“Ark: Survival Ascended” (Studio Wildcard) is a remastered remake of the same franchise’s 2015 game “Survival Evolved.” Like its predecessor, it’s a post-apocalyptic adventure that anachronistically combines advanced futuristic technology with the presence of dinosaurs.
Small children often tend to be ardent fans of those prehistoric beasts. But this open-world title includes visual elements that make it inappropriate for them.
The narrative’s backstory is interesting but doesn’t have a significant impact on gameplay. However, gamers can enjoy snippets of dialogue from the diaries of non-player characters such as Sir Edmund Rockwell (voice of David Tennant) and Helena Walker (voice of Madeleine Madden), previous inhabitants of the story’s island setting.
As before, this isle — contained in one of the vessels of the title in which humans have taken refuge from a dying planet Earth — features a wide array of biomes. These range from snow-capped mountains to treacherous swamplands.
Yet only one map out of the series’ original 10 is currently available. More maps are scheduled to be released over the next two years, however.
Players begin with nothing except a minimum of clothes — male and female underwear, essentially — and must harvest resources and craft tools. Meters showing current levels of health, stamina, oxygen, food and water measure their chances of survival. Failure to manage these metrics correctly can result in an untimely death.
Leveling up can improve these variables. It’s also how players acquire new engrams (intellectual enhancements) for crafting advanced items.
One exciting source of fun derives from gamers’ ability not only to fight dinosaurs in the wild but to tame them as well. They can be ridden into battle or used to harvest raw materials more effectively. While combat against the dinos can result in some gory images, these are relatively restrained and never feel gratuitous.
Along with such mayhem, in an instance of excessive realism, the end of the digestive process is frequently portrayed. Both the human and animal excrement thus produced is used as fertilizer.
Beyond such intrinsic elements, opportunities for online play may also raise red flags for parents. Kids and teens in such a situation, after all, are always liable to be exposed to the bad behavior of other players.
The game contains mostly stylized violence with some mild blood effects, distasteful sights and frequent crude humor. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Entertainment Software Rating Board rating is T — teen.
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