If you were growing ever more concerned that ARK Survival Ascended – the sequel to ARK Survival Evolved – was MIA, then you can breathe easier finally, as last night Wildcard Studios launched the survivalbox and a trailer to accompany it, all with little preamble. The title, which is in Steam early access and expected to stay there through the end of next year, runs $45 normally, though it’s slightly on sale now; the team characterizes ARK 2 as a “reimagined” next-gen version with a “Souls-like adventure” direction.
“ASA provides an evergreen adventure that re-energizes the classic-ARK experience,” Wildcard’s Jeremy Stieglitz says. The current version includes just the original island and mod support, though all the original game’s content through Genesis 2 will eventually make its way into the game.
“ARK: Survival Ascended is a next-generation remake of the beloved ARK: Survival Evolved game that harnesses the cutting-edge power of Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) for huge improvements and enhancements to the visuals and gameplay. ARK’s codebase has been fully rewritten, and its artwork recreated by hand to take full advantage of UE5, using high-end graphics features such as fully dynamic Global Illumination (“Lumen”), so that light bounces realistically off off hundreds of millions of triangles for extreme detail. […] The definitive survival experience returns better than ever: create a Survivor, form a tribe, and then tame, train, breed & ride dinosaurs within a living ecosystem. Monitor your food, water, temperature, and weather patterns. Slowly expand outwards then start to harvest, build structures, farm crops, customize each visual design and proceed to explore to uncover the true nature of The Island and the worlds beyond.”
The console early access launch – with mods! – is expected in November, and crossplatform multiplayer will roll out in a staggered fashion, to be fully functional for all versions in December.
