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With the surprise release of Ark: Survival Ascended, loads of players have been looking at the game and wondering what the differences are between it and its predecessor, Ark: Survival Evolved. At first glance, there isn’t much that’s changed. The graphics are much better, of course, and the file size doesn’t jump up to nearly half of a terabyte. Those are only a couple of the more obvious differences. There’s much more behind the scenes that we don’t notice right away. Let’s take a look at the 10 major differences between Ark: Survival Evolved and Ark: Survival Ascended.
10. Creature Pathfinding and Navigation Mesh Overhaul
With the new release of Ark: Survival Ascended, there are quite a few differences that you might not notice right away. One of the first is the creature pathfinding and navigation mesh. This is something that will be much more noticeable as you make your way through the game. If you played a decent amount of Ark: Survival Ascended, then you probably remember issues with your tames constantly getting stuck on trees, rocks, and essentially being left behind as you’re trying to take it somewhere. This new feature helps with that quite a bit and allows creatures to have updated AI that helps them avoid obstacles, making travel much easier.
9. Redesigned User Interface
Studio Wildcard made some big changes with the game’s UI, or User Interface. Not only is it easier to use, but it has the option for a much more minimalistic style to increase your immersion within the game. The User Interface has changed dramatically, though, for the better. Not only is it much easier to use now, but it also has much more functionality. In my opinion, this UI redesign was something we needed to see years ago. It’s easy to work with, simple and looks absolutely amazing. The Inventory area is split up into more sections, making it far less cluttered and stressful to look at, as well.
8. Photo Mode
With every great and visually pleasing, you must have a designated photo mode. The new Photo Mode in Ark: Survival Ascended can be accessed by pressing the ESC button to pull up the menu then by pressing “Toggle Photo Mode.” Photo Mode has many settings you can mess with to get the perfect image, including Camera, Movement, Targeting, Motion Control, and Miscellaneous settings. You can control the time of day, freeze the sky, change the weather, and even throw your game into slow motion for the sake of capturing a picture-perfect landscape. In addition, you also have access to focal length, depth of field, auto-focusing, and so much more.
7. New Camera System
Ark: Survival Ascended boasts a new and useful system for catching some of your most photogenic moments that Ark: Survival Evolved never had. No more trying to get all your friends to pose for pictures and having to deal with annoying usernames floating over their heads. No more trying to get a snap of that badass color pattern you created on your favorite Argentavis. Now, you can simply tap the K button on your keyboard and switch into a no-HUD, 3rd person mode that still allows you to move and play but gives the perfect environment for capturing beautiful images.
6. Structures and Items
With the release of Ark: Survival Ascended, we noticed some big changes to the building and some of the items available in the game. Now, building is much easier, with structures that fit together well and look so much nicer. Additionally, structure clipping is essentially gone altogether, and placing crafting stations and storage boxes on foundations has never looked so nice. Before we used to be able to cram 20 Mortar and Pestles onto a single thatch foundation and hope for the best, or clip Refining Forges into themselves to create a 5-foundation row of about 15 Forges, but now we can fit one crafting station or structure within each foundation. Each is directly in the center of the foundation and easy to access, making Ark life much easier.
5. Tracking Systems
It’s so secret that the tracking systems in Ark: Survival Evolved were seriously lacking, and most players didn’t even know they existed. The tracking system is in place to help you track partially tamed dinosaurs, so you know how the process is going, even from a distance. However, this new tracking system in Ark: Survival Ascended definitely has some major improvements. Whenever you tame a dinosaur, it auto-tracks, showing you the taming and consciousness bars right on the waypoint for that dinosaur. From the tracking menu, you can now mark dinosaurs as favorites and add a POI of their location to the map. You can also see their gender, level, health, distance from you, and hunger levels right from the Tracking List in your UI.
4. New Map System and Available Maps
Unlike in Ark: Survival Evolved, there is a new map system in place that allows all players who purchased the full version of Ark: Survival Ascended to have access to all maps. Before, we had to bother with pesky map/season passes and purchasing expensive DLC just to have access to the new maps that all our friends had. Oftentimes, it was too expensive, and the maps were clustered into bundles while others weren’t. The situation wasn’t ideal, but the new map system in place is ideal for players who already bought the maps once in ASE. Additionally, the Ark: Survival Evolved
3. New Creatures
Studio Wildcard has already announced five new creatures that will be appearing in Ark: Survival Ascended in the near future. They will appear on Extinction, Ragnarok, Scorched Earth, The Center, and Aberration. The Dreadnaughts will appear on Extinction, the Fasolasuchus on Scorched Earth, the Gigantoraptor or Ragnarok, Shastasaurus on The Center, and Yi Ling on Aberration. Each new creature will be released with the release of the new maps, something we haven’t seen in ASE in quite some time.
2. Wild Baby Dinosaurs
Baby dinosaurs are easily the cutest thing in Ark. However, before the release of Ark: Survival Ascended, you had to put loads of time, sometimes even hours, into finding suitable parents and creating the perfect environment for breeding. You must have the perfect temperature, create giant structures to keep the heat inside for larger dinosaurs filled with dozens of campfires or torches, and make sure that egg doesn’t lose too much health, otherwise, it’d all be for nothing. Now, though, we can actually find baby dinosaurs in the wild and claim them as our own. It creates a new sense of nature for the wild creatures on the ARK and adds to the realism that Ark: Survival Ascended tries to present to us.
1. Graphics
The first and biggest difference between Ark: Survival Evolved and Ark: Survival Ascended that you’ll likely notice is the massive change in graphics. ASA provides stunning environmental views and even more breathtaking upgrades to the look of survivors and creatures. The ARK now shows off high-detail assets, with rocky textures and realistic trees, as well as insanely life-like physics with death animations and knocked-out creature animations. The game no longer tried to render in everything all at once, causing massive lag spikes, so you can still walk into the turret wall-laden base and be able to see what you’re doing.
As you can see, there are some pretty massive differences between Ark: Survival Evolved and Ark: Survival Ascended. The new game might be a remaster, but it’s much better in so many ways.
