I don't know what this game has become but it doesn't feel like ark anymore, if you enjoy it, cool keep playing but for me it feels too easy, feels like everything is handed to you, no where near as hard as when ASE launched.

The controversies don't help either with snail games being so underhanded with shady practices and behaviour, ARK has so much potential that is being wasted and abused in favour of what feels like cash grabs.

As someone who has played for the past 8/9 years, with over 20k+ hours and alt accounts for solo farming its a shame to see the state of the game and the direction in which it is going.

-10000/10 would not recommend.

Many of you all know, This is Ark 1.5.
Ark but made in unreal engine 5.

you will need a beefy PC to play this engine swap, especally since Global lumen is forced ON. with no setting to turn it off. Even tho lumen has been proved to be overly expensive. (it's just a means for the dev's to be lazy. As it handles most of the lighting itself, meaning devs don't have to put nearly enough work to make a game look good. At the cost of less customers and players able to play the game.

Now onto the major "drama" relating to this edition of the game. P2W
This game is VERY much pay to win with PvP. PvE not so much but your experience will be alot worse without it.

I will preface all of this by saying.
When I'm talking about these items, I'm comming from the view point that, DLC owners. and Base game owners are in their own tribes. Not mixing. Not everyone has friends, and not everyone wants/can get the DLC.

Bob's tall tale's is the worst offender.
The train is not so bad, since creatures can do it easier aswell as MASSIVELY cheaper. But it is VERY cool.
The cosmetics are whatever they do look cool. There is one skin added by the scorched earth portion of the DLC that should be added to the base game. That being the glass wall that you can put on ANY building. Normally you need greenhouse walls for that.
The zeplin is very OP. Since it's the only way to truly fly in aberration. not to mention, you can build a HUGE base ontop of it.
The cars added in extinction would be OP if they worked in multiplayer. As of right now, cars in multiplayer are very buggy and basically not drivable.

Treasure maps should be base game. Everyone should experience the "fun" of going around the world with a shovel and digging up treasure. It's something refreshing in a game heavily about grinding and breaks up the flow nicely.

The platform cart would be nice if it wasn't so buggy and teleported around. I think this is fine to stay in DLC since it's not majorly game changing. but does apply a slight benefit to DLC owners.

The creatures added... my god the creatures.
The Oasasor should have never been put in the game. Atleast not the soul revival. If you do something stupid and something dies. You should be punished or you'll never learn. you'll constantly bang your head against the brick wall till you get your head through, that's not how gameplay should be. If you smash your head on a brick wall, You should get hurt.

Sir-5rM8 a.k.a survivor mate.
The linked chests atleast should be base game. The robot is nice for some QoL of inventory sorting. and the resource gathering isn't as good as using a utility dino, but if you play long enough and dont use alot of resources. It'll definatly get you a nice supply.

The embroyo storage and tool should be base game too, Since the genes added by these can be the difference of life and death. and can also just make your utility dino's massively better. (for reference, theres a mineral reduction gene. that reduces stone related items. put a lvl 3 of that in an anky. and you can carry 10 stacks of metal for only 30 weight.

Goo gun is a fun little tool. But should stay in DLC. its very weak, and only adds some fun movement. Which aberration already adds lots of. with rockdrakes aswell as climbing picks. not to mention the wingsuit. Very fun movement ways and you don't need a goo gun aswell. But again. It's definatly fun.

The stopwatch should be gone entirely. The visual's fits the DLC's theme. but the functions should be removed. it essentally gives you tracer's rewind ability without any of the visuals.

The steam forge should get a base game varient. since it gives you more ingots per ore. even tho it is late game. and you should proberbally have LOADS of metal by that point. it should still have a base game varient.

The arma doggo I think is fine as DLC. but the "free me" buff should get a base game counterpart. As that can be very handy in PvP. and definatly gets the "p2w" mark.

The bio-grinder removes too much grind from the game as you can skip getting resources for kibble. Which is required for "perfect" tames, which a perfect tame can make or break a fight.

The tribe tower should 100% be base game. Getting a bonus for taming and an XP bonus is a bit too much for a paid item. (20% for the increases) and its based on time alive. so the bonuses work up to the 20% max. This could make or break some scenarios and allows for paid players to level faster.

The extinguisher grenade should be base game, as it has alot of utility especally in PvP.

the companion addons should also all be base game. Since they literally give you bonuses for just existing.



Premium creatures so far are also a pretty big contender, just for the pyromane tho. the others are pretty balanced.

so, The pyromane is a portable campfire and a better jerky crafter all in one go. its a flame lover's wetdream of the shadow mane from genesis 2. back in ASE.
It can also be put on your shoulder, and is a flame thrower that you can make/craft on a map that doesn't have access to sulfur. like the island.




Now. for everything in the DLCs. keep it to DLC owners can craft and unlock them. But allow every player that's tribed with them to place and use them.
rails. trains and the spotlights are the biggest call feature for this. I currently play on a server with 3 other friends, none of them have the DLC except me. They wanted to build a train system so I made the tracks for them since they had it all layed out in their had. Well. they can't do that since you can't place tracks without the DLC.

the most pathetic one is that. Free users can't even place down the fancy lights that DLC owners get.


All in all, if they made features work (wildcard. you have a track record of not having ♥♥♥♥ work. Stop making cashcows. You have a lovely community here, stop exploiting them.)
if they made it more optimized aswell as allowed some of the heavy systems toggle offable (I'm looking at you lumen) alot more people would move over to ASA.
Aswell as swap the features that I said should be basegame. to basegame.

This game would not be as shat on as it is. You'd get alot more players back into ark aswell as off of evolved.


Side note : The game does feel harder mind you. even with the DLC. Utility dino's are no where near as affective as they used to be. its almost micro how much of a different an anky vs a metal pickaxe is.


Still an ok game. but evolved was abandoned for this with little concideration. But it can be way better.

This does also make me more skeptical for ARK2. if it comes out at this rate with how much money they are making from this game (yes, I know me getting the DLCs isn't helping that) But before this game, ARK2 was THE game i was the most excited for. Now I don't know if it's something I'll sink my time into compared to evolved.

Played Ark Evolved, its a good game but had so many problems! then comes Ark Ascended... we all thought OK well clearly the game will be better now because its a remake. Turns out its just a copy paste.... same problems, same bugs and same waste of time only difference is they try to make more money now and keep pushing extra paid content. I bought bobs tails, but ofc the game cant handle it. crashes all the time plus lag plus half the things don't do what the are meant to do because lets face it, these people have no clue what they are doing! When u finally get a new map after MANY delays, you cant play because they give only a few servers and you need to play keyboard warrior for 8 hours to get in a server and hope the game don't crash when u finally get a spot. wasted an entire weekend clicking to try get into a server xD plus when the community complain the developers think its funny and like to mock. Nah this game is not worth it, Dont waste your money here and def don't waste Ur time because its a never ending story.