‘ARK’ May Be The Dinosaur Riding Survival Game PS4, Xbox One, And PC Owners Have Been Waiting For
It looks like the open-world survival game genre is about to get a jolt with ARK: Survival Evolved for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The indie-developed game was announced Monday with an impressive Unreal Engine 4 powered trailer.
Survival games have become commonplace, thanks to the success of titles like Minecraft, DayZ, Rust, H1Z1, and more. While most of these have involved zombies a few have taken a stab at using other dangers instead, such as dinosaurs. Unfortunately, The Stomping Land died in the middle of its Early Access run on Steam leaving on theHunter: Primal.
ARK from Studio Wildcard appears to be more ambitious than any of these previous dinosaur-themed survival titles. For starters, it includes the immediate “nerd out” feature of being able to ride dinosaurs. Yes, this includes Pterodactyl and the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
As common with survival games, ARK players will wake up on an island with other humans (naked, of course). They then must hunt, harvest, craft, research technology, and build shelters to protect from themselves from the environment, creatures, and other players.
ARK will allow players to form tribes that number into the hundreds, according to Studio Wildcard. They can eventually learn to domesticate the dinosaurs on the island, but it’s likely that you won’t be taming a T-Rex from the start.
Studio Wildcard’s announcement states ARK will contain over 60 dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. So far, that list includes the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Pterodactyl, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Dodo Bird, Megalodon, Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, Ankylosaur, Sabertooth Tiger, giant crocodile, giant scorpion, and what looks like a dragon.
Aside from the obvious, there’s a definite science fiction feel throughout ARK, as a mysterious blue and red tower are prominent fixtures in the trailer and key art. There’s also the diamond shaped device embedded in the player’s arm that you first see in the video when the player wakes up. Who’s up for some alien abduction?
“ARK taps into the scale, size, and wildly unpredictable nature of the dinosaur eras like no other game before it, then pairs it with the wonders of exploration and technological discovery,” said Jesse Rapczak, co-founder and co-creative director at Studio Wildcard. “We’re particularly excited to bring ARK to consoles, as open-world survival gameplay is typically found solely in PC games.”
ARK: Survival Evolved is currently scheduled for a summer 2016 release on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Steam users will get a chance to try the game starting in June with Valve’s Early Access program. There’s no price yet, but you can check out the Steam store page for the game.
There have been few survival titles released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to this point, however, and I can’t think of any off the top of my head that venture outside of the zombie genre. ARK may get a large boost for that fact alone.
Those interested in signing up for the alpha and beta should head to the game’s official site.
[Images via ARK: Survival Evolved]
