AT A GLANCE | ARK: Survival Evolved

ARK: Survival Evolved has been part of Steam’s Early Access program for over a year now, and I’ve wanted to play it but kept putting it off. However, I’m on a bit of a PC kick lately so I reached out to the PR guys and received codes for the main game along with Scorched Earth. I’ve only spent about two hours so far but I want to share my initial impressions of the game.

Let me start by saying I’ve never actually played RUST or any other title where you basically start with nothing, and have to craft even the basics. Needless to say, I was a little bit lost because the game does absolutely nothing to tell you what you’re supposed to do. I turned to YouTube, and discovered a tutorial video from Nooblets.com’ YouTube Channel, which I’m going to share with you below.

I spent 40 minutes watching that video (Kudos to him, fantastic tutorial!), and I felt like I had a good grasp to start playing the game so I booted it up again. I quickly amassed the resources I needed for a stone mining pick, hatchet, and some supplies for a fire. ARK supports a seemingly diverse leveling system with what it calls Engrams, which allows you to learn how to craft new items. The first couple levels will come pretty quick and you’ll be at the point where you can hunt dodo’s or fish to collect raw meat and hides. Build yourself a roaring campfire, cook the meat and keep yourself warm and full of food, especially at night.

After the first night, I found I had the time available to accrue all the resources I’d need to build my first house. A house will help to keep you warm, and safe when you log off the game. When you log out, your character actually just falls asleep so he can still be raided so putting yourself in a house is a safeguard against that.   You’ll find yourself gathering fiber from plants, and lots of wood, thatch, and more.

The game doesn’t tell you, but depending on what item you use to take down trees and rocks will affect what you get from the mining process. Using a pick will yield more flint, but using a hatchet on large rock formations will yield more stone than flint. The same goes for clearing trees – wood VS thatch.

Most of the dinosaurs that are roaming the area are docile and won’t touch you unless you provoke them. However, water-based creatures seem a little more temperamental and I don’t suggest you poke around too much unless you really need some fish to eat. I easily killed a lone sabertooth salmon, only to get my ass kicked by 5 more that showed up.  You’re very slow in the water, so the chances of getting away if you’re in that deep…. Slim to none.

Visually speaking, ARK: Survival Evolved is a truly stunning looking game.  Did you watch that recent Sony event for the PlayStation 4 Pro? All the HDR talk… glaring sun… stunning water? ARK has it all. That being said, this game is a resource hog on PC. I knew going in that it was going to run a little rough on my GTX 680, but surprisingly it’s better than I expected. However, I have plans to upgrade to the 1080 in a few months which should be more than adequate for the next couple years. ARK actually gives you the option to load up the game in various states including “low memory” mode if you want it to run a little better, but it sure won’t look quite as beautiful.

It seems like there is going to be lots to learn, and it’ll take time so I’ll likely be writing more about this one as I figure it out. Scorched Earth? Haven’t really read up on it so I don’t even know what that’s all about yet, but it’ll come in time. From the little bit of time I’ve spent in ARK, I’m impressed and I plan on playing a lot more of this title and I look forward to more development updates.

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