ARK: Survival Evolved is the new Crysis

[Malo]

I've been much more impressed by another early access survival game, The Forest. They haven't just thrown in a bunch of top-tier graphical effects and hoped for the best - they're clearly working towards realism, which is reflected in both the graphics and the UI. And the pacing is far better - my first three hours with The Forest had so much tension, so many memorable moments, and so many surprises. I could focus on enjoying the game. In ARK I'll be getting stuff together for an hour, and start to have fun... oh, two minutes later I'm dead. Another hour lost to corpse retrieval or starting over.... I'm dead. Tamed a bunch of dinosaurs... oh, a random aggro and they're dead. Can't build anything locked behind the arbitrary XP system, can't find corpses half the time... it's too much hard work and not enough play, and it really does need 12-15 hours of tedious play before it gets going. I can't see ARK coming out before Q416 at the earliest in its current state of gameplay. But it's still quite promising. And you can poop (although The Forest has "you cannot carry any more legs", so they're about even there IMO).

At a sale price of $10 for The Forest (or Sale-$10 for 7 Days to Die, if you prefer a bit of Minecraft in your survival and don't mind graphics that look like an easy port to 360), Sale-$25 is just too high a price for ARK at the moment.

Thanks for your comments on The Forest. I've had that on my wish list as it was one of the only of many sandbox survival games out now that looks really good.

 

[homerdog]

Sadly the game itself hasn't been improved - they seem more set on adding new creatures than improving the pacing, the fucking awful XP system, the fucking awful taming system, or the fucking awful corpse retrieval. It's already in a playable state, and if you play solo you can triple the taming speed and the XP speed to lower those annoyances, but you won't be able to implement these same system controls in multiplayer (and you'll get murdered in your sleep and have all your erections destroyed by ARKholes anyway).

I know what you mean my brother walked into my room the other day while I was on the computer and totally destroyed my erection. Super annoying.

 

[PenguinJim]

Thanks for your comments on The Forest. I've had that on my wish list as it was one of the only of many sandbox survival games out now that looks really good.

I hadn't realised until I just looked, but The Forest's normal price is only $15 on Steam at the moment anyway. Hmmm.... HMMMMM..... I wonder... can I recommend it at $15? I'm very tight with money. It's definitely worth $10. Yikes. $15?!? I have to remember that Normal People probably spend $15-20 on a game most of the time anyway. In that context, it's worth getting for $15!

What's paradoxical about The Forest is that it "feels" like a more serene, slower-paced game than ARK, but you just get so much done every single hour in The Forest, while ARK almost taunts you with the amount of your hours it (currently) completely wastes. And The Forest is damn scary. They could basically rename it The Descent - The Game. If you do get The Forest, consider looking at this spoiler about game saving! (Yes, it would have been nice if I'd known that BEFORE the picture in question!)