This is an updated and different review to a previous review I did last year. Any reader posted comments someone may read below my review that are circa 2016 will reflect the older review I gave then.

So with this newer review, I wish there was a neutral option for giving reviews. To this end I'll for now give it a yes but must warn readers that one must be wary of some points I'll discuss and decide for themselves. So its a yes with heavy caveats.

First of all, if you're thinking of buying this game, above all else, --Please-- make sure your computer is as close to the recommended requirements or above as best as possible. Below this, you are asking for trouble. At the time of writing this, even 1080ti's cannot consistently maintain(key word being consistently) 60 fps in the game due to its lack of optimization. With the official launch of the game a month away, whether their intended optimizations will make the game for perform with higher fidelity or not by their planned official launch out of Early Access is still yet to be seen.

So if your computer is in the minimum requirements area, do --not-- buy this game. The minimum requirements are disingenuous at best and intentionally deceptive at worst. Every day on the forums I see people lamenting their computer cant play the game and almost always its because they expected their 5+ year old computer to be the exception to the rule. Ark is one of the most rig punishing games out on steam currently. There are no exceptions to the rule.

Ark's Official servers are nothing more than proof of concept or demo servers. The second most common complaints I see daily are with issues with official servers such as being down, bugged, players being toxic, maps being nothing but urban sprawl(I'll say more to that later) and more. There is no prestige to be had playing official servers. The majority of players of Ark (and the devs) know this and this is why there are over 17000+ unofficial servers versus the hundreds of official ones the game. In fact as you'll see below, the devs intentionally incentivize players to play on unofficial servers.

And that becomes a good point: so many servers to choose from with so many variations of settings. But it also can be a bad point if you do not vette servers carefully. Bad servers and bad server owners exist.

Next point, Ark has an extremely robust modding community. In fact, one of the reasons for the longevity -AND- popularity of the game with players is the mods. Wildcard studios understands this and thus have a paid, sponsorship modding program(4k a month). To date, 3 of the 4 DLC (all 3 being free too) that were added officially to the game have been formerly mods and the mod makers hired. Consider this as incentive to both play and to consider getting into the mod making community.

Its also important to remember that mods can only be played on those 17000+ unofficial servers. Another reason why official servers are not worth the time to play on.

The game focuses much of its game play on crafting, building and taming dinosaurs. There is a decent amount of depth available and once you start adding modded content to it, it becomes mindblowingly more so. Everything from more fantasy creatures and dinos to Borderlands series baddass elemental dinos and creatures, to moonbase experiences. Even just simply the wide variety of mod made maps can completely change the feel and playability of the game.

Additionally if you decide to play on a pvp server(or a pvpve server), then destroying what others make and killing them is another appealing activity for some. Sadly though, the pvp in Ark is extremely imbalanced and highly exploitable, especially on official servers. Some unofficial servers have improved those issues with mods and mindful owners of those servers policing issues but its still not what it could be.

Where the game begins to see serious flaws(outside the unfinished state of it and bugs and optimization issues) is that there is a finite amount of resources and space to build. Most servers(including official ones) will encourage as high as 70-100 concurrent players. The reality though is more than 10 players to most servers means most of the reasonable/decent locations on the map will be filled with bases. More than 20 and you're seeing nothing but base after base after base with parking lots of dinos. Resources(crafting materials and even dinosaurs to tame) become extremely limited and on some official servers you wont be able to tame anything(there are tame limits per server and tribe).

So the game has core contradiciton: it wants lots of people to play together but yet a map begins to become very unsustainable after just a small number of people and their bases, especially if they hog key resource locations on most maps(there are currently 4 official server maps and scores of different mod created maps to choose from ).

Lastly one might ask is the current price for the game worth it? Given that it is around $70 retail now because they decided to triple the cost from its Early Access price, then I would have to say no. Said no is due to the above issues and just that I do not feel the value given is worth that price. It is a monetarily exploitely set price. Yes, I've 3k hours almost at the time of writing this and many would argue I got my money's worth. But I paid around $20 in total for virtually the same game. I feel very bad for anyone that would pay triple that. I think that Wildcard is justifying this pricing because 1. No other Surival game out offers as much content as they do(if you count the modded content) 2. No other Surival game has remained for the last 2 years, especially in development, on both the top played games list for steam and the top sales list. This has emboldened them to charge what they charge now but not in a good way and I think they're taking advantage of people.

The good thing though is that because they announced this new price early, so many places outside of steam(even humble bundle currently) offers far cheaper prices for it, so if a potential purchaser is consider the game, get it from one of those other sources. Do -not- pay the currently ridiculous price they've changed it to.

Thanks for bearing with me this long in the review. There was so much else I could write good and bad but this should hit the primary ones.

So if you got a good rig, like building, mods, and are fine to not play official servers but instead smaller unofficial ones with less people, can weather the lack of optimization and bugs and can get the game more cheaply, then you're good to go. Anyone else should weigh very carefully or consider waiting or not bothering.

This is an updated and different review to a previous review I did last year. Any reader posted comments someone may read below my review that are circa 2016 will reflect the older review I gave then. So with this newer review, I wish there was a neutral option for giving reviews. To this end I'll for now give it a yes but must warn readers that one must be wary of some points I'll discuss and decide for themselves. So its a yes with heavy caveats. First of all, if you're thinking of buying this game, above all else, --Please-- make sure your computer is as close to the recommended requirements or above as best as possible. Below this, you are asking for trouble. At the time of writing this, even 1080ti's cannot consistently maintain(key word being consistently) 60 fps in the game due to its lack of optimization. With the official launch of the game a month away, whether their intended optimizations will make the game for perform with higher fidelity or not by their planned official launch out of Early Access is still yet to be seen. So if your computer is in the minimum requirements area, do --not-- buy this game. The minimum requirements are disingenuous at best and intentionally deceptive at worst. Every day on the forums I see people lamenting their computer cant play the game and almost always its because they expected their 5+ year old computer to be the exception to the rule. Ark is one of the most rig punishing games out on steam currently. There are no exceptions to the rule. Ark's Official servers are nothing more than proof of concept or demo servers. The second most common complaints I see daily are with issues with official servers such as being down, bugged, players being toxic, maps being nothing but urban sprawl(I'll say more to that later) and more. There is no prestige to be had playing official servers. The majority of players of Ark (and the devs) know this and this is why there are over 17000+ unofficial servers versus the hundreds of official ones the game. In fact as you'll see below, the devs intentionally incentivize players to play on unofficial servers. And that becomes a good point: so many servers to choose from with so many variations of settings. But it also can be a bad point if you do not vette servers carefully. Bad servers and bad server owners exist. Next point, Ark has an extremely robust modding community. In fact, one of the reasons for the longevity -AND- popularity of the game with players is the mods. Wildcard studios understands this and thus have a paid, sponsorship modding program(4k a month). To date, 3 of the 4 DLC (all 3 being free too) that were added officially to the game have been formerly mods and the mod makers hired. Consider this as incentive to both play and to consider getting into the mod making community. Its also important to remember that mods can only be played on those 17000+ unofficial servers. Another reason why official servers are not worth the time to play on. The game focuses much of its game play on crafting, building and taming dinosaurs. There is a decent amount of depth available and once you start adding modded content to it, it becomes mindblowingly more so. Everything from more fantasy creatures and dinos to Borderlands series baddass elemental dinos and creatures, to moonbase experiences. Even just simply the wide variety of mod made maps can completely change the feel and playability of the game. Additionally if you decide to play on a pvp server(or a pvpve server), then destroying what others make and killing them is another appealing activity for some. Sadly though, the pvp in Ark is extremely imbalanced and highly exploitable, especially on official servers. Some unofficial servers have improved those issues with mods and mindful owners of those servers policing issues but its still not what it could be. Where the game begins to see serious flaws(outside the unfinished state of it and bugs and optimization issues) is that there is a finite amount of resources and space to build. Most servers(including official ones) will encourage as high as 70-100 concurrent players. The reality though is more than 10 players to most servers means most of the reasonable/decent locations on the map will be filled with bases. More than 20 and you're seeing nothing but base after base after base with parking lots of dinos. Resources(crafting materials and even dinosaurs to tame) become extremely limited and on some official servers you wont be able to tame anything(there are tame limits per server and tribe). So the game has core contradiciton: it wants lots of people to play together but yet a map begins to become very unsustainable after just a small number of people and their bases, especially if they hog key resource locations on most maps(there are currently 4 official server maps and scores of different mod created maps to choose from ). Lastly one might ask is the current price for the game worth it? Given that it is around $70 retail now because they decided to triple the cost from its Early Access price, then I would have to say no. Said no is due to the above issues and just that I do not feel the value given is worth that price. It is a monetarily exploitely set price. Yes, I've 3k hours almost at the time of writing this and many would argue I got my money's worth. But I paid around $20 in total for virtually the same game. I feel very bad for anyone that would pay triple that. I think that Wildcard is justifying this pricing because 1. No other Surival game out offers as much content as they do(if you count the modded content) 2. No other Surival game has remained for the last 2 years, especially in development, on both the top played games list for steam and the top sales list. This has emboldened them to charge what they charge now but not in a good way and I think they're taking advantage of people. The good thing though is that because they announced this new price early, so many places outside of steam(even humble bundle currently) offers far cheaper prices for it, so if a potential purchaser is consider the game, get it from one of those other sources. Do -not- pay the currently ridiculous price they've changed it to. Thanks for bearing with me this long in the review. There was so much else I could write good and bad but this should hit the primary ones. So if you got a good rig, like building, mods, and are fine to not play official servers but instead smaller unofficial ones with less people, can weather the lack of optimization and bugs and can get the game more cheaply, then you're good to go. Anyone else should weigh very carefully or consider waiting or not bothering.