When ARK: Survival Ascended was released in October 2023, the game received a lot of criticism. Now there is a discount for the survival game, but is it worth the price?
What kind of game is that? On October 26, 2023, Ark: Survival Ascended (short: ASA) came onto the market. This is a remaster of the popular survival games “Ark: Survival Evolved”, in which you can tame or breed various dinosaurs and mystical creatures to build an impressive base with them, to enable powerful bosses or to show other players in the PvP .
ARK: Survival Ascended staging the old, well-known maps and creatures of the original game of pretty-with the help of Unreal Engine 5. In addition, the remaster brought mod support for the console versions of the game and new content, including dinos, MAD-MAX -Autos and various structural designs.
Here you can see a trailer for the latest update from Ark: Survival Ascended:
Ark Survival Ascended shows extinction and “Mad Max” cars in the trailer
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What a discount is that? ARK: Survival Ascended is reduced by 45 % on Steam by February 24, 2025 and only costs 24.74 euros instead of 44.99 euros. The survival game on Steam has never been as cheap as the SteamdB database tells us.
You can also buy ARK: Survival Ascended at the PlayStation Store. There the dino adventure costs 29.24 euros and also 24.74 euros for PS-Plus subscribers.
Whether it is worth it depends on your hardware
You should know that about performance: The survival game is still not well optimized. If you don’t have a reasonably powerful PC, you will fight with low FPS and jerk. Thanks to Unreal Engine 5, the game looks pretty pretty, but you don’t have much of it if the FPS fall from 45 to 20 with every smallest movement.
The system requirements recommended on Steam are:
These requirements are the first hurdle, so to speak. If you do not fulfill them, you may not have a lot of fun. The first thing to do is whether the game is worthwhile on your hardware. Overall, ARK is running: Survival Ascended, but now better than the release, and if you meet the recommended requirements, you could also reach over 60 fps depending on the setting.
Danger: Meinmmo editor Dariusz always has crashes in Ark: Survival Ascended, although the hardware used is actually sufficient. However, not every player has the problem. Here you have to see for yourself whether you will do without a purchase as a precaution.
Asa has changed significantly in 15 months
This is how ASA 2025 takes place: ARK: Survival Ascended has now received some updates – including free. For example, you can now play the Maps Scorched Earth, Autration and Extinction without spending a cent. You still had to buy these cards in ARK: Survival Evolved with DLCs.
If you lack cards such as extinction and aberration in the original game, you can consider buying the DLCS ARK: Survival Ascended and experiencing the maps directly in UE5 graphics. At the release, ASA still looked like a brazen way of earning fast money with old content – especially since a number of content was missing that ARK: Survival Evolved had. Now there are some of the old maps in Ark: Survival Ascended and they are free. This even offers some players the opportunity to save money.
In addition to the maps that the game has received in recent months, there are now new dinosaurs. In addition, the paid add-on “Bob’s Tall Tales” contains various additional content that follows certain topics. The most recent update brought content in the MAD-MAX style, for example, a previous rely on Steam-Punk. The Wild West is also represented.
On top of that, many talented modder have moved on from the ARK community and are now also developing their works for ARK: Survival Ascended instead of ARK: Survival Evolved. You can find new mod maps, dinosaurs or structures mainly in the remaster. Including the popular works of the German modder “Nekatus”.
It’s worth it, but you don’t care about the most important argument
Is ASA 2025 worthwhile? You should think carefully about whether you really buy Ark: Survival Ascended.
Most PC players probably don’t care about the biggest pro argument for buying ARK: Survival Ascended: With ARK: Survival Ascended, consoles were given the opportunity to play with mods for the first time. That was already possible on the PC at ARK: Survival Evolved. However, this is an important innovation for console players, because mods improve the game enormously.
The biggest counter -arguments are performance and the original game. Anyone who has played Ark: Survival Evolved, has most or even all DLCs and has installed the most important mods can easily do without the remaster. Then you don’t have to deal with a few FPS or crashes.
ARK: Survival Ascended is worth it for you if:
ARK: Survival Ascended is not worth it for you if:
Is ASA worth the price? Yes and no. This depends above all on you, but 49.99 euros are definitely too high in terms of the technical problems of the game. The discounted price of 24.74 euros, on the other hand, is much more suitable. If you meet 3-4 of the requirements for a worthwhile purchase, this is definitely a price that is appropriate.
If your ARK: Survival Ascended buys on Steam and then find within 2 hours that the remaster is not for you, your PC has not grown to the technical requirements or the game crashes permanently, you can still return the survival game. You can read about how this works and what prerequisites for the return to be considered on meinmmo: Steam: Get game back – so easy it is