Recent reviews by The Rango Mango

This game blows me away.

It caters to a wide range of player types. Rather you're a zoologist trying to update the wiki's hall of fame with record breaking specimens, mapping fuana and collecting pets; multiplayer socialite who prefers a Discord pack, parent/kid co op duo with no one else, absolute loner who wants 0 human interaction, base builder making complex light shows to in game bytebeat systems, lore hound learning to speak alien, micromanaging trader-farmer wathing the market fluctuations, or a merciless space warrior who hulk smash.. There's just so much to do and so so many surprises. A lot of things they didn't "need" to add but made me say 'wow' when I came across them.

It's just a really great game. You can't play without some crazy stories, between the stuff planets like to do, tales of 'how I became owner of this ship', and the unexpected events that faintly smell of red dead redemption 2 encounters scaled up to space.

You can play alone and get the whole, full experience offline or have online features like who discovered what planet and their dumb player created names.. Or play co-op each with your own saves, apart or together dynamically at any pace you indiviually want. Or multiplayer. You can opt out of PVP entirely with a toggle switch.

The game gives you full control of how easy or hard you want certain things to be. Like if you have a kid that wants to play but is scared of combat, you can turn animal predators and any other hostile encounter off and still have the same game. Alternatively a kid that likes combat but always wants to win- you can set easy combat. Or if you're in college and have very little time, you can flip on 'buy things for free' to get the more grindy recipes for base building then flip it back off to just skip the grind. Also full creative building mode in bases without disabling any part of the game or being punished, flipping it on or off at will.

This game is for adults, which is not something I particularly realized when buying it to play with my family. It would be okay with older kids if they only play with you- but do not set them loose to join lobby's.. This game contains sexual words, many tags for sexuality to display above your head in game, gambling (literally scratch cards under gambling header lol), alcohol/intoxication, and a ton of questionable wording.

But if you're buying the game as an adult, to just have fun you should have a pretty good time. It's silly, fun, chill, has an accessibility setting for people who can't click much like me with severe carpel tunnel which makes the game pain free, and I've had a good time drinking speed sodas and jumping around into water with my teen. Playing with others is optional.

Says 0 hours but I played this a lot? Steam, I guess.

I was a bit on the fence when I bought this and finally did so, not because any one feature was alluring to me by itself but because the trailer video LOOKED like the devs actually cared about and put a lot of effort into what content DID get put into the expansion pass.

And I'm so glad I did. I can't think of anything I -don't- like in the initial release of Bob's Tall Tales. It has a single major addition to every type of ark player with a general focus on early game, which is actually quite nice and new for a change.

As Bob's is an expansion pass for content additions to future maps, note I'm writing this at the time it first released, when Scorched Earth was the only non-island play option.

Builders:
-You will be so happy to be able to make a g ypsy or western caravan build on the back of the platform carts. The giant oasisaur (tamable only with this pass) provides a hugely buildable, highly mobile base for a crown jewel build of your map.

-This comes with a VERY nice skin set that includes a 4 pane window with an X in the middle you can snap quickly onto any regular all including adobe which is a huge game changer. It also includes a wooden wall skin that is fairly appealing and flexible outside of just western theme builds.

-Train cars with platform carts. Make a mobile classic circus, a town, hotel, I'm sure your creativity will figure it out.

Breeders:
-Breeding in ARK depends on your circumstance since it has some up front investment. If you're playing on an almost RP server where you walk through town, then breeding up the most handsomely colored, capable cart puller (since not all dinos are good at it) and opening a sale's stable for working mounts is viable with Bob's.

Streamers&Youtubers:
-Train shinanigans, oasisaur taming process, the cool bandito clothing cosmetics for that extra kick. Putting bottles in stupid places and trying to shoot them with a rocket launcher.

Single Player & Homesteaders:
Like me! It has new story to find, and new shovels for searching for treasure chests and improving the yield of crops.

PVP'ers: I don't know how this pass affects PVP because I value myself! :D But I can say if you don't play PVP then it has it all. LOL

Anyway I enjoyed this pass, felt it enhanced my game in a fun way, and would recommend it. It's a 'first official expansion' for asa that actually adds new things not from ASE and big features like trains and should be supported. Too many companies just do reskins, and this is real effort.

This is the most fun I've had in ark in a very long time. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect coming in, but the terrain and landscape is visually stunning which tickles all my jimmies. I decided to play with almost vanilla rates with only visual/qol type mods and the progression was actually quite fun.

I like the survival challenge, although getting water can be laughably easy and I've had LESS issues with water on this map than the island. Between the morellatops, endless abundance of cactus sap, water jug bugs, and the 1/4th size of the map oasis that runs right down the middle.

I recommend using the skins from either Bob's Tall Tales or the Klinger Additional Rustic Buildings (skin version) to spice up your plain, lightless adobe- and using the carts from the Bob's for the best experience. Shiny! dinos also works great on this map to make it more interesting, for sure.

TLDR: This game is super fun and lag free if you're playing on a 32GB DDR5 ram, 4070+ series nvidia card, with a 4.5 GHz baseline CPU & SSD and enough of a connection to regularly download GB's of data. (Like I am.) If you're not, play the console version to save yourself a lot of pain! The mods also get more testing before they reach you on the console.

Full:
Initially I had to have this (birthday gifted to me) game refunded as no matter what I did (and I'm a game dev myself, when I say I tried everything, I really meant everything) I could not get it to launch without crashing on starting any game. The UI did not work, and it only launched on DX11 which caused tremendous issues- despite my card supporting 12. Which is an Unreal Engine 5 problem. Steam's answer if you click support is to redirect you to a developer website, which does not allow for submission of bugs without an account but it doesn't come out and say that- it just reroutes you to the home page.

So I give this a positive review now that I'm playing it, because even though its 98% identical to the original ark with just foundation snapping, baby dinos, photo mode to make paint canvases in game, and mod download process being the main noticeable differences, it's a beautiful and super fun game. If you can run it. I rebought the game myself as I had bought a new high end PC anyway and thought I would give it a second try. After some troubleshooting to get the pixelated graphics under control, all was fine and I'm steadily pouring hours into another round of ark. :)

Huge con: I'm a game modder, enough that I've made considerable income from over 100 mods across a few titles. I thought I would create mods for Ark and already had a Curse Forge account, but I've had nothing but trouble trying to test and upload mods. You can't just port it straight to your game files without overwriting someone else's mod to test single player, it must be on curse forge first, public, for anyone to download, unfinished at the time of writing it. For some reason, after over a week of waiting, my first few mods were never approved. (And I have over 60 approved mods on my account for other games on Curse Forge.) I don't know if they are in the middle of doing away with their very unfriendly to modders testing and upload system and I chose the wrong time to start, or if it's a moderation issue, or technical issue.

This was a great map, unique feeling, high quality story line, fun animals with some change. Doesn't feel reskinned. Would recommend.

I'm the modder who made the just for fun bloodhound colors. (Wolfdog, charred brindle, merle, silver fawn, etc.) I am..pleased, to see charcoal and silver labradors more than words can describe. Tickles all my fancies, I just loooove the labrador colors so much. What a gift. They are so cute. For the first time in a long time I'm real excited to play again, it feels fresh and new and I started a new save for the occasion, just to go fowl hunting. :)

I mean I'm Pure Winter so obviously I like this game. :) I only wish it were a bit easier to add new content to the game via modding. For example adding new coat colors or alternate models for existing species. I can see not wanting modders to add 'new content' although it wouldn't compete with DLC sales since modders would be scrambling to buy the new maps to make new content for it. It would be nice to keep the game more alive via a modding scene.

Anyway this is a pretty solid game. There aren't many glaring bugs and for being as dated as it is, it somehow manages to surprise me over the years and I have a ton of fun memories both in multiplayer with my hubby and just using a moose caller at a stand, to have a diamond show up like I'd secretly hoped. If it's new to you, it will feel new. I do recommend getting all of the maps because while animals are pretty similar feeling map to map, the stories are really fun and a lot of work goes into the scenery. The devs have been trying to give unique AI touches to recent maps.

Still bummed there isn't true big game hunting, like rhinos and elephants. Which is ironic because I work here and there in conservation charity and sometimes videograph elephants and rhinos in real life. I still want to shoot them in a video game even if it is not ethical in real life. But the lions continue to make my life hard which puts a grin on my face every time.

Once I shot a diamond lion, the only one I'd ever seen, my husband stole my trophy screen- stuffed it for his lodge. 11/10 would recommend to any hunting enthusiast simply because it isn't a bad game and is really replayable. I've gotten to level 60 several times and had a few legit great ones despite my modding adventures.

I love this game. I'm a very picky person and a game dev myself, prone to the same egocentric jealousy huffs as any other, but I love this game. :D Besides the amazing lively art and great animations it has enough content for a straight woman to enjoy (rare in adult titles) and plenty of surprises. Even if the game is still early access, I am so taken away with the story and how the player can encounter both well written dialogue (also rare) and hot and heavy scenes in times you just wouldn't expect it, haaa.

The game 'grind' part on the farm is also a very rare niche. I just love breeding strategy games of all kinds and the fact it matters, that my monsters can become titans that I -enjoy- taking with me into the Frontier has me hooked almost irresponsibly. I may have had to make up some time at work from playing a liitttle too much in one sitting. (Nothing lost, though!)

And of course there are players out there that don't like the speed of things or the limitations of not being too closely related, but as difficult as it can get I like sorting out lines and crossing them at just the right time. However I did make a mod to pause time because it gives me anxiety with how fast the time in the game moves and just wanting to take my time enjoying caring for all the monsters. I'm in the camp of never gardening because it's tedious and things die. Let there be bread!

It's a game that takes itself seriously while still being one of the bravest games ever made, and isn't pulled down by the criticism of 'If it doesn't fit me perfectly it shouldn't exist so stop it!' It's a real gift to man kind.

I love this game. Sometimes it is better to ride the rides, watch the dinosaurs live out their stories, and slow down to observe what is going on. They do some really, really interesting things if you watch long enough, even if it's coincidence- like my hungry Coelophysis who got left out started fighting over a stuck gyrosphere as if they were arguing with a canopener. My 'focused in my own lane' polocanthus was standing all day in a pool with a derpy button eyed expression, barked once, and I was wondering even from a game logic perspective..what the derp was doing. Then got jump scared by another polocanthus showing up to cheek rub them happily. Adorable!

I really appreciate the terrain graphics and amount of detail put into interactions/dinos, although as a consumer, I will always thirst for more of them like anyone else who likes the game. :) We all want to see natural dino behaviors.

- - -

A con: Lacks sandbox 'build what you want' vibe. Could compensate this better by having a vaster range of dino animations for the premade enclosure feel. It looks natural and eye candy but it isn't Planet Zoo. But the animations it DOES have just blow me away. There are so many for specific interactions and things the average person doesn't think about. Nuts.

A pro: Realistic looking game where you plan a strategically placed park. The vegetation options change per map and have personality, the dinos look great by them. If you use the Biosyn pack you can remove a lot of the nasty concrete/steel fixatures that ruin the pretty landscape. (Also mods that let you plant trees over fences/etc help a lot.)

Overall I have enjoyed this game. Except a lot of the annoying/repetitive dialogue. Could tone back the negativity in 'chaos theory' we get it, dinosaurs break out sometimes, man vs beast, maybe limit it to one extreme example like a real story. At least this is done away with (almost completely) in Biosyn. And sandbox exists. It's nice to have both.