Recent reviews by polarbear

With mods, this game is amazing

This game is far better than I expected it to be. Highly recommend giving it a chance.

I first got this game when it came out on Ps4. I stood in line like many others only to be severely disappointed. I returned the game three days later because it was utter garbage. I picked the game up on steam awhile back because my brothers wanted to play and it was on sale. They swore up and down that it was good, and with hesitation I listened and bought it. Best choice of game I've made in a long time. This game became what I had hoped it would've been launch day, and then some. The creators have worked tirelessly to turn this game into something amazing and their hard work has paid off. I'm so glad I got back into this game, and if you're like me and weary of this from a bad experience then trust me when I say it's worth it to give it another shot.

This is my second review, if you got a chance to read the first one I'm completely redoing it because a few changes were made.

You start out in character creation. I have as of yet not found a randomize button, so if you want your character to look different than what they throw up there you're gonna have to do it by hand. There are quite a lot of options to change your character. Though some of them are as of yet a bit buggy. What I mean is, some of the hair do's glitch into your head and such. Changing how fat your character is like playing with those fun house mirrors that distort your body and stretch it out. You don't get a lot of colour options and I didn't see a choice to change beard colour seperately from hair colour. The ginger has this really bright red/pink colour that is... well not for me. Though I do love the ability to get a complete look of my character during creation.

After that you pretty much start out in what I can only presume is the kings bedroom. You get a lot of data shoved in your face all at once so it can get a bit annoying, but the game is early access so hopefully it clears up. The movement is still a bit clunky. Some would say laggy, but I feel it's more box like than lag. After the initial information overload you see a chest with an aura. You get this annoying popup every few seconds telling you to check the chest until you leave the area. More information overload on the way through the castle, and I personally thought they could've done a better job on the cannon fire. There's this one spot where you jump out a hole in the wall and it seems everytime I do (Could just be my bad luck) I get shot by a cannon blast which is loud as heck.

Finally you make it to the new world and get teleported to the middle of your 'town' instead of to the actual teleporter thing. You go through some dialogue, some of which can be quite a blur trying to read. Meaning it scrolls fast so be prepared for some quick reading, or just go without knowing whatever they were trying to say.

The combat is still a work in progress in my opinion. Switching weapons, drawing/sheathing weapons while moving is clunky and could use some adjustments. The last I played they have a market but it wasn't useable so there was no real reason to keep anything. And considering you eventually run out of inventory space, it's probably a good idea to just grab the better gear and drop the crap. Back to the combat, you can't move while firing an arrow, so be prepared for that. If you're doing close combat with a bow you're probably more likely to die if you don't time your shots perfectly. The arrows do have a knockback applied so it's possible, just hard. I've noticed that shooting a person in the side still makes them go backwards, not away from you. So it's possible to send your militia in and then shoot the people away from yours. Be careful doing this though because you could just as easily kill your people. There's also no indicator as to who is an enemy and who isn't that I've seen. Most games enemies show up red when in your crosshairs but not this one. In one scenario I ended up killing off my own militia and not the enemy because I couldn't tell who was who.

The enemy spawns are a little glitchy at the moment. I went into a battle that was 3 v 1 and all of a sudden I was surrounded by 6 guys instead of 3..

Overall this game has some unique features that make it a gem, however the gem still needs a lot of polishing before it's out of early access.

This is a good game, and well worth a shot since as I said, it's a gem. I could easily see this game doubling in price when it's finished so I recommend getting it and growing with it through the bugs before then.

I give this game a 5/10 because it still needs that polish, but I'd still play it on a rainy day.

Good luck my fellow Ellarians, and happy Goblin hunting

Sure the game has a few bugs, and some the developers may even seem to be ignoring, but what great game doesn't have bugs? I agree with some that instead of pushing out new content they should fix what they have, but I still really enjoy this game. I play with friends and we all have a great time. Sure it's frustrating, hard, sometimes makes you rage quit, but that's one of the things I love about it. It's not an easy game. You don't just get things handed to you. You have to fight for them every step of the way. There's no such thing as safe in this game. It's either kill or be killed. It takes survival of the fittest to a whole new level, and then it gives you a chance to build new weapons and gear and take on even stronger foes. I feel Ark was built to test peoples patience, and survival skills. It certainly does that. Starting off naked (wearing some weird shorts things and a bra if you're female) you have to fight for more. Mark your territory and then spend the rest of your game sessions defending it from dinosaurs and other people if you play pvp. My favorite thing about Ark: Spotting the perfect dino to tame, working hard to knock it out and then nearly finishing a blockade around it when another dinosaur comes up and eats it. It reminds me that life can screw you over, and if you slack off you're not going to get the prize.


EDIT: Added new information below.

So, after 2,361 hours played I figured I'd leave another updated review. Stunning. That's the best way to describe this game. The content they release never ceases to capture my imagination and take me on a journey. The game play isn't without bugs, but the scenery seriously takes my breath away. Ever feel like you're king of the world? I suggest flying up on a wyvern and just looking at the horizon. Nothing makes me feel smaller than the vast landscape that was virtually created with such depth that even from on high, I still feel very small. Want to play a game where you climb up an actual volcano and then jump off with a parachute to sail across an island? Ark has it. Want space guns and battle ships? I'm pretty sure there's a starwars mod for this game too. Which is another point, there are so many mods for this game that you could do just about anything you wanted. For me, I just love exploring the maps. Over 2k hours and I have yet to explore every inch of the first map, let alone any of the others. I still find things I've never seen before, never done and that's why I nominated this game this year. Can't wait to see what happens next. There's gotta be a next right? Ark 2 or something?

Can't wait to try the full game. It's a little glitchy to start up but once you figure it out it's a great game all together. (Glitchy as in the start up console is a bit different.)