10 Ways Ark: Survival Ascended Is Better Than Ark: Survival Evolved

Being an enhanced version of one of the most successful survival games on the market, ARK: Survival Ascended aimed to improve ARK: Survival Evolved’s experience in more ways than just visually. Despite its initial mixed reception, ASA has made strides to improve upon the original game’s formula across the board, giving plenty of incentive for players to swap over to the new edition. With all the benefits over the original game, ARK: Survival Ascended has become the go-to experience for a growing number of players.

As more time passes, its likely fans will start to warm up to the enhanced ASA as performance improvements and price reductions help to appease fans upset by the decision to release ASA separately from the original. With how long ago ASE was released, a next generation improvement was long overdue, allowing the developers to keep updating the game in a new engine while they work on Ark 2. While fans wait for the highly anticipated sequel to ASE, the ever-growing list of content offered by ASA is more than enough to satisfy most players in the meantime.

10 Next Generation Graphical Fidelity

Pushing The Boundaries Of Ark: Survival Ascended’s Visual Quality

With the highest settings enabled, Evolved was already a visually impressive game, but Ascended takes it a step further in becoming a stunning feast for the eyes. Offering more than standard visual enhancements, ASA was developed in the next generation of Unreal Engine 5, giving it a leg up over it’s predecessor. Thanks to the new engine, it features better animations and an overhauled lighting system, alongside improved textures and visual shaders.

ARK: Survival Ascended
is easily one of the best looking games of the current generation.

ARK: Survival Ascended is easily one of the best looking games of the current generation, but that’s mainly for those with the hardware to run it. Players swapping over from Evolved to Ascended should keep in mind that with a hefty visual overhaul comes equally powerful system requirements. The original ASE put many PCs to the test, and with how intense the performance costs were, Ascended is no exception to the rule.

9 Overhauled Environments And Immersion

Expansive Vistas And Lush Greenery For The New World

Improved graphics can only go so far on their own, but the revamped environments help bring the world of ARK: Survival Ascended to life. Main environments in the game have been given a heavier brush up of foliage and denser tree lines, giving players a true sense of a prehistoric world consumed by overgrowing fauna. While these denser environments do hit some hardware the hardest, it provides an enhanced level of immersion, while introducing a greater fear factor of dinosaurs hidden behind any corner.

The lush jungles and expansive deserts weren’t the only environmental focus of the new game, with Ark: Survival Ascended’s bodies of water looking more gorgeous than ever in the new Unreal Engine. Featuring all the new textures and physics, water exploration is all the more enjoyable while being as risky as ever for monsters lurking in the deep. The new lighting effects pair excellently with the water changes, replacing the murky and unappealing oceans of Evolved with a drastically improved viewing experience.

8 Quality Of Life Improvements

Various Changes For A Better Player Experience

Some of the best changes are often the smallest, ridding players of minor frustrations while enhancing their overall experience in ASA. One of the most noticeable improvements for returning players is the altered camera, allowing for greater control over the players’ FOV. Players can zoom in-and-out easily without having to navigate through the settings, being another lifesaver during large scale combat encounters.

Players can zoom in-and-out easily without having to navigate through the settings.

Another consistent source of stress for players was managing the game cable and pipe systems needed to operate their bases. Thankfully, ASA opted for a wireless building function that only requires an initial input of water or power, creating a zone of usability around the original source. Even more new ASA features have been streamlined to make for a much more seamless gameplay experience, letting players engage in the more fun aspects of ASA without as many tedious chores.

7 Upgraded Combat Mechanics

Combat With Greater Depth And Consistency

One major change that many players may not notice right away is the revamped hit-boxes, eliminating the frustrating experience of inconsistent hit registrations. ARK: Survival Evolved has always been known for its fairly janky combat systems, with ASA aiming to create a more consistent experience for players. Dinosaur armor and weak spots can be more reliably exploited by knowledgeable players, allowing for greater counter-play and decision-making during combat.

Armored dinosaurs like the triceratops can be used to reduce damage taken from the front, while players can also use precise weapons to take down smaller dinos by aiming for their weak spots.

Players can also easily switch between ammo types for ranged weaponry using the new and improved radial menu, allowing for quicker reactions in the heat of battle. Players no longer have to hastily open their inventories to drag and drop ammo, being a lifesaver in life or death encounters against players and dinosaurs alike.

6 Better Character Customization

More Freedom To Create The Perfect Dinosaur Riding Avatar

One of the most memorable features of ASE was creating a hulking monstrosity of differently shaped limbs, and while that’s still possible, there’s more freedom to create characters than ever before. Whether sticking with a franchise’s time-honored tradition or making a more standard character, ASA comes with much deeper character customization. Still being familiar to players of the original, ASA has more in-depth sliders and tabs that allow for more varied character options.

While it’s not the kind of character creator that lets players change every little detail about their character, it’s still a step up from the original ASE. Thankfully, the developers haven’t shied away from letting players create imaginative survivors of unique shapes and sizes, but have leaned into it with the upgraded character creator.

5 Overhauled Character Animations

Breathing More Life Into The World Of Ark

Better looking characters would feel out of place without equally upgraded animations, which ASA offers in spades. One of the first things players will notice is how players and dinosaurs can fully interact with foliage, pushing leaves aside or splashing in water to ground the world in reality. With how static the player models were in ASE, this remastered edition does away with the outdated animations for various actions, replacing them with fully revamped versions.

Players and dinosaurs can fully interact with foliage, pushing leaves aside or splashing in water to ground the world in reality.

From traversing the environment to interacting with objects or dinosaurs, the multitude of overhauls to the movement system are a welcome change for long-time players.

4 Expanded Map Size And Intuitive Controls

Bigger And Better Than Before

Not many players will be surprised that the map of ASA is bigger than the original, but it’s also filled with more to see. Being a complete overhaul of the original Island map, ASA is filled with lush environments and more dinosaur encounters than before, giving players access to handy mini-map tools to help them navigate the more fleshed out environments. There have also been plenty of DLC maps for ASA that are gigantic in scale, giving players even more to explore in the higher fidelity engine.

The way that players interact with the map has also been vastly improved, offering much more intuitive controls and features while fixing many of its bugs. Players can use the map to view more precise coordinates, on top of being able to make and change custom waypoints, letting them be tracked on the player’s HUD for ease of access.

3 Greatly Enhanced Building System

Giving Players The Tools To Fulfill Their Creativity

Building is one of the most important aspects of any survival game, but one that left many players feeling frustrated by its mechanics in the original ASE. Attempting to fix many of its problems from the original game, ASA offers a much more in-depth building system to foster player creativity, providing new structures and advanced snap-on compatibility. From fixing the unreliable placement of building materials to the sticky snap-on positioning, there’s more reason for players to give building a second chance, especially about how gorgeous they look with ASA‘s enhanced visual fidelity.

Another way the developers have greatly improved upon the building system is by making it less of a risky investment than before. Rather than losing all their resources after a building’s support is destroyed, they’ll be refunded to the players’ inventory to try again, which is especially handy for creating more complex structures. Some talented players have even been able to make houses that look like they came right from a different franchise, standing out from the typical wooden shack expected from the prehistoric era.

2 Easier Access To Modding Upgrades

Modding has been a core part of the ARK experience since its release, and the developers know it. Given the sandbox nature and open-ended mechanics of ASA, it has become a fantastic playground for modding development, from small fixes to major content expansions. Not only have the developers embraced the modding community by promoting their creations, they’ve added in-game mod list functionality to ASA.

This added in-game functionality not only improves the experience for PC users, but allows for console players to benefit from modding their games as well. ARK: Survival Ascended has even become a pioneer in allowing fan-made mods for sale directly to users, with premium ARK mods offering complete overhauls of the game that can be enjoyed as an almost entirely original experience.

1 Dinosaur Overhaul And Improvements

Giving The Game’s Dinosaurs A Much-Needed Rework

Dinosaurs are the star of the show in the ARK franchise, with ASA making several groundbreaking improvements in their function and designs. The most noticeable change to each dinosaur are the models themselves, with every dinosaur in the game having some visual enhancements while staying true to their original designs. The developers didn’t just pretty up the various dinosaurs in the game, but they made them vastly more intelligent as well.

The AI for the dinosaur’s behavior has faced massive improvements over the original, being much more intelligent and less likely to get caught in the environment or player exploits. Passive dinosaurs will also turn aggressive if attacked by the player or defending their young, making players think twice about abusing these gentle giants. Alongside the general improvements to dinosaur behaviour, ASA also have some of the best dinosaurs the franchise has to offer, with greater utility and strength than before.

For those brave enough to try, baby dinosaurs can be a great way to tame powerful monsters.

Out of all the features introduced in Ark: Survival Ascended, baby dinosaurs are by far the cutest, with great implications for taming. Players can find baby dinosaurs in the wild, which can streamline the taming process, at least for those willing to risk the wrath of baby dinos parents. For those brave enough to try, baby dinosaurs can be a great way to tame powerful monsters without having to go through the tedious process of the berry method every time they want to

Source: ARK: Survival Ascended/YouTube (1, 2)