ARK: Survival Evolved
In ARK: Survival Evolved you can tame the dinosaurs. You're stranded on an island full of prehistoric beasts and hostile players, building a base and crafting weapons. To tame a beast you usually knock it out with tranquilizers or a club, then feed it the food it likes. You can even put a platform on a brontosaurus's back and take your base with you.
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Many on the Studio Wildcard team were inspired by Jurassic Park. The game entered Steam Early Access in June 2015, shortly before Jurassic World hit theaters, timed to catch the dino fever. It sold more than a million copies in its first month.
Early access dragged on until August 2017. And back in 2016, before launch, the studio released a paid expansion, Scorched Earth, and players answered with a wave of negative Steam reviews.
Critics faulted the difficulty, the repetition and the bloat. For one reviewer, every part of fun came with nine parts grinding and crafting. At the end of September 2023 the original's official servers were shut down for the arrival of the remaster, Ark: Survival Ascended. Players give it 83% positive across 589,188 reviews, and critics 70 on Metacritic. On our Recommended Score it ranks 3,212 of 4,736 games.
Liked it? Try Raft, where you drift on a raft among sharks and hook floating debris to build it out, and Valheim, where you summon bosses with offerings at their altars.
Major updates
ARK: Lost Colony is now live! · Dec 2025All 5
System requirements
Minimum GTX 670 2 GB · 8 GB RAM · 60 GB✓Steam Deck VerifiedMin & recommended
| Minimum | |
|---|---|
| OS | Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit versions) |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2400/AMD FX-8320 or better |
| Memory | 8 GB |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GTX 670 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or better |
| DirectX | 10 |
| Storage | 60 GB |
From the game’s Steam store page.
