The Future of Survival Games Begins with Ark 2

Jesse, Jeremy and the Studio Wildcard Team first published Ark: Survival EvolvedWe didn’t know how huge it would become in 2015. It was beyond our wildest expectations that 7 years later we’d be developing an eons-spanning narrative across multiple games, a TV series, and starring none other than Vin Diesel as key Ark hero Santiago. Yet, here we are with our amazing players who have stayed with the Ark universe through thick and thin. And thin (Flyer Nuerf??).You now have a much larger canvas than you ever had before. That’s what Ark 2It is the most extensive canvas yet for primate survival experiences. This framework will allow you to tell your own survival stories.

Ark 2’s main narrative tells the story of a father and a daughter, Meeka (played by Auli’i Cravalho), of betrayal and broken promises, and the strength of the family bond — and of course, it’s a story of awesome giant dinosaurs. But even more importantly, this is about players’ own stories — like any good persistent-world online survival game, Survivors in Ark 2Each player will have their own path to the end of the game. They’ll form their tribes, find their friends and try to create their creature-aided society.

With Ark 2, we’re seeking not only to enhance the game’s narrative and world-building, but also retouch and improve on all aspects of what constitutes an Ark game.

These redesigns include the core mechanics for players. Controls and movement have been completely overhauled in the sequel. This is a third-person view. Drawing inspiration from games systems such as Assassin’s Creed’s automatic parkour and The Wild Breath’s climbing, player characters can now clamber over the environment in a more realistic and freeform manner. With a focus on primitive-era combat (Santiago and Tek have a complicated relationship…), Ark 2 draws heavily from Souls-like action for its human-scale combat: an emphasis on dodges, blocks, light and heavy attacks, combos, and player-reflex skill — a rarity for the PvP survival genre. Let’s just say that you can attack anything with your T-Rex when it comes to creature-scale combat. Ark 2, the results are visceral: the animation of the attack actually hard-impacts on the target (not “passing through” it), the victim’s flesh is torn, and the target physically reacts at that location to the hit – all to convey the feeling of the raw power of such a ferocious creature!

Another area that we’re particularly excited about is the World Event system. The new World Event system was created to create a dynamic environment that is not predictable and repetitive. Happening You can find events all over the world. There are many events that can be performed in a procedurally dynamic manner. These include watering holes, healing wounded animals, following signs of advanced prey such as stampedes or herds, protecting endangered species to gain their trust, searching for dens of parents and young and other tasks. Each event can bring out unique rewards or challenges.

You can make fundamental changes in many more areas. Ark 2, whether it’s the new opposing-force ‘Aratai’ who have their own tames, the new Creature Management & proper World Map systems, the advanced component-based item crafting that enables players to choose exactly what their gear looks and functions like from millions of potential combinations, or the revamped build system which provides innumerable more building options and enables saving & sharing of build templates — or, or….well, there’s just too much to go over here! You’ll get your first preview of the Ark 2 gameplay down the road, and we think you’ll like what you see.

Last but not least, let’s save the best for last Ark 2The new console version includes a completely stackable and user-created feature: Mods that can be used on any Xbox game, as well as unofficial servers. Mod creators who use the PC version of the game will now be able upload their mods to the cloud, making them accessible to all players. With this, as we’ve seen with Ark on PC, everything in the game can effectively be changed, improved, and redesigned: new creatures, new game types, new maps, new weapons & items, and mechanics (yes modders can re-add a first-person mode). The only limitation to Unreal Engine 5’s power is the creativity of content creators. We’re super stoked to witness the mind-blowing additions that players will no doubt create in their mods and maps — and we believe that having all such user generated content playable on console in Ark 2The genre’s future will be changed forever by the complete integration of cross-platform servers.

Simply stated: With Ark 2Our goal is to create the game we want. Ark to be — now that we’ve had the time, resources, and knowledge to do it right. The next year will be Ark 2 launches with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, we’ll look forward to seeing you all in this new world of primeval creatures and legendary heroes. Just keep an eye out there for Vin — he likes to play on his Xbox Series X more than you might expect, and his skill at wrangling a Giga is unequaled.