- 2,216
- Isle of Wight, UK
ARK: Survival Evolved is the worst imitation of a video game to come out of this generation. It's entirely based on time consuming, repetitive grinding and the only basis for progression is acquiring stuff - nearly all of which will need to be googled as the game tells you nothing.
Of course, if you do accrue all this stuff, the only reward the game will give you is losing it all; whether you're attacked by bored players (can't blame them), have some unstoppable dinosaur spawn right on top of you, or just aren't logged in to the game when one of the above happens, you will lose everything.
That is, of course, providing the game will run - the servers are absolutely awful, and you can expect massive lag and frequent disconnects which, since the game time always rolls, will result in you dying and losing stuff with alarming regularity. This is exploited by the player base, too, who will build massive lag towers to force disconnect anyone who comes close to their precious e-dinos.
This isn't the only problem you'll have with other players - obviously, they will kill you, but there are other dirty tactics employed by the strange people that find this game fun; they will cover acres of the map with wooden pillars to prevent other players from building, they will lead powerful enemies to your base while you're offline to destroy all your progress. They will bully you, scream at you, and do anything to make sure they fit in with their pals; ARK parties usually contain more than one player who is appearing offline in order to scheme against their own tribe or friends in order to get ahead in the simulated dinosaur racket.
The gameplay loops consist of waiting for a long time for bars to fill up, with small windows to insert time-decaying items into an inventory screen. Aside from that, you can expect to hit rocks, trees and bushes, in order to acquire the inordinate amount of resources required to build a chest high stone wall. The excitement really comes when you meet a rare and powerful creature that will lag jump towards you and hit you once for a guaranteed stun, and then eat you, providing you can stay connected to the server long enough to die before lagging out.
The graphics are ass, a result of having built a far too large and unstable game, and hardcore players sweat, cheat and swindle to secure rare colourations of dinosaurs that are rendered usually in 4 polygon glory whilst floating above the ground. As you collect them, they will endeavour to get themselves stuck and glitched, or to escape from your base and get killed in one hit by the other wildlife.
This game is sold at full price, with full price DLCs. It is a broken mess and much less of a video game than it is a work simulator. I have known people to dash home from work in the middle of the day to go on ARK because they are being raided. These people have put in literal months of grinding to collect their virtual dinosaurs and it becomes a job - they will happily jeapordise their real life to preserve their ARK progress, because real life is genuinely a more forgiving experience than trying to play this broken torture device of a game.
I am still in contact with some people who still play - I myself played for a couple of weeks before leaving and trying not to think about the 50 odd quid I'd set on fire. These people tell me that every update breaks the game and basic issues, such as the framerate dropping to one any time it gets foggy (veterans deal with this by running around looking at the floor) that have been present since release are still present.
ARK is for masochists, anti-social miscreants and people who think real life just isn't soul crushingly unfair enough. I rate it a 0/10 and pity anyone who plays it. The only thing there is to survive in this game is the steady onset of total insanity.
Of course, if you do accrue all this stuff, the only reward the game will give you is losing it all; whether you're attacked by bored players (can't blame them), have some unstoppable dinosaur spawn right on top of you, or just aren't logged in to the game when one of the above happens, you will lose everything.
That is, of course, providing the game will run - the servers are absolutely awful, and you can expect massive lag and frequent disconnects which, since the game time always rolls, will result in you dying and losing stuff with alarming regularity. This is exploited by the player base, too, who will build massive lag towers to force disconnect anyone who comes close to their precious e-dinos.
This isn't the only problem you'll have with other players - obviously, they will kill you, but there are other dirty tactics employed by the strange people that find this game fun; they will cover acres of the map with wooden pillars to prevent other players from building, they will lead powerful enemies to your base while you're offline to destroy all your progress. They will bully you, scream at you, and do anything to make sure they fit in with their pals; ARK parties usually contain more than one player who is appearing offline in order to scheme against their own tribe or friends in order to get ahead in the simulated dinosaur racket.
The gameplay loops consist of waiting for a long time for bars to fill up, with small windows to insert time-decaying items into an inventory screen. Aside from that, you can expect to hit rocks, trees and bushes, in order to acquire the inordinate amount of resources required to build a chest high stone wall. The excitement really comes when you meet a rare and powerful creature that will lag jump towards you and hit you once for a guaranteed stun, and then eat you, providing you can stay connected to the server long enough to die before lagging out.
The graphics are ass, a result of having built a far too large and unstable game, and hardcore players sweat, cheat and swindle to secure rare colourations of dinosaurs that are rendered usually in 4 polygon glory whilst floating above the ground. As you collect them, they will endeavour to get themselves stuck and glitched, or to escape from your base and get killed in one hit by the other wildlife.
This game is sold at full price, with full price DLCs. It is a broken mess and much less of a video game than it is a work simulator. I have known people to dash home from work in the middle of the day to go on ARK because they are being raided. These people have put in literal months of grinding to collect their virtual dinosaurs and it becomes a job - they will happily jeapordise their real life to preserve their ARK progress, because real life is genuinely a more forgiving experience than trying to play this broken torture device of a game.
I am still in contact with some people who still play - I myself played for a couple of weeks before leaving and trying not to think about the 50 odd quid I'd set on fire. These people tell me that every update breaks the game and basic issues, such as the framerate dropping to one any time it gets foggy (veterans deal with this by running around looking at the floor) that have been present since release are still present.
ARK is for masochists, anti-social miscreants and people who think real life just isn't soul crushingly unfair enough. I rate it a 0/10 and pity anyone who plays it. The only thing there is to survive in this game is the steady onset of total insanity.
