ARK: Survival Evolved

What to Know

Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 35

Skip It

Ark: Survival Evolved is an overly ambitious survival game that is devoid of depth or nuance.

Skip It

Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 35

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 35

Ark: Survival Evolved is an overly ambitious survival game that is devoid of depth or nuance.

Where to Play

** VSG may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Rate and Review

What did you think of ARK: Survival Evolved?

Player Reviews0 Votes

Critic Reviews for ARK: Survival Evolved

Critic Reviews

Score Distribution

35

Reviews

Average Score

100

Ranges

Not Recommended

Matt Wales (Eurogamer)

This ambitious survival game emerges from Early Access fully featured but just as in danger of toppling in on itself as ever before.

September 1, 2017 |

Full Review

Unforgiving difficulty and atmosphere are the main characteristics of dino-survival sim Ark: Survival Evolved.

September 13, 2017 |

Full Review

6/10

Brett Todd (GameSpot)

72/100

Ian Bimbaum (PC Gamer)

A bloated, grindy mess, but so packed with options that a better game is hidden inside it.

September 7, 2017 |

Full Review

Matt Wales (Eurogamer)

Not Recommended - (Read Review)

This ambitious survival game emerges from Early Access fully featured but just as in danger of toppling in on itself as ever before.

Brett Todd (GameSpot)

6/10 - (Read Review)

Unforgiving difficulty and atmosphere are the main characteristics of dino-survival sim Ark: Survival Evolved.

Ian Bimbaum (PC Gamer)

72/100 - (Read Review)

A bloated, grindy mess, but so packed with options that a better game is hidden inside it.

**Read all 35 critic reviews on the desktop version of VSG.

Read the Reviews (35 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
Chalgyr’s Game Room	Chalgyr’s Game Room	6 / 10	09-25-2017	ARK: Survival Evolved is an interesting game that spent a great deal of time in Early Access / Beta. The developers used this time to try and polish a title that has long had a lot of potential	Read review
Critical Hit	Darryn Bonthuys	7 / 10	09-08-2017	Ark: Survival Evolved is far from being complete, what with its many bugs and a feature bloat that doesn’t always hit the nail on the head. And yet, it’s still an addictive grind that proves that life can find a way.	Read review
Cubed3	Thom Compton	6 / 10	09-15-2017	To enjoy ARK: Survival Evolved you’re going to have to earn it, and that’s a tough sell in this day and age. For those who are willing to sweat over their controller to make even the smallest amount of headway, this is a title you should definitely give a chance. However, if the idea of suffering for a while to gain any real traction sounds horrible, steer clear. Those who survive this are going to prove they deserve to	Read review
Destructoid	Joel Peterson	7 / 10	09-15-2017	But apart from all this, aside from all the little flaws and the feeling of tedium that permeated large portions of my experience with ARK: Survival Evolved, I can’t fault the game for what it is, which is one of the best in its genre — even if after playing it, like Willard after his mission from Apocalypse Now, I’ll never want another. If any of this sounds good to you and the prospect of a straight climb up a wall full of spikes to experience the multiplayer is not intimidating, add a couple of points onto my final score; you will probably find a lot to love here.	Read review
Digitally Downloaded	Pierre-Yves Lanthier	3.5 / 5 stars	10-26-2017	Like a lot of of titles in this genre, Ark: Survival Evolved has a steep learning curve and requires quite the time	Read review
Eurogamer	Matt Wales	Not Recommended	09-01-2017	This ambitious survival game emerges from Early Access fully featured but just as in danger of toppling in on itself as ever before.	Read review
Fextralife	PrimeraEspada91	7.6 / 10	09-13-2017	Ark Survival Evolved is a unique open world survivor game pitting players to overcome a harsh ecosystem. They may choose to do so solo or with friends; in addition to playing against other gamers in a showmanship of the most advance hunters. Level opposing villages or work with them in an exchange of services. Ark gives you the opportunity to grow a garden, tame mystical and ancient beasts, and much more; the power of this lies in your forearm and your ambitions.	Read review
FNintendo	Nuno Nêveda	3 / 10	12-11-2018	ARK: Survival Evolved could have brought another interesting and fun game to the Nintendo Switch catalogue. Instead it’s a severely distorted experience which due to its poor graphical performance, ends up not fulfilling any of its ideas correctly. As a consequence of its terrible lack of fluidity, pop ups and mistakes on the graphics department, ARK: Survival Evolved turns out to be an extremely frustrating effort that leaves no one satisfied.	Read review
Gameblog	Camille Allard	6 / 10	09-08-2017	Ark Survival Evolved is a good survival game with awesome mechanics, but it’s also a technical disaster (lag, freezes, connection issues…). Such a shame!	Read review
Gamefa	Mohammad Hossein Bajalan	7.5 / 10	10-09-2017	Ark is not one of those game to start playing it and just leave it on your shelf after a short time. If you really want to be good in this game you should have a team of real-life friends that you trust. Your team’s players should have lots of free time too. Ark Survival Evolved can easily be one of the best experiences you’ve had over the years.	Read review
GamePro	Johannes Rohe	65 / 100	09-07-2017	In its best moments, Ark is the dream of every Dino fan. But bugs and the grindy game principle often spoil the fun.	Read review
GameSpot	Brett Todd	6 / 10	09-13-2017	Unforgiving difficulty and atmosphere are the main characteristics of dino-survival sim Ark: Survival Evolved.	Read review
GamingTrend	Sean Anthony	70 / 100	09-19-2017	If you have friends, Ark: Survival Evolved is a fun survival game, with options such as PvP or PvE servers to make every player happy. If you primarily play alone, however, this game will require a heavy set of grinding and repetition, turning off any players hoping to just get a taste of some dinosaur action.	Read review
God is a Geek	Chris White	7 / 10	09-13-2017	It’s incredibly ambitious, but without spending hours upon hours building a safe haven to protect you from the brutality of PvP, the single player feels a bit redundant without anyone to play with.	Read review
Hey Poor Player	Bethany Meadows	3.5 / 5 stars	09-04-2017	Its pricey to be sure, but if you’re a fan of the genre Ark is worth picking up. The hours of gameplay it offers pays for itself already. Also: dinosaurs.	Read review
Hobby Consolas	Rafa Dominguez	75 / 100	08-30-2017	ARK: Survival Evolved is a videogame with tons of posibilities where we’ll fall in love with its splendorous aesthetics, its content and its particularly atractive thematic. It’s sad, though, that our most important enemy in a world plagued with dinosaurs may be its disastrous optimization.	Read review
IGN	T.J. Hafer	7.7 / 10	09-01-2017	When I’m having a good time in ARK, I’m having a really good time. The problem is that those moments are usually one part to every nine parts menial grinding and crafting	Read review
Impulsegamer	Sean Warhurst	3.6 / 5 stars	09-17-2017	Ark: Survival Evolved has more bugs than the grill of a Mack truck and your first introduction to the game can feel akin to the sensation of being hit by aforementioned truck, but peel away the layers of abstruse game mechanics and you’ll find a strangely compelling game that’ll make you feel like the Pope of Dino-Town at times and want to open a vein in a hot bath at others.	Read review
M3	Mikael Lindkvist	7 / 10	10-07-2017	A clumsy control scheme aside, the console version of Ark: Survival Evolved is a recommendation, especially if you going to play together with your friends.	Read review
Nexus	M.A. Ligocki	7 / 10	09-25-2017	Ark is an incredibly fun game to play through and explore. As with the best survival games in the genre, it has that “just one more time” aspect going for it.	Read review
Niche Gamer	Michael Jordan	5.5 / 10	09-07-2017	I want to love this game so bad, but I just can’t.	Read review
Nintendo Life	Dom Reseigh-Lincoln	4 / 10	12-06-2018	Ark: Survival Evolved, in its current state, is not the best port to grace Nintendo Switch. It is, however, a proper MMORPG survival game with a deep and rewarding crafting system and the potential for some brilliant online cooperation with your fellow survivors. There’s a palpable thrill to moving from simple stone tools to more advanced weaponry as you begin to master the crafting cycle, an experience no other game on Switch can offer right now. But its myriad technical problems – ranging from texture pop-in to substantial performance slowdown – mean you really are better off playing Ark on a different platform for the time being. Patches could solve some of these problems over time, but we can’t help but feel this ambitious title will never run at an acceptable level on Nintendo’s hybrid platform.	Read review
Nintendo Times	Jay Kittelson	6 / 10	12-19-2018	WORTH CONSIDERING	Read review
NintendoWorldReport	John Rairdin	2.5 / 10	12-15-2018	Is a Switch game that can realistically only be played in docked mode actually playable? The entire point of this system is to be able to take your games with you, but ARK can’t really offer that. It draws into question the sanctity of the Nintendo seal of quality. The fact that it is not only available to the public, but costs money is an insult. Don’t buy ARK on Switch.	Read review
PC Gamer	Ian Birnbaum	72 / 100	09-07-2017	A bloated, grindy mess, but so packed with options that a better game is hidden inside it.	Read review
PCGamesN	Phil Iwaniuk	8 / 10	08-14-2017	In the end, Ark’s ambition pulls it in the right direction with more force than its clunkiness tugs it the other way. It’s always more enjoyable to spend time with a game that tries something new and exciting, stumbling along the way, than a game that tries to tick focus group-inspired boxes. If that game also happens to simulate an entire prehistoric ecosystem, and produces bewildering emergent scenarios like clockwork, all the better.	Read review
Player.One	Christopher Groux	6 / 10	09-06-2017	ARK: Survival Evolved is a mixed-bag experience that only truly caters to those well aware of, or heavily interested in, the survival genre.	Read review
PlayStation LifeStyle	Paulmichael Contreras	7.5 / 10	09-04-2017	Ark: Survival Evolved has a bunch of interesting ideas. But by attempting to be a jack-of-all-trades, it doesn’t really feel like it has mastered any particular element. This doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had in the ARK; if you enjoy the brutal survival mechanics on offer here, then you will likely spend many dozens, if not hundreds, of hours in the quite lengthy grind as you conquer the primitive world. For many people, however, the time required to really enjoy what’s shown on the cover art may prove too insurmountable.	Read review
PS4Blog.net	the_nmac	7.5 / 10	09-13-2017	ARK: Survival Evolved is still a good game, but it’s not a one friendly with newcomers. Getting to the enjoyable part of the game will take hours, so gamers need to be willing to put the time into it. The game looks even better now than it did before, making you fear for your life when you see the hulking beasts out to get you, not to mention the gorgeous environments you’ll explore.	Read review
Rock, Paper, Shotgun	Samuel Horti	Not Recommended	09-13-2017	While ARK can be a lot of fun – grabbing another player off of a raptor with an Argentavis feels bloody brilliant – it’s rarely worth the hours of tedium. If you can spare the 100 or so hours it takes to get your teeth into it then I’d recommend you spend them elsewhere.	Read review
SwitchWatch	Jordan Humphries	7 / 10	11-27-2018	Video Review	Read review
TheSixthAxis	Nicole Hall	4 / 10	12-18-2018	Even as an Ark aficionado, it’s difficult not to slump in disappointment as you play the Switch rendition of what can be a fantastic title. The touch screen may allow for better control functionality as far as the other consoles go but ugly visuals and general instability don’t really make up for it. Ark: Survival Evolved is and will remain one of those titles that shines brightest on PC and only there can it gain the appreciation it truly deserves.	Read review
TrueAchievements	Kelly Packard	3.5 / 5 stars	09-07-2017	Amazing things are possible in the ARK — the gun-wielding soldier set high atop the most badass predator of all time comes to mind — but the experience is clouded by the best ones being locked behind excessive grinding, boring farming and the need for a large group.	Read review
Twinfinite	Zhiqing Wan	3.5 / 5 stars	09-04-2017	When you finally get over the initially steep learning curve and find fellow like-minded players that you can group up with, ARK: Survival Evolved becomes a truly enjoyable sandbox game where anything goes. But not even the impressive dinosaurs and cool tech can cover up just how repetitive the game really is, and how you’re forced to sink in hours and hours of grinding before you can finally start to get to the ‘good’ stuff.	Read review
USgamer	Mike Williams	2.5 / 5 stars	09-02-2017	Studio Wildcard has built a game that feels like a rough framework for players creating their own experiences, rather than a whole, cohesive experience in and of itself. There’s a lot hear to see and do: gathering, crafting a wide variety of items, taming animals, and building tribes. But it’s hidden behind an elder game that teaches players nothing and a mid-game of maintenance and tedium. But there’s promise here underneath the cruft and rough edges. That promise just isn’t full realized yet.	Read review

** Learn more about how to become a MetaMeter-approved Critic.

About ARK: Survival Evolved

Game Description / Storyline:

ARK: Survival Evolved takes on the survival genre with a unique blend of emergent multiplayer cooperation and competition. Players awake naked and starving on the beach of a mysterious island among a herd of other confused humans. On ARK, they must then hunt, harvest, craft, research technology, and build shelters to protect against scorching days, freezing nights, volatile weather systems, dangerous wildlife, and potential enemies.

RELEASE DATES:

DEVELOPER(S):

PUBLISHER(S):

GENRES:

SERIES/FRANCHISE:

GAME MODES:

GAME ENGINE:

DLC:

BUNDLED IN:

DIRECTOR(S):

PRODUCER(S):

DESIGNER(S):

PROGRAMMER(S):

ARTIST(S):

WRITER(S):

COMPOSER(S):

LINKS:

ESRB RATING:

Detailed Information

GAME MODES:

GAME ENGINE:

DLC:

BUNDLED IN:

DIRECTOR(S):

PRODUCER(S):

DESIGNER(S):

PROGRAMMER(S):

ARTIST(S):

WRITER(S):

COMPOSER(S):

Developed by Studio Wildcard. All titles, content, brand names, trademarks, logos, artwork, and associated imagery are trademarks and/or copyright material of their respective owners. © All rights reserved.