Thanks to enormous prehistoric skeletons in our museums and amazing classic movies like jurassic park in our living rooms, this generation seems to have developed a  serious fascination with dinosaurs. Being able to walk alongside a trex has been the childhood dream of almost every child and Wildcard Studios´s creation of Ark Survival Evolved made this dream a reality. Ark throws you into a world (or ark) inhabited by up to 100 other players which, like many other survival games of genre you must fight to survive by harvesting resources and creating bases. Countless dinosaurs also roam these lands ranging from harmless dodo birds you can harvest for meat to giant bloodthirsty giganotasaurus that would gladly do the same to you.

Ark adds a unique element to the classic multiplayer survival formula by adding dinosaurs that can be tamed and used as you feel fit. Almost every dinosaur you see in ark can be made your own. This however is the only distinguishing feature from other games of this genre. The grind in Ark is no different than its competition taking more and more time in order to progress further. It could take you nearly 24 hours to tame a single dino and a whole extra day to be able to have the resources to craft its saddle. There is only two ways for this to be possible, play on a server that shortens these times dramatically or  play with a group and split the work, which is what seems to be what is intended.

This game is EXTREMELY difficult and cannot be completed in the traditional sense.  It is definitely not for the faint of heart or those who give up quickly. Starting out with nothing you must deal with the aforementioned grind and dinosaurs that will likely kill you repeatedly. After climbing the food chain and taming a few dinos of your own wild dinos will no longer be as much of a problem. Instead players now represent the greatest threat, capable of destroying hours, days, or even months of work just for fun. Playing with a group makes it a little easier to defend your work though you are never entirely safe.

Despite being in early access for years Ark still has plenty of bugs and exploits even after its recent release. Two years of feedback and plenty of glitches that exsted at launch are still within the game. Instead of fixing the problems with their game WIldcard continues to cram new things into it. Sure it keeps you coming back to see all the new dinosaurs and mechanics added to the game. But  is this it really worth having all your progress being lost due to a broken part of the game? This is my one an only major complaint about the game.

Ark is a very polarizing game, you may find yourself dumping 100s of hours of playtime into it and not tireing. Or you could be one of the people who just sees it as a broken unplayable mess. Regardless, i definitely believe this game is worth a try. Just remember only two stable positions are within ark, the top or the bottom,there is no middleground. If you are not okay with this and the grind be hesitant about buying this game.