Recent reviews by Laokia

Best tip for new players is to play expecting to start over. Play, learn, let disaster strike, then return with more knowledge and do better. Rinse and repeat several times before stepping into meta gameplay. At least for myself personally, that is how I actually had the most fun with this game. And I tend to typically like to get meta and min max my playtime in games, so it was a switch.

10/10 would suffocate again.

I have played just about every Monster Hunter game, I started with 4U and played every title since- as well as going back to 3U and earlier titles as well. This game is simply beautiful, the story is engaging and deep (for Monster Hunter especially) and the monsters, gameplay, and overall improvements are great.

I would highly recommend this game to any Monster Hunter fan. I would also recommend this game to fans of action or hunting games, and would say it is worth a try for anyone. This style of game is not for everyone but it is something that one cannot really know if it would be for them without trying.

I play on PC, my high-range specs are:
GPU - GeForce RTX 3090
CPU - Intel i7-14900k
RAM - 32 GB DDR5
I can run the game at 1440p with DLSS Quality with the high resolution texture DLC at max settings at a stable 60fps. I can possibly bump resolution to 4k, but have no need. Frame Generation is off (not supported) and ultra low latency is off.

For a bonus reference, my sister has this game as well and this is her mid-range PC specs:
GPU - GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
CPU - Intel i7-13400k
RAM - 32 GB DDR4
She runs the game at 1440p DLSS Quality with the high resolution texture pack DLC at high settings (except mesh level of detail set to low due to a graphical bug) with a stable 60fps. Frame Generation and ultra low latency are both off.

Not sure if that information is helpful to anyone, and experiences may vary, but that is our PC experience. We have invested into above average computers and one should certainly take recent reviews of performance into account as the game's PC launch has certainly not been without fault.

Whackin' and Smackin' and Crackin'.

Great for some mindless diversion. Great for collectors. A game you can engage in and play and focus on the story and progression, or turn off your brain and play on auto-pilot doing whatever. Can both pose a challenge or be super chill. Has mod support.

10/10 Dysmantle all the things.

For reference, I am recommending this game as someone who has played ARK: Survival Evolved since it was in early access, when only the Island and Center maps were available (perhaps even before the Center). I do not play on official servers, and actually prefer to play either Co-Op with my sister or just singleplayer.

From that perspective, I personally have gotten more than enough enjoyment from the original ARK to justify a purchase of ASA. I bought the original on various platforms (on sale, of course, I'm not made of money) due to poor health causing difficulty playing on PC too often. So I bought ASA twice to have on PC and Xbox, thankful for crossplay, so I could still play in spite of my health being what it is. It was not a small impact or easy choice financially.

I have played 20 hours so far on PC, and over 30 hours on Xbox. I am not done playing this game by any means. I missed the sale for the PC version, so I paid full price on both, but I will definitely be getting my $100~ USD worth of time and entertainment.

Will one get ARKed? Oh yes, without a doubt. That is a core aspect of ARK. Is this game perfect? No, certainly not, this is ARK. Are there bugs? ...Diamond in the rough when there aren't anymore really. And ARK is more like a lump of coal. But, hey, coal keeps you warm, cooks them steaks, and is arguably more readily useful than diamonds... right? This time ARK is trying to be zirconium though, lol.

This game offers a nice relaxing time that is strangely addicting. It is very much a casual game, but I personally think it is a pretty good one. Cleaning in the game is oddly therapeutic and definitely easier than cleaning in real life.

Remodeling homes and 'flipping' them is quite fun. Unfortunately there is a lack of variety in the furnishings so it does throttle your creativity a little, especially if you like making things match and go well together. Despite that you can come up with some awesome designs- or just make something totally hideous and see how much the buyers are willing to pay for it.

I definitely recommend this game. I hope that the devs will continue to add in new (free) content to build up the game. Large paid DLCs are nice, and the Garden Flipper is worth a buy, but the game itself just feels a little lacking. I bought the bundle on sale and feel like I got more than my moneys worth.

There is enough play time to warrant the full price- IF you enjoy all aspects of the game at least. If you are just into furnishing homes though... I dunno, it really depends on your own values. Personally, I am very happy with the game.

If you have patience and like the premise of this game (which in a nutshell is survival with dinosaurs), then I do highly recommend it. The game can be played singleplayer, locally, or online.


- Frequent Patches/Updates
Game has frequent patches, especially after large content updates. These updates are usually at least 100MB and can even get to be over a Gig. Average is probably around 400MB. If you have metered internet, this can cause the game to become unplayable until you are able to download the update.

- Glitches/Bugs
There are still glitches and bugs in the game. From frustrating building issues to dino clipping, these are annoying and require you to adapt your play style sometimes. Other more impactful bugs are still around too, yet I have only had one of those happen (tamed dino falling through map) once in all my play time.

- Load Time
Game can take quite a while to load your world. This seems to be worse when starting a new game, though logging into your save still takes a fair while to load in. Logging into an online server, however, is faster as the world is already 'started'. This load time only applies to when you are starting up a world.

- Runs Well & My Specs
Game runs well with low-med graphics on my older non-gaming laptop PC; doesn't necessarily mean it will run on other systems, but maybe this info will help someone out there.
>> HP x360 13-a010nr Laptop
Specs:
AMD A8-6410 APU
AMD Radeon R5 graphics 1G VRAM (integrated)
8G RAM (upgraded)
1TB WD Black HDD (upgraded, no ssd)

- Great Mods & Customizable
The Workshop has loads of great mods that can make the play experience better or just add some variety to spice it up if you're tired of vanilla. You can choose your mods when playing singleplayer or hosting your own server, and there are also a ton of options to tweak to your personal tastes.



Singleplayer and Local play are fun and run pretty well. I have an older laptop that was never a gaming laptop, and I can run both a singleplayer game and a non-dedicated hosting session with graphics set between low and medium. By that I mean without lag or freezing or totally abysmal frame rates. Of course, hosting a game will cause more strain on your pc and there very well may be times that the game lags up for you or your friend(s).

Online play is not something I can really review much, because I have satellite internet. Trying to play games online, particularly where latency can so easily mean death, is very frustrating for me. I have played this game online, and I did highly enjoy it- this was back around a year or so ago when the game would crash if I tried to play singleplayer or host locally, and the only way I could play was through a server. I rented a cheap private server and played with my sister, easily over a hundred hours spent on it. It was a struggle though.

Adorable, fun, and relaxing.

This game is a great stress reliever, and fairly easy to play if you are feeling under the weather. It is easy to lose yourself in it and find that hours have slipped away. It is a casual game that can easily keep you enamored, even while doing repetitive tasks (such as caring for your slimey babies).

I recommend this game for anyone who enjoys to just sit back and take it easy every now and then.

There seems to be a common issue among players being unable to download or run this map. I am not sure what is causing the problem or why, but perhaps it is due to a lack of information...

It has been several months since I first bought ARK and downloaded the free DLC, so this is from a slightly fuzzy memory. Sorry about that- but here is what I recall.

• Obtain the DLC by clicking the add/download button in the store.
  
  
• Ark MAY have opened upon clicking the link. Just let it load and then exit the game.
  
  
• Go to ARK in your Steam Library- there should be a section for added DLC.
  
  
• Click the checkbox next to the DLC you wish to install.
  
  
• The content should then begin downloading- you should see it in the download bar or downloads page.
  
  
• Once finished the DLC should state that it is installed.
  
  
• Open ARK and you should be able to select The Center map for your singleplayer/hosted game or join a server that is using The Center map.

Hope this helps, I do somewhat recall being a tad confused when trying to get the content myself back then. This probably won't help with the 'Do you have Steam' dialog... I dunno, don't believe I ever had that issue.

This is a voxel-based crafting and building game, so naturally that alone makes it similar to Minecraft. Having played (and loved) both, I can say that this game has some familiar elements to Minecraft, but overall the FEEL of the game is different. The music, visuals, and even playstyle are more vibrant and cheerful. Dare I say that it seems more... Playful?

Lame puns aside, this game is definitely worth a try. I have enjoyed it completely free for over a year now, and would have likely sunk many more hours into it by this point had unrelated life issues not interfered. I fully plan on making purchases of the Pro DLC and coins for the store blocks when possible, but have spent 260+ fun and slightly addicted hours without doing so, and the main reason I want to make the purchases is to support the developers.

If you enjoy being creative and shaping voxel worlds (alone or with friends), I highly recommend this game. An internet connection IS required to play, which can be both good and bad. Each 'world' exists on a server, allowing them to always be available to any of the players without the players themselves having to purchase hosting or host locally. I believe this is a large part of why there is a 'store' aspect to this game- running servers constantly and upgrading/maintaining those servers as more players join and more worlds are created is likely not cheap.

To sum up, this game is simply FUN. Whether you prefer playing alone or hanging with your friends, this game is quite enjoyable. Purchases are not at all required to enjoy the game, but if you do enjoy the game (and have the money to spare), then you certainly wouldn't be wasting your money.

Review Updated November 2020

Survival. Zombies. Loot. 10/10

The game is still actively being worked on to eventually get to the full release, and has been all throughout its time in "Early Access"- it has never been abandoned. The bottom line is that the game is fun if you are willing to give it a chance (and if you like survival games). The modding community is also active and making great content to keep the game interesting even between official releases.