There’s only two things in life that absolutely spook me. One being dinosaurs, two being dinosaurs with guns. However, I was able to make an exception after having a talk with Jesse Rapczak, co-founder and co-creative director of Wild Card. He gave me a moment of his time to talk shop about ARK: Survival Evolved.
“Ark is a dinosaur surivival-adventure RPG which throws the person into first-person, as it was designed for. And of course the option of third person is present as well.”
What I found pretty solid about the game is the amount of ways you can play. I was given a demo by a member of the development team and I was thrown into a whole new world. Being my first time, I had no idea what to expect. First, I punched a tree… several times. I was told this was a good start. Next, I ran down the beach in hopes I could find another player, or even a base.
I was quickly disposed of by a raptor. Mercilessly.
That is the way of things in ARK: Survival Evolved. After my failed, yet successful, attempt I was shown some actual features of the game. The in-depth crafting system. How to tame a dinosaur. And of course, how to engage in glorious PvP dinosaur battle.
It was beautiful and it really did, for a brief moment, help me get over my fear of dinosaurs. LOOKING AT YOU, JURASSIC PARK.
First, lets talk game modes. In ARK, there are so many ways to play, starting with solo single-player where you can go on your own wild adventure. There’s co-op mode, hosted on non-dedicated servers, so you can die side by side with a friend. And for you online junkies, there’s a sleugh of ways to play; PvE and PvP servers are in full swing. If you’re part of a large local community, or you’re heading one, Wild Card actually distributes servers for free to active communities. This just makes getting into it so much easier. I asked Jesse what their presence at PAX Prime was this year, and well he shared some really cool stuff involving the new play mode “Survival of the Fittest”. Imagine if you will, the Hunger Games, but a whole lot more scarier. (I mean, were there dinosaurs in the Hunger Games? I didn’t think so!)
When we asked Jesse what’s new to ARK, what can players expect to see coming, he shared a sneak peek at a new update to Survival, and it’s sounding pretty hot.
“The Survival of the fittest mode V2 launched this week with a new twist: it includes a Dragon as a mid-game event. You can tame it, fly it around and breathe fire on your enemies… but be warned, the Dragon is not loyal!”
I mean, what else could you ask for? A crazy insane game mode where you’re lowered from the sky with no weapons. You can run to the centre and risk dying or go and craft your own… oh, and hey, we threw in a Dragon just so you can have a great time, enjoy, GG WP.
So for those of you already delving in this slice of dinosaur cake, jump into the new game mode! And for those who’ve been holding off jumping into this dinosaur battle madness, this is more reason than ever to join me in glorious dinosaur combat!
ARK: Survival Evolved can be found on the Steam store under Early Access, which means only one thing:
Fresh content is going to be rolling out, and Wild Card has shown it likes to do so on a regular basis.
Orion. International man of mystery. He speaks SC2, in LoL. He once wallhacked backwards on de_dust, just to see how it feels. He is the Most Interesting Contributor to aybonline.com.
