In the sequel to ARK: Survival Evolved, you can expect not only star power, but also numerous new features – We summarise all the info.
Since its original release on 2 June 2015, ARK: Survival Evolved has become a permanent fixture in the survival genre and has been able to maintain its high player numbers to this day. After five paid and numerous free expansions, developer Wildcard is now getting everything in place for the sequel.
Ark 2 takes place after the events of the DLC “Genesis: Part 2” and will most likely take players to an unexplored, Earth-like planet. The same planet on whose surface the clone Santiago da Costa, played by Von Diesel, crashed at the end of the expansion.
Everything else we know about the sequel to the dino hit is brought together for you in this article.
When is the release of Ark 2?
The release date of Ark 2 has been pushed back to 2023 This is confirmed by a new trailer, which premiered at the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase 2022. Like the first part, Ark 2 will initially be released in an Early Access version on Steam
Is Ark 2 coming to Xbox Game Pass?
Yes, Microsoft and Wildcard have since announced that the sequel will also be available on Game Pass from day one. The unfinished version will run there under the label “Game Preview” and be listed in the corresponding category of the game catalogue.
The new trailer also leaves no doubt that Vin Diesel is still involved in the project. In addition to the role as clone Santiago, he holds the title of “President of Creative Convergence” at the developer studio. According to Wildcard, the Hollywood star knows and loves Ark: Survival Evolved intimately and brings it to around 1,000 hours of playtime.
Will this be a story game now?
Even though the developers are using the star power of Vin Diesel to tell a story about Santiago, his daughter Meeka, broken promises, betrayal and lots of dinosaurs, Ark 2 remains true to its multiplayer survival roots.
You will still be able to compete or ally with other players on official and unofficial servers, tame dinosaurs and build structures. All these aspects are to be significantly improved and expanded.
For those who want to get in the mood for the story, an animated series with 14 episodes of 30 minutes each is to be launched this year. Besides Vin Diesel, other famous actors such as Gerard Butler and Russel Crowe will lend their voices to the characters. You can get an impression of the series in the trailer:
What new features await survivors?
The list of new and enhanced gameplay mechanics is long and includes an all-new combat feel, smarter dinosaurs, physics-based animations, and extensive mod support.
Survivors can expect a new gameplay experience.
Third-person perspective and parkour
At release,
Ark 2 will be playable solely from the shoulder perspective. You will therefore be able to watch your character closely as he uses the extensive new movement repertoire. This now includes automatic diving over obstacles, free climbing on steep cliffs, targeted sliding and swinging on ropes.
The developers cite the parkour skills of the Assassins Creed protagonists as well as the climbing in Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a source of inspiration for the new mobility of your character.
New Faction: The Aratai
In addition to dinosaurs and other players, you will also face an entirely new faction: the Aratai. They will presumably be an NPC tribe that will bring the reworked humanoid duels closer to all those who do not normally compete with other humans. But even on PvP servers they are not likely to make the environment any less dangerous.
The Aratai also tame their own dinos and use them against you in battle. How exactly the encounters with them will work out, however, we will probably only find out when there is concrete gameplay to see.
New battle system, animations and collisions
In the conflicts with other players and the Aratai, Ark 2 is now clearly oriented towards the Dark Souls games. The combat system will focus heavily on dodging, blocking, combinations of light and heavy attacks as well as the player’s ability to react.
The fight against dinosaurs is also supposed to be much more varied, because not only are their animations more brutal, the corresponding animations are now also physics-based.
According to the developers, bite and scratch animations will now no longer pass through characters, but actually collide with them, get deflected and cause hit feedback and injuries at the exact spot they hit.
However, these are not intended to be trimmed for realism, and they also want to hold back on the blood. Accordingly, they are probably aiming for a release from the age of 16.
A skill system with a proper skill tree
Also in the first part, players could level up, but they only gave out a few attribute points afterwards and unlocked new crafting recipes. Ark 2, on the other hand, aims to offer a fully-fledged talent tree from which you gradually draw your active and passive abilities.
The introduction of such a system always brings with it balance issues. Only time will tell how significant the advantages of widely upgraded characters over relative new ones will turn out to be.
Intelligent Dinosaurs
Thanks to a new world event system, the world should feel infinitely more alive and dynamic. For example, dinosaurs are supposed to interact with their environment on their own and independently of the player’s presence. These events are generated procedurally and depending on the situation.
The examples given include regular gatherings of dinos at watering holes, wounded creatures and predators following their tracks, herds and herd panics, and parent animals taking themselves and their young to safety in caves.
In addition, players should be able to earn the trust of a creature if they rescue it from a dicey situation. This should then make the subsequent taming easier. Also the other (optional) events probably have a playful benefit that can be drawn from the situation.
In addition, dinos now use three of their senses: sight, hearing and smell. Players can evade these directly by camouflaging themselves, masking their smell and moving as quietly as possible. The developers announced this in a tweet, among other things:
ARK2 has a new sensory-based creature AI! 🦖
“Animals now track and hunt by sight, sound, and smell! Hide from predators with visual camouflage and environmental obstructions, and learn to mask your scent!” 🦕 pic.twitter.com/r7wa6CRtpf
– ARK 2 News (@ARK2News) June 13, 2022
Full Mod Support
In addition to more stable servers, Wildcard promises comprehensive mod support that extends to the unofficial servers – both on PC and Xbox Users who create mods can upload them to the cloud with the support of the platform (Mod.io) and thus share them with the worldwide Ark community.
Hobby tinkerers will be able to change pretty much every aspect of the game, including dinosaurs, game modes, maps, weapons, items and mechanics. The developers even mention the reintroduction of the first-person perspective as a specific example of what modders are likely to do first with the tools.
Which engine does the sequel use?
Survivors will be able to battle their way through much prettier landscapes thanks to Unreal Engine 5. We’re talking about realistic lighting with day/night changes, dynamic water and particle physics, thanks to which, for example, smoke clouds react to physical interactions, as well as local weather systems.
So instead of making it rain all over the game world, only the players who are actually under the volumetric rain and storm clouds are supposed to get wet. Meanwhile, the wide view should benefit from Unreal Engine 5’s more efficient asset streaming, which includes structures built by the player community.
What was your experience with Ark: Survival Evolved and are you looking forward to the sequel? Feel free to write us about your experiences in the comments!
