ARK: Survival of the Fittest Review (toastbloke)
This game mode is ARK, but without all of the things that makes ARK great. It doesn't even play well as a stand alone battle royale, which is disappointing as the formula has been close to perfected over the last decade due to all of the competition in the space. It's not like there aren't already battle royal games with building/crafting in them. I don't understand how they could get this so wrong.
Here are just a few of many reasons why I can't recommend SOTF, as much as I love ARK!
- Finding a server to join a game is anything but intuitive. In fact it's a huge pain. I've spent more time painting my character in empty lobbies than fighting in matches.
- SOTF feels like a mobile phone game with it's overly simplified UI, mechanics and controls. This is supposed to be ARK right? I want the quick bar and inventory from the main game not radial menus.
- There is so much focus on creature combat that you may as well just be a dinosaur.
All in all, the original SOTF was way better than this. All it needed was the current main game UI, matchmaking/lobby and some balance changes to improve the pace of the game. This feels like a gimmick to me. I can't be the only one either. There's barely enough players to start a match. My guess is no PvP players were consulted during the development of this PvP mode. Fingers crossed they fix this. It's worth saving!