ARK: Survival Evolved Steam

Ark: Survival Evolved for PC is an action adventure survival game in which you must survive being stranded on a desert island, It is not just any desert island, though, this is one populated with dinosaurs and other ancient beasts. Play is in the first- or third-person perspective, and your characters can travel on foot or ride your very own prehistoric beast. Once you’ve tamed it, of course!

About the Game

There is no mission as such, no on-screen instructions telling you to proceed in one direction or another: the game is truly open world. So gather your wits and pick a direction and go for a wander to see what lies in front of you!

Tools start off very basic – tying a rock to a broken off tree branch gives you a simple axe: which can be used to make more low-grade tools. Simple tools can be used to make more complex tools and pretty soon you have a good toolbox at your disposal which enables you to craft high-end items all the way up to grenade launchers, industrial strength forges and even forcefields.

No Story is the Best Story!

The game does not have an overall story arc, unlike most other games, but instead asks you to set your own goals: you can climb the highest mountain on the island, build your dream mansion or pick a whacky goal that suits your own tastes.

It is a survival game and if gathering resources was easy, you would soon lose interest. Getting the ingredients you need, and making the tools to craft them properly, all takes a lot of time: and time is in short supply when predatory dinosaurs, angry beasts and even other humans are all out to get you!

Taming animals is cool, and relatively easy: simply knock them unconscious and then feed them until they regain their health (Pro-tip: this is not a recommended way to treat anyone, human or beast, in real life!).

In the early stages, this is a positive pleasure, but the higher-quality animals take longer: sometimes way longer in real hours than is comfortable to wait, so make sure you set your chosen companion onto the path to becoming your buddy before you get on with other tasks and chores that will help to pass the time.

Mod is the Way to Go

Along with the open world single-player mode, the game is freely available for modders to do their thing, and if you run the game as a server, you will find that the game runs even more smoothly, with animals being tamed in mere seconds and plenty of resources close at hand. Look out for officially authorised mods.

Ways to Play

• Single player: wake up on the beach, naked and soon to be afraid. And then decide what you want to do with yourself. The open world format is just that, completely open and you have full agency to do whatever you want to do. If you can survive the predators and enemies, that is!
• Multiplayer PvP: be wary when you’re just starting out as more established players will have tools and weapons that your character, as yet, has not even learned to dream about and there is no way a stone axe will win against a commando, armed to the teeth with high-powered rifles, laser sights and a grenade launcher all ready to tear down the fragile walls of your hard-made home
• Multiplayer PvE: set yourself against the terrain in this player-versus-environment mode but do be aware that the busiest servers will have plenty of other players’ buildings and territories already mapped out. Be prepared to trek quite far to get to somewhere that you can break ground and start building