Ark: Survival Evolved recently received the Scorched Earth expansion which adds the long-awaited desert biome. It also adds new items to craft and features additional challenges. You’re stranded, starving and dehydrated in a vast desert–filled with dunes, high desert, mountains, canyons, badlands and oases–and it’s very difficult to find water and food, much less build shelters and acquire gear. The desert not only sports new creatures, but it also contains dragons. You can also travel back and forth between regions so, while initial survival is difficult, you can eventually master this unforgiving terrain.
There are many new items but some stand out. Players can use whips, boomerangs and flamethrowers to defend themselves now. You can also create wells, wind turbines and oil refineries to provide your base with much-needed resources. You’ll need them if you want to conquer the ultimate challenge found in the desert.
According to the developers, like the island before it, the desert of Scorched Earth is home to several mysterious obelisks of unknown origin. Unleashing their power will bring survivors face-to-face with Ark’s deadliest boss creature to date–the ferocious Manticore! What is it protecting? Maybe the secret of the Ark? Maybe powerful alien weapons? Only survivors learn the truth. Given my lack of skill I don’t think I’ll ever come close to learning to truth so if you know it do tell me.
Along with the Scorched Earth expansion, Ark: Survival Evolved recently received a significant update which improved the resolution on Xbox One. Now the game runs at 720p but there are many issues. Ark: Survival Evolved looks and runs worse than I do on sports day. Whereas before the game looked glossier than my sweat-covered forehead, now it looks softer than my ever-enlarging stomach. Along with this the game still features the constant screen tearing which has been plaguing the title since launch. The screen tearing is still frequent, with the midsection of your screen constantly lagging behind everything else, but at least Studio Wildcard has removed the constant shimmering from every single object in the game world. That’s an improvement right there. How anyone can play this title for extended periods of time is beyond me.
With the bump in resolution and improved aliasing across the game, Ark: Survival Evolved manages to look slightly worse in visual fidelity. If you can remember, Ark used to be covered in more jagged edges than a Deus Ex: Mankind Divided promotional poster. Now everything looks much softer and textures look lower in quality with less of the small details that were presumably making the game chug before. The extreme motion blur that’s also been with us since launch is still in full effect which, when combined with the still atrociously-varying frame rate, makes motion sickness sufferers like myself feel like throwing up after only a few minutes.
Then comes the issue of price. Ark: Survival Evolved just got a controversial first expansion. Many players don’t think that a premium priced expansion is viable for a buggy, unfinished game, especially one that’s made so much money and still doesn’t perform to the standard that everyone wants. In my opinion Scorched Earth should be free. Instead of the wild varying locations of The Centre—which was a free expansion—or even the base game, Scorched Earth doesn’t offer the variety you’ve come to expect.
Ark: Scorched Earth is not cheap. A $20 expansion should feel like it’s worth that much. When the game is adding new maps for free created by users that take notice of what other players want, Studio Wildcard’s alternative is frankly not worth the time or money. I would recommend waiting for a price drop or sale. I also hope that further refinement comes to Ark: Survival Evolved because while I see great potential in the game, the blurry visuals make it completely unplayable as far as I’m concerned.
Asher and Lewis is a shared byline ICXM used for 4 articles co-authored in 2016 covering game reviews, and Xbox news. See the individual contributor profiles for the writers behind these collaborations.