New script: Why ARK: Survival Evolved - Genesis failed. (Patreon)

With the lowest user rating of AMY ARK content on steam, 48%! I think it's fair to say that ARK: Survival Evolved - Genesis failed.

HEY there, I'm Aci and I'm in the bottom right now! Yes, this is me; you can't prove that I'm not actually a merman >:(

ARK an open world survival game about surviving with and taming dinosaurs. So what if I told you they released a DLC in which 2 of these things are no longer the case? xD

But first, let's go back in time!

ARK was released in early access in 2015 and completely released in 2017.

In this time, they added a lot of new dinos and story, which is important for later on in the video.

While playing the game, players find out they're actually on a massive space station orbiting earth built to look like an island in the ocean.

These "ARKs" come in many different shapes and sizes, with a lot of different terrain inside them.

In 2016 they released the first expansion already, scorched earth!

Instead of the lush island map players were used to, this DLC threw them onto an ARK with a harsh desert environment with new creatures, game mechanics and bosses.

The main criticism was probably that they worked on an expansion without first finishing the main game, but it was recieved pretty decently, with 79% positive reviews. 

Then, at the end of 2017 they released Aberration the best-recieved DLC until now with 87% positive reviews.

This time, players were transported to a malfunctioning ARK, with again new dinos, game mechanics and bosses, BUT - no flying dinosaurs.

Aberration is also the only map where most dinosaurs can't be moved to from other maps, making it feel a lot bigger than the other maps, despite being on the lower end of the scale.

The next DLC to release was Extinction, which released in 208 with mixed reviews, but after bug fixes and patches now recieves around 82% positive reviews.

This time you actually play on earth and can find prototypes of the ARKs around the map.

It again added some new creatures and bosses, but also made farming of the rarest resource in the game - Element - a lot easier.

This is a trend that will continue with future DLCs.

Then, in 2020, the ARK Genesis Season Pass released.

If you bought this, you get both genesis I and II, two seperate expansions - for ARK. I still haven't found a way to buy them seperately, so you're forced to buy them together.

When it released, only Genesis Part 1 was released

It released with absolutely HORRIBLE reviews from critics and players alike.

Like me, a lot of people didn't like that it was released as a season pass and not individually. 

The DLC also struggled with performance on Consoles and Desktop and broke some major gameplay mechanics.

This time, players were NOT on an ARK, but instead in a simulation meant to prepare players for "the arrival". (Which is genesis part II)

Remember how I said that Genesis is missing 2 of the main things that ARK is about? 

Well, the map isn't open world anymore. xD 

Instead it's 5 different -and pretty small- biomes you have to teleport in between with HLNA. At least the few times the teleportation actually works and doesn't just leave your dinos behind

Oh yeah, surviving is also no longer the only focus. 

You can now play minigames like basketball, racing or fishing xD No, I'm not kidding. You earn hexagons from these games which you can use to BUY items in the in game shop.

Even endgame items like element are super easy to get now.

On The Island, you have to defeat one of the three bosses every time you want element. On genesis 1 you just play some basketball with dodos.

Not only that, but these missions have designated "mission areas", in which you can't build a base. Which means around half of the already small biomes is completely unuseable.

And last but not least, you can't fly on the maps. And yes, I did bring that up as a positive point on Aberration, so why is it so bad here?

Well you see on Aberration, flying creatures don't spawn. But on Genesis, you spend ages taming an argentavis, and as soon as it's done, it forgot how to fly. Which it could before, btw!

So I it all bad? No, of course not. The new creatures like the blood stalker, Ferox or Magmasaur are absolutely amazing, but even some of them are kind of useless on other maps.

The blood stalker for example needs something to hook onto like spiderman to move quickly. Just that most maps don't actually have anything above you you could hook onto.

The new biomes were also really cool, just like I said, a little too small.

And then... Genesis part II came out in 2021.

This one plays on a massive space ship that goes into warp drive once a day.

It's the biggest map ARK has ever released, which would be good.. if they didn't make it feel tiny.. by giving you the best armor in the game when you spawn...

You get TEK armor when you spawn, which allows you to fly, superpunch, run extremely quickly, and more! 

Now, it doesn't protect you as well as regular tek armor would - it only has a really low armor value.. but it doesn't need to.

If you get into any sort of trouble, you just.. fly away. Or just.. superpunch a dino to death.

The map itself consists of 3 main areas, the Eden zone - a green lush landscape - Rockwell's Garden, which is an area corrupted by the endboss and Hyperspace, the area between the two.

Genesis part II also kept the missions and shop system, but at least they removed the dedicated mission areas and instead you now teleport to another part of the map.

Talking about the missions, they're meant to symbolize you hacking into the ships systems to gain advantages like better resources or faster dino breeding.

Now this is purely my opinion, but I feel like they could have come up with a better way to visualize hacking than riding space dolphins through a maze and shooting down drones.

But just like with Genesis part I, not everything is bad. The space biome changes every time the ship goes into hyperspace and reveals new, different islands and resources each time.

They have some reall cool new dinosaurs like the Tek Stryder, shadowmane and the noglin.

But, getting element or other end game items is way too easy, yet again.

The fact that you can take the free tek armor you get to other maps and USE it - if you have the engrams - is also a little broken if you ask me.

So those were my two cents on Ark: Genesis! 

If you think I missed anything or if you don't agree, make sure to let me know in the comments down below, I'd love to have a chat :)

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But for now, thank you very much for watching, and I'll SEA you next time!

Gooooooood BYYYYYEEEEE!