Simply put, Ark: Survival Evolved, seems to be built to satisfy all the dinosaur riding, hunting, fighting, fantasies you ever had as a child. An independent MMO from Studio Wildcard, the game sees you stranded on a gorgeous open-world island, where “you must hunt, harvest, craft items, grow crops, & build shelters to survive. Use skill and cunning to kill or tame & ride the Dinosaurs & primeval creatures roaming the land, & team up with hundreds of players or play locally”
The trailer shows off much of this, but of course, the stars of the show are the dinosaurs themselves. Jesse, Rapczak, founder and technical art director at Studio Wildcard, confirmed, “At release, we’re shooting for about 60 distinct species,” but then added, “we don’t plan to just have them just wandering around as cannon fodder. All creatures in ARK have their own living ecosystems, predator hierarchies, and an autonomy that exists outside of the players’ influences. Their interactions with each other intertwine with the way that players might use them, because almost every one of our creatures will be able to be tamed and used for peace or for war.”
The most exciting part of Ark’s announcement however, might be the fact that it will be coming to VR. While the game is confirmed for Oculus Rift, Rapczak took to the PlayStation Blog to announce the open-world MMO will also support Project Morpheus on PS4. “The feeling of immersion the team has created in this beautiful world simply has to be experienced first-hand; it is profound and impactful, and even for me was a little bit surprising when I first tried ARK in VR.”
Rapczak concluded by saying, “When you design an experience like this, one of the most important things is to not fall into the trap of focusing on one platform and type of input… Just like a mouse versus a gamepad, you have to design with VR in mind from the beginning. All of your testing, all of your gameplay elements, they need to tie into the experience of wearing a VR headset… In the end we don’t just ‘allow’ for VR, we recommend it.”
Ark: Survival Evolved is set to hit PS4, Xbox One, and Steam, entering Steam Early Access in June. To sign up for Early Access or for the game’s closed beta, be sure to head to the official website.
What do you think of Ark? Are you ready to run with (or brutally hunt) the dinosaurs? Let us know in the comments.