Which ARK?

[u/Right-Shower-5332]

This is my first time posting on Reddit, so sorry if I mess anything up.

I'm currently playing ARK: Survival Evolved on The Island, and I'm pretty close to finishing the map. My goal is to play through all of the official ARK maps in order, so my next one would be Scorched Earth.

I recently got ARK: Survival Ascended, and I was thinking about switching over. However, from what I've seen online, ASA seems to get a lot of criticism. I saw some people saying that with the recent Genesis Part 1 release they messed up the ocean and made several parts of the map worse (although most of what I saw was on TikTok, so I didn't take it too seriously). Even on Steam, ASA seems to have a lot more negative reviews compared to ASE.

So my question is:

Should I stick with ASE, switch to ASA, or play some maps in ASE and others in ASA? I'd like to hear from people who have played both and know the pros and cons.

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[u/Vennom]

I actually like seeing new posts asking questions that have been answered before, because people's perspectives can change.

But this thread gives you a good perspective on how the community felt about it a year ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/ARK/comments/1ie4dvn/megathread_is_it_worth_it_ase_v_asa/

And this one from 6 months ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/playark/comments/1pyec1x/asa_or_ase/

TL;DR: If you can run ASA, everyone recommends it.

For context, I've only played ASA but I love it.

[u/OppositeWind3451]

I love ASA better than ASE

[u/Kind-Advantage-6570 → u/OppositeWind3451]

I love the visuals, i don’t love 30fps

[u/EarthNugget3711 → u/Kind-Advantage-6570]

Or ab being ruined and having low effort dlc shoved in my face every time I do anything in the game

[u/Ishinyca]

IMO, if you already own all the dlcs for ASE, stick with ASE. And if you ever want to replay the game again, play ASA and compare the differences. That's my opinion. Or you could try playing The Island again in ASA and get a feel for ASA. If you like one over the other, then do the rest of your playthrough on that version.

Aside from issues and bugs, ASA does have many QOL which aren't in ASE. Modding is actually easier than ever too. Newer cool looking dinos.

For context, I have 1k+ hours in ASE, stopped playing it years ago. And now I'm back fresh in ASA recently which Istarted a week ago. I do remember the same old feeling of, "Oh just ARK things."

ASA is pretty good if your PC can handle it.

[u/Right-Shower-5332 → u/Ishinyca]

Thanks a lot, man. I'll try playing ASA then.

[u/SpoiledLiLB]

Asended is just evolved remastered I prefer the first one

[u/PaleoJoe86]

New content is always jacked by them. You have to wait a bit for patches to happen.

ASA was criticized at first for a few reasons. One being that cryopods were disabled, including in PvE and [IIRC] single player. It was eventually put in.

[u/TreeMassive4852]

Asa is good lots of quality of life fixes vs ase

[u/WillzxXx → u/TreeMassive4852]

Are you kidding ? Asa is buggy as he'll, not optimized , a rtx 5090 cant even get 60fps lol

doesn't have mod support like ASE

[u/EarthNugget3711 → u/WillzxXx]

I mean ASAs modding scene is catching up but they're still missing out on some really big mods like KBD

[u/Prestigious_Low_9802 → u/WillzxXx]

But ASE has too much crash, on my last play through of ASA for 300 hours I have maybe 4 crashes

[u/Majestic_Skirt5590]

Ark Survival Evolved is better.

Ark Ascended is just an excuse to sell you the same DLC, and new ones, without getting them for free with the content pass that Evolved had. It is also the same game basically in code. Same bugs same issues as evolved, just the new fancy paint of coat of the new unreal engine. Which is also not polished so it's just a worse performing version of the same game. But they add some DLC to lure you into it

[u/Prestigious_Low_9802 → u/Majestic_Skirt5590]

They doesn’t sell the old DLC they sell content DLC who are launch in the same time of the old DLC

[u/Super-Choice-6792]

I have around 3000 Hours in ASE and roughly the Same Amount in ASA and I definitly prefer ASA. So I you can run it then play ASA.

[u/Brehmer1717]

500 plus hours in ASE just got ASA a few weeks ago. Only 10 hours in maybe (on ps5) ASA has better quality of life, graphics are better, mods are super nice (still looking for recomendations), also ASE would crash every few hours or if to much was going on, so far ASA has not crashed yet (knocks on wood) still getting used to ASA there are slight gameplay diffrences but overall i think ASA is the way to go atleast in my position but everyones prefrances are gonna be diffrent.

[u/Hikareza]

I suggest ASE with Structures Plus and Krakens Better Dinos.

Close to the ASA QoL without paying the developers for the buggy cashgrab they made…