Ark Survival Evolved: Nuclear Disaster Kills 200 Titanosaurs
Ark: Survival Evolved (stylized as ARK) is a 2017 action-adventure survival video game developed by Studio Wildcard. In the game, players must survive being stranded on one of several maps filled with roaming dinosaurs, fictional fantasy monsters, and other prehistoric animals, natural hazards, and potentially hostile human players.
The game is played from either a third-person or first-person perspective and its open world is navigated by foot or by riding a prehistoric animal. Players can use firearms and improvised weapons to defend against hostile humans and creatures, with the ability to build bases as a defense on the ground and on some creatures. The game has both single-player and multiplayer options. Multiplayer allows the option to form tribes of players in a server. The max number of tribe mates varies from each server. In this mode, all tamed dinosaurs and building structures are usually shared between the members. There is a PvE mode where players cannot fight each other unless a specific war event agreed upon by both parties is triggered.
Development began in October 2014, when it was first released on PC as an early access title in the middle of 2015. The development team conducted research into the physical appearance of the animals but took a creative license for gameplay purposes. Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, and Virtual Basement were hired to facilitate the game's development. The game was officially released in August 2017 for Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, with versions for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch in 2018, a version for Stadia in 2021, and a second, separate Nintendo Switch version in 2022.
Ark: Survival Evolved received generally mixed reviews, with criticism for its "punishing" difficulty and excruciatingly time consuming activities, reliance on grinding, and performance issues, particularly on the original Nintendo Switch version. Several expansions to the game have been released as downloadable content. The game spawned two spin-off games in partnership with Snail Games—virtual reality game Ark Park and sandbox survival game PixArk. A sequel, Ark 2, has also been announced in December 2020. In November 2023, remaster Ark: Survival Ascended, was released in early access for Windows on October 25, 2023, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.[3]
Gameplay
Ark: Survival Evolved is an action-adventure survival game set in an open world environment with a dynamic day-night cycle and played either from a third-person or first-person perspective. To survive, players must establish a base, with a fire and weapons; additional activities, such as taming and feeding dinosaurs, require more resources.[4] The game's world, known as the "Ark", is approximately 48 km2 (19 sq mi) in size:[5]: 20:20 there is approximately 36 km2 (14 sq mi) of land with 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi) of ocean.[6]
There are currently 194 creatures that populate the world of Ark. In the early versions of the game, nearly all creatures were real dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, but as the storyline progressed, mythical creatures such as the wyvern, griffin, golem, and phoenix were added. As expansions were released, completely original creatures, such as the Karkinos and the Velonasaur, also made their way into the game, as well as original robotic creatures such as the Enforcer and Scout.
One of the primary game mechanics of the game is taming creatures. The majority of creatures can be tamed by the player, though some, such as Meganeura or Titanomyrma, cannot. The taming method varies from creature to creature. Most creatures are a "knock out" tame, meaning the players must knock the creature out using tranquilizer projectiles or by using blunt weapons, such as a club. Oftentimes players will need to keep the dinosaur sedated for the duration of the tame. Some dinosaurs take longer than others to tame, therefore require more narcotics. Players are able to use narco berries, or craft narcotics from narco berries and spoiled meat. Once knocked out, the player must feed the creature their preferred food, such as berries for herbivores or raw meat for carnivores. Different foods help tame animals at varying speeds.