying to create a chain of wooden ladders to get higher up in my buildings. For some reason, this particular construction element just doesn't want to stick to the right position whatever I try. Another thing is that dead animals can often not be harvested for resources for some reason, because nothing happens when I try to hit them. And lastly, I played the game in my native language for a while, and the localisation was simply horrible. I'm not sure if it goes for every language, but at least in Dutch, everything seemed like a quick copy and paste translation by a lazy intern via Google Translate.

Overall though, it's clear to me that the game has been improved a lot. Besides the improved base building, the player characters have been upgraded. For example, it's no longer possible to boost your speed when levelling up. This solves a problem from the original game with players focusing solely on movement speed in PvP servers, making them run so fast they were almost unhittable in combat. Also, there seem to be more animations, which make the game look more realistic. And there are also improvements to hit boxes which I've found very noticeable. So many times I've been harassed or killed by flying creatures like the Ichthyornis in the original game, which were simply unkillable because it was nearly impossible to strike or hit them with arrows. Thankfully, that's been fixed in Ascended.

All in all, despite some persistent and new bugs, I really like Ark: Survival Ascended. That's mostly due to its massive graphical update, that brings the world of Ark to life in a way like never before. Secondly, there are some very welcome quality of life improvements that cover nearly all aspects of the game. Ranging from more convenient placement and more options for base building to more animations and matured player characters. A final addition that I haven't mentioned before, but one that's really nice and in hindsight a big omission in the original, is the addition of wild baby dinosaurs. They're really cute and add to the feeling of wandering around an actual island full of living creatures.

Therefore, if you haven't played Ark before, I don't think you'll be disappointed when picking it up now. For fans of the original like myself, the biggest downside about Ark: Survival Ascended may be that buying this game is basically becoming a required investment if you want to keep enjoying Ark. Because as I understand it, Studio Wildcard is working actively to phase out the original game, having already shut down its official servers. This leaves players with no option but to upgrade. However, after overcoming the hurdle of paying again for a rework, there's not much holding you back from enjoying a prettier and better version of an already highly likeable game.