Ark: Survival Evolved (2017)
Ark: Survival Evolved is a 2017 shooter video game made by Studio Wildcard and Snail Games.
You wake naked and starving on the shore of a strange island, one confused human among many. Ark: Survival Evolved builds its survival loop from the basics, hunt, harvest, craft, and shelter against brutal weather and worse neighbors, then adds its signature twist: the wildlife includes dinosaurs and other primeval beasts you can tame, ride, and press into service. Character growth runs on deep role-playing systems, and tribes of players band together to dominate rivals. Beneath the scavenging and the raids sits a slow mystery about the island's true purpose.
Quick answers
What is Ark: Survival Evolved about?
You wake naked and starving on the shore of a strange island, one confused human among many. Ark: Survival Evolved builds its survival loop from the basics, hunt, harvest, craft, and shelter against brutal weather and worse neighbors, then adds its signature twist: the wildlife includes dinosaurs and other primeval beasts you can tame, ride, and press into service. Character growth runs on deep role-playing systems, and tribes of players band together to dominate rivals. Beneath the scavenging and the raids sits a slow mystery about the island's true purpose.
When was Ark: Survival Evolved released?
Ark: Survival Evolved was released on 27 August 2017.
Who made Ark: Survival Evolved?
Ark: Survival Evolved was made by Studio Wildcard and Snail Games.
Similar games
Explore Ark: Survival Evolved guides
Ark: Survival Evolved in our writing
- Is It Worth It: Palworld's Comeback Pulled Almost a Million Players Back
- Companion guide: Dinosaurs: The Complete Guide
- Companion guide: Survival Crafting Games: The Complete Guide to Gathering, Building and Staying Alive
- Companion guide: Wilderness Survival
A few thoughts on Ark: Survival Evolved
Lord of the Flies shadows the multiplayer reality: strangers stranded together, tribes forming, civility thinning as survival takes over. For the dinosaur thrill and the dread of being prey on an unmapped island, Jurassic Park is the obvious watch, and Lost matches the wake-up-on-a-mysterious-island hook along with its buried purpose.
Open-world survival where the wilderness itself is the enemy
Ark's opening hours are nothing but weather, hunger and a landscape that doesn't care if you survive the night. Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Vikings and Wild all put a lone traveler against terrain built to kill first and explain later, where the map is as dangerous as anything hunting you on it.
Banding together when the world outside your walls wants you dead
Ark eventually turns into a story about the tribe you build, the walls you raise and who you let past the gate. The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, Half-Life 2 and Stranger Things all follow ordinary people organizing a defense against a threat that's already won everywhere else, one fortified pocket at a time.