I know many people have already played and been playing Ark on the PC and Xbox, I only started playing Ark 2 weeks ago on the PS4. The PS4 version of Ark has been my first experience with the survival game people seem to be loving.
At first Ark is a dying simulator, first spawning on the beach labeled as “Easy” on the island resulted in countless raptors and Allosaurus killing me shortly after I was finally able to make my first tool, A Stone Pick Axe.
Once I managed to meet up with my friends and start a tribe survival got much easier, Like me my friends had never played Ark before so we were going in completely blind. Once we managed to make a bed and a small base with walls, we were able to start taming dinos and establishing ourselves.
The Game Play:
The game play in Ark is pretty similar to other survival games, you must monitor both hunger and thirst and eat or drink accordingly or you will die, either from dehydration, Starvation or just passing out from those things and being killed by a Dino. The game relies heavily on you taming dinos to both fight other dinos and players and to make it easier to get other materials and food. There is a bit of a learning curve but once you learn the basics it’s actually pretty fun.
Ark features a building and crafting system, all of which requires resources. All resources must be gathered and some of them, like angler gel, crystal and metal are generally found in dangerous areas, so do your research and scouting before you start mining.
When you die in Ark all of the items you had are still on the survivor that died, leaving you 2 options, respawn and rush back to your body and claim your gear, or just make new gear if it’s too dangerous to go claim your gear. Never take anything out with you if you aren’t willing to potentially lose it. Always have back ups in storage. The Ark can be very unforgiving.
Being part of a tribe makes your Ark life much easier, I recommend starting one with your friends or finding one to join as soon as you can.
The Dinos
Ark has a pretty large collections of dinos, both friendly and unfriendly. Taming a strong, fight dino is very important to do as soon a you can. Here is a list of all the Dinos in the game across all 3 maps.
Flying Creatures:
SWIMMING CREATURES:
LAND CREATURES:
Achatina
Allosaurus
Ankylosaurus
The Maps:
Ark offers 3 different, distinct worlds to play in. The Island is the easiest world to start on while Scorched Earth is the hardest to survive on due to its heat, super pissed off enemies and lack of water. We currently have bases on both The Island and Scorched Earth. You can transfer your survivor, dinos and your survivor’s inventory between any Official Ark Dedicated servers, So can play and build on all 3 maps.
The Bugs and Ugly Stuff:
Ark isn’t a finished project. PC gamers and Xbox users already know that. Sony has not relayed this information to it’s users very well. Expect lag and a lot of glitches, some are very frustrating. We have had tamed dinos just disappear for no reason never to be heard from again. On The Island map Ark crashes and “Blue Screens” a lot on the ps4 causing some frustration and loss in our tribe. Lag and “rubber banding” happen quite often making some activities very frustrating. Hopefully they fix this stuff when they actually “Release” the game.
The Bottom Line:
Ark is a challenging, enjoyable game that almost needs to be played with a group of people. The cost is $54.99 and comes with all 3 current playable worlds. If you like survival and building games Ark is right up your ally and you should pick it up. If you don’t like super challenging games you won’t like Ark.
