Recent reviews by Pavivier

the game at it's core is fun
That said i can't recommend it , at the moment it is very unoptimised leading to frequent freezes and other strange bugs
ark is also a game that requires a LOT of time , taming a medium level dinosaur can take well over 3 hours some of the higher level ones can over six hours , not including the time it takes to collect all the materials to start taming them
you will never be able to craft everything unless yo play with friends, there simply aren't enough crafting points
even keeping the status quo on all your stuff requires a decent time investment, once you collect a few dinosaurs you need to spend atleast 1 hour hunting a day to keep them fed , and there is no way to stack up since food rots away fast

if you don't have people to play this with , don't buy it

this is a gem
it's also one of those rare games where what you see in the trailer is what you get , so if you like the look of it i'dd highly recommend it.
and don't think for a second you're only getting one battle, the battle is cut up in different stages the outcome of each stage decides how the next one starts allowing you to create your very own battle, the ai is great to and the has a great morale system
you might be wondering why your 1500 man strong infantry regiment just got repelled by 800 yanks, until you realize your men have been fighting since the early hours and have lost 1000 men already. my only gripe is that there is no way to check how many the enemy's troops have lost leaving you to guess whether you're fighting 800 fresh troops or not unless you are an expert on the battle of Gettysburg.
overall though i highly recommend this game to anyone. if you like the idea you'll like the game
you don't need to be american to like this game but knowing a bit about the civil war increases your enjoyment tenfold
i'dd love to see a Napoleonic expansion like Waterloo for this

now for my only negative points:
-the controls are great overall however sometimes when trying to circle troops for selection you accidentally select 1 unit to walk in a circle once you get used to selecting units it's no longer a problem though
-the art style is great but the infantry lacks some variation, i'm no expert on civil war uniforms but i'm certain there was still some diversity between regiments at Gettysburg , the iron brigade or black hats for example are all wearing a blue kepi iirc and the southern infantry is very uniform compared to most images I've seen

if you've always wanted to play a ww1 fps , this is as good as it's gonna get , give it a try
the only downside is the weird squad leveling system
you get co-op points, but they only count when you are playing together with the same people you got them with, it takes a while to level the squad even with 3 people and having a higher level squad gives you direct upgrades over the other players, for example turning the officers mortar shot into a full artillery barrage
you will rarely encounter squads with high level because of this but when you do you will definitely feel like you're at a disadvantage

regardless it is the only issue i have with the game and i'm enjoying it immensely