ARK: Survival Ascended Looks Stunning in Gorgeous Gameplay

Can you play solo in this or previous game? If so, is it fun? Can you couch co-op? If yes to 2 of 3 of these, I may jump on board.

Is this the one with Vin Diesel?

Ark is the kind of game you play for 5000 hours, give a negative review, and then play for another 3000 hours.

Can’t wait!

@spoonard no it’s a ‘remake’ of the first. With no upgrade path. They expect you to buy it all again.

It's never gonna look like this on the ps5 or xbox,top end pc's maybe but I think a massive downgrade is incoming!

If this was a PlayStation 1st party remake there'd be negativity from all angles that its getting a remake. If the Horizon Zero Dawn remake turns out to be true there will be uproar. Keep in mind original Ark is only 2 years older than HZD from the same gen

@Elodin It does have couch coop, you can try going solo but is not recommended because some dinos are very strong for you to go against them alone

@Arkantos2990 @Elodin I've gotta push back against that because I've played so much Ark solo and done it just fine. Ark is what you make of it, and for me, it's pretty fun. There's all sorts of beasts and dinos and mythical creatures you can tame, the survival aspect has a pretty addictive loop in terms of gaining more resources and building weapons and your base, and the exploration can be pretty fun, finding new places to build on the lore and to explore.

I'm only speaking for the original Ark, because I don't know if the remake will carry all of this over, but the game has a menu come up with a ton of settings prior to starting a new game/map that you can tweak to hone your experience. For example, the way you tame a lot of the wild animals is by knocking them out and feeding them and waiting for their alliance to switch to you via a timer. Normally, for a semblance of realism and depending on the dino, this can take several minutes-to-hours. However, prior to starting a map, it gives you the option to tweak how long the days and nights are, how long it takes to tame dinos, how long it takes for eggs to hatch, etc.

There's so many options available to you to tweak the experience to make the Ark experience what you want to be. Because of that, it's pretty easy to make an accessible solo/co-op/couch co-op experience. I intentionally set my timers pretty low (but not too low, don't want to make it insanely easy), so I have a reasonable number of beasts to travel with, the guard my base, to help me swim and fish, etc which helps with the hard dinos that Arkantos was referring to.

And for me, I'd argue the online multiplayer is a masochistic experience. This could have changed, but Ark was famous when it first came out for being brutal online. People set up cages at the spawn points so when newbies logged on, they'd be trapped, and for realism, there's no way to get out unless the person who created the trap lets you out. Then there's the whole thing about needing to have people in your clan online at all times or you may log on to find your base raided, your stash stolen, your dinos killed, etc.

Releases November I doubt it. It’s wildcard it will be December most likely

@Arkantos2990 @Brydontk thanks for the feedback. Ill see if my daughter is interested and if the reviews hold up, I may pick up the new one.

@Elodin Non dedicated servers are the better experience for Ark as it is your world that you don’t have to share with other players. You also don’t have to constantly be online either as you can save your world whenever you want and log out when out. I’ve been playing ark for quite a few years with my older brother in non-dedicated servers worlds. You can set your settings however you want. Not sure how they’ll address the non-dedicated server worlds when they release the remastered version as I know they are shutting down the official serves of normal Ark. Only downside to non-dedicated I’d you want to play with friends and family is host tether. If you want to play and enjoy Ark without the hassle of waiting forever to tame or constantly have to be online, getting murdered by other players, having your base destroyed or your tames stolen or murdered by another player then non-dedicated is the way to go

@spoonard No that’s Ark 2. I think that’s going to be an Xbox exclusive though, hoping it’s just timed exclusive so everyone who plays on PlayStation can play it on the PS5