Yeah for all the hype money they made the follow-up has been garbage. The game is still barebones and not nearly as complex as any of the other big survivalcrafters, yet even with such a simple system the content has come out in a trickle.
Ark really nailed the grandeur and scope necessary to make a good survivalcrafter. So many tools (if you include dino abilities), so many ways to do things. It was on the right path but also let down by its other failings.
Like all the fun combat options being made obsolete by "ride biggest dino, hold chomp, wait" being the most effective solution 98% of the time. Their inability manage their own jank and bugs. And the ever expanding powercreep trashing earlier mechanics and ruining any semblance of overarching balance, seemingly caused by their greed in trying to make the expansions mandatory purchases to remain competitive.
I clocked about 2000 hours in Ark during early access (2015-2018) most of that time in official PVE servers.
I loved what the game could have been, but Studio Wildcard kept tweaking the game to be more of a time sink in order to inflate play hours numbers.
More and more the rewards to your grinding were simply to make further grinding a little easier.
First they released that DLC during early access (a first in history I believe), because they were strapped for cash (due to legal drama). That really pissed me off, but I stuck to it.
And then there was the great flyer nerf of 2017, which did nothing but make the game grindier and less fun. Still, I hanged on.
And then all of a sudden in 2018 they just wrap it with gift paper and say it's done! With all the bugs and exploits still around.
That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for me.
It didn't promote anything other than being a cool Viking survival crafter, but that doesn't matter now that they have a transgender communist on staff.
It didn't promote any of those things, people just exaggerate like the morons they are.
Game itself was fine, was fun and engaging, hence why so many people liked it.
A lot of the fanbase was from hype though, word of mouth.
Game didn't get remotely as many updates for the money they were raking in though.
Yeah for all the hype money they made the follow-up has been garbage. The game is still barebones and not nearly as complex as any of the other big survivalcrafters, yet even with such a simple system the content has come out in a trickle.
The 'best' open world survival game in my opinion, and this is going to be controversial.
Ark Survival Evolved.
It's like your run of the mill survival game mixed with eugenics pokemon mixed with an FPS mixed with World of Warcraft raids.
Completely unplayable singleplayer though unless you tweak a crapton of settings, but once you get the settings 'just right' it plays nicely.
Nah, I'm open to that one.
Ark really nailed the grandeur and scope necessary to make a good survivalcrafter. So many tools (if you include dino abilities), so many ways to do things. It was on the right path but also let down by its other failings.
Like all the fun combat options being made obsolete by "ride biggest dino, hold chomp, wait" being the most effective solution 98% of the time. Their inability manage their own jank and bugs. And the ever expanding powercreep trashing earlier mechanics and ruining any semblance of overarching balance, seemingly caused by their greed in trying to make the expansions mandatory purchases to remain competitive.
I clocked about 2000 hours in Ark during early access (2015-2018) most of that time in official PVE servers.
I loved what the game could have been, but Studio Wildcard kept tweaking the game to be more of a time sink in order to inflate play hours numbers.
More and more the rewards to your grinding were simply to make further grinding a little easier.
First they released that DLC during early access (a first in history I believe), because they were strapped for cash (due to legal drama). That really pissed me off, but I stuck to it.
And then there was the great flyer nerf of 2017, which did nothing but make the game grindier and less fun. Still, I hanged on.
And then all of a sudden in 2018 they just wrap it with gift paper and say it's done! With all the bugs and exploits still around.
That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for me.
ARK is a dumpster fire.
Go play Kenshi for a sandbox survival.
It didn't promote anything other than being a cool Viking survival crafter, but that doesn't matter now that they have a transgender communist on staff.
The game didn't, but their PR team has been pushing this regressive, subversive ideology on their social media accounts.