ARK: Survival Evolved Extinction review

| Nov 28, 2018 | By: FEARIUN

ARK: Survival Evolved Extinction is the final DLC in a series of 3 pretty large expansions. If you loved the previous ones and enjoyed all the content, you will enjoy Extinction even more. That’s because in many ways you get more of the same, as well as a ton of new content.

Gameplay

The new map is offering a ton of cool stuff. They are adding in environmental features, which include element eruptions, geysers, orbital supply drops, meteor showers as well as eclipses. All of these will make it harder but also a lot more interesting to travel the game world. Basically, you don’t know what you can encounter and that will definitely be its fair share of a challenge.

Speaking of the new map, it’s called Corrupted Earth. It’s a post-apocalyptic map where you will notice an interesting blend of nature and science-fiction. You will notice a shattered moon that floats above the planet’s red sky. This issue brought in a lot of mutated plants that are mostly orange or red and these grow alongside rocks in the wastelands.

As you play you will find out that the source of those corrupted creatures roaming the land are various corrupted spires. These are created from corrupted elements and they are very dangerous. The city does have its fair share of problems. There are tech creatures surrounding the city, but as you can clearly see this is not the planet we know, and that’s definitely bringing in its fair share of challenges

It’s important to note that ARK: Survival Evolved Extinction has a lot of new creatures. The corruption added here just makes the game a lot more intense and it brings in front some cool options for the creatures. You have corrupted wyverns, rock drakes and so on. If there are orbital supply drops or element nodes, the corrupted creatures will react to those. Most of the time they will attack you in masses, and that will be a huge problem if you want to keep your colony safe as much as possible.

Even if it sounds like a huge issue, it’s also a challenge because it encourages players to enjoy their time together and just explore all the possible options that appear here. Maybe the best thing they added in ARK: Survival Evolved Extinction are the titans.

Exploration

These are giant minibosses that will roam the map the way they see fit. They are very aggressive and that means you should avoid attacking them unless you are 100% sure that you can find a way to keep them under control if you can. Some of the creatures were not mutated, so you can still have some gasbags and other regular creatures.
If you go inside the planet, you will be able to find the scout and enforcer. These are great mechanical creatures. You can’t tame them like organic beings. However, if you eliminate them you can get some of their parts and you can craft them on your own. Crafting these will also require you to check the orbital supply drops for blueprints. Yes, it can be a bit of a hassle to get these, but then again you can easily have them as a part of your tribe and that will be a great opportunity.

Also, you can find explorer notes on the map too. They did a very good job at adding in a lot more lore to the game. It just makes the experience a lot more interesting and rewarding, which is indeed something worth exploring here. On the other hand, finding those explorer notes can be tricky. They are not that easy to identify and usually you will have to go to great lengths if you want them. However, if you are passionate about the

game story and want to learn more about the lore they created, this is the right way to do it.
They added dino dossiers for the small amount of new creatures that comes with Extinction. Like the explorer notes, some are easy to get, some are not. Still a great way for you to learn what those animals eat, how they live and where, among many other things.

The game also has element nodes, a new feature that requires you to fend off the corrupted creatures with the tamed ones. If you do that, you will get the treasures inside and those are pretty significant to be honest.

Downsides

What a lot of people dislike in ARK: Survival Evolved Extinction is that they only added a few species of dinosaurs. While that can be discouraging, the base game and other expansions already added a whole lot of dinos, so having a few new ones is better than nothing. But yes, they could have added more.

Also, if you get past the outer boundary of the map, you will get killed. This is not exactly a friendly approach, and it can end up being a problem since it will also kill your pet.
Plus, there are bugs. You can expect some bugs as you play, such as graphical bugs and unregistered hits. These tend to happen more often than not. And the performance issues a lot of people had in the original game and the expansions are not 100% fixed. You can still deal with some stuttering.

Is ARK: Survival Evolved Extinction worth it for you?

The unique approach and the outstanding ideas really make this game a lot of fun. It can take a little bit of time to get used to the new mechanics. But the addition of titans is a great thing, the new biome dome are cool and the gameplay definitely makes the most out of the new stuff too. There are some bits and pieces of lore in the game world too, for those that want to collect everything. All in all, ARK: Survival Evolved Extinction is a great expansion and it’s certainly worth the money if you loved ARK: Survival Evolved and wanted more content!