Ark: Survival Evolved Review

Players: You can play with 2 players in the same room and up to 8 players online. Multiplayer allows you to form tribes of members in a server. The max number of tribe mates varies from each server. There's a split-screen mode for two players on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 by creating a local server.

Cross-Play: You can play people on different systems: PC and Xbox One.

Ark: Survival Evolved usually costs £24.99 to £74.99. 

Ark: Survival Evolved

Ark: Survival Evolved Explorer's Edition

 
Additional in-game purchases are offered for items that enhance the experience. This includes a regular subscription fee (known as a 'battle/season pass') to unlock access to reward items and other aspects of the game. You can purchase Scorched Earth and Aberration expansions to add maps, creatures and hazards. The third expansion, Extinction, is available through a battle pass.

This game was rated PEGI 16 for frequent scenes of moderate violence. It is not suitable for persons under 16 years of age. The examiners report expands this rating with the following: Violence consists of you fabricating a variety of weapons from pointy sticks to rocket launchers and using them against enemy humans and dinosaurs. Physical responses vary from minor to realistic but blood is shown and bodies remain until they’ve been harvested for parts or decompose.
 
This game has been rated ESRB TEEN.

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Skill Rating: This game is enjoyed by 12+ year-olds as it's a good match for their ability and maturity.
 
Users Interact: The game enables players to interact and communicate with each other, so may expose players to language usually associated with older rated games.

Instead of traditional difficulty levels, in the game you choose the difficulty by assigning it a number between 0.5 and 4 to fine-tune the challenge. The higher the difficulty, the higher level the wild animals will be, and will subsequently be harder to defeat. Additionally, the amount of loot you get in loot drops is decreased. For some of the fights, especially in higher difficulties, you'll need to be able to react fast to attacks and quickly launch a counterattack.

All of the in-game information is displayed as text, which is crucial to the understanding and setting up of the game. Most of it is quite small and cannot be adjusted. Additionally, it is overlaid over the gameplay, meaning on occasion it can be difficult to distinguish from the scenery. The same goes for the information displayed over interactive objects regarding how to use, pick up and its use.

You can use the map item to view the lay of the land, and also, if you enable it in the settings, to view your location. It can, however, be difficult to interpret the map, due to its style, which only clearly shows coastlines, rivers and hilly areas.

The game's visuals are generally bright during the day, with most of the game elements contrasting well. However, some animals can blend in with tree trunks or other parts of the environment. Furthermore, during nighttime, the game becomes very dark, meaning if you don't have a source of light it becomes very difficult to play. Some of the essential parts in the game, such as supply drops, rely heavily on colours that can be hard to distinguish for colourblind people and cannot be adjusted.

While you can remap buttons on the PC version, on consoles this is not an option.
 
Our Ark: Survival Evolved Accessibility Report details 22 accessibility features: