When ARK: Survival Ascended was released in October 2023, the game received a lot of criticism. Now there is a discount for the survival game, but is it worth the price?
What kind of game is it? On October 26, 2023, ARK: Survival Ascended (short: ASA) was released. This is a remaster of the popular survival game “ARK: Survival Evolved,” in which you can tame or breed various dinosaurs and mystical creatures to build an impressive base, defeat powerful bosses, or show other players their limits in PvP.
ARK: Survival Ascended aimed to present the old, familiar maps and creatures from the original game in a more visually appealing way – with the help of Unreal Engine 5. Additionally, the remaster introduced mod support for the console versions of the game and new content, including dinosaurs, Mad Max cars, and various structure designs.
Here you can see a trailer for the latest update of ARK: Survival Ascended:
What kind of discount is it? ARK: Survival Ascended is discounted by 45% on Steam until February 24, 2025, costing only 24.74 euros instead of 44.99 euros. This is the lowest price the survival game has ever been on Steam, as the database SteamDB reveals.
- You can find the offer on Steam
You can also purchase ARK: Survival Ascended at a discount in the PlayStation Store right now. There, the dino adventure costs 29.24 euros and 24.74 euros for PS Plus subscribers as well.
Whether it’s worth it also depends on your hardware
What you should know about performance: The survival game is still not well optimized. If you don’t have a relatively powerful PC, you will struggle with low FPS and stuttering. Even though the game looks quite nice thanks to Unreal Engine 5, you won’t enjoy it much if the FPS drops from 45 to 20 with every tiny movement.
The recommended system requirements on Steam are:
- Operating System: Windows 10/11 with updates
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
- Memory: 32 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
- DirectX: Version 12
- Network: Broadband internet connection
- Storage: 70 GB available storage
- Additional notes: SSD Required
These requirements are basically the first hurdle. If you don’t meet them, you might not have much fun. Whether the game is worth it also primarily depends on your hardware. Overall, ARK: Survival Ascended runs better now than it did at launch, and if you meet the recommended requirements, you might achieve over 60 FPS depending on settings.
ASA has changed significantly in 15 months
This is how ASA feels in 2025: ARK: Survival Ascended has received several updates by now – including free ones. For example, you can now play the maps Scorched Earth, Aberration, and Extinction without spending a cent. You had to purchase these maps with DLCs in ARK: Survival Evolved.
If you are missing maps like Extinction and Aberration in the original game, you might consider purchasing ARK: Survival Ascended instead of the DLCs to experience the maps directly in UE5 graphics. At launch, ASA felt like a blatant way to quickly monetize old content – especially since many features were lacking that ARK: Survival Evolved had. However, there are now some of the old maps in ARK: Survival Ascended, and they are free. This even offers some players the opportunity to save money.
In addition to the maps that the game has received in the past months, there are now also new dinosaurs. Furthermore, the paid add-on “Bob’s Tall Tales” includes various additional contents that follow specific themes. The latest update brought Mad Max-style content, while a previous one focused on steampunk. The Wild West is also represented.
Moreover, many talented modders from the ARK community have moved on and are now developing their works for ARK: Survival Ascended instead of ARK: Survival Evolved. You can mainly find new mod maps, dinosaurs, or structures in the remaster, including popular works by the German modder “Nekatus”.
It’s worth it, but the most important argument might not matter to you
Is ASA worth it in 2025? You should think carefully about whether you really want to purchase ARK: Survival Ascended.
The biggest pro-argument for buying ARK: Survival Ascended is likely irrelevant to most PC players: With ARK: Survival Ascended, consoles finally gained the ability to play with mods. This was already possible on PC with ARK: Survival Evolved. For console players, however, this is an important innovation, as mods greatly enhance the game.
The biggest counterarguments are performance and the original game. Anyone who has played ARK: Survival Evolved, owns most or even all DLCs, and has installed the key mods can easily forego the remaster. This way, you won’t have to deal with low FPS or crashes.
ARK: Survival Ascended is worth it for you if:
- your PC meets the technical requirements and you want to experience ARK in a more beautiful look
- you are interested in the latest mods from the community
- you find the new content in steampunk, Wild West, and Mad Max style cool
- some of the old maps from ARK: Survival Evolved are missing for you
- you have no problem paying for a graphics/engine update
- you have never played ARK but are interested in the game mechanics
ARK: Survival Ascended is NOT worth it for you if:
- your PC does not meet the recommended requirements
- you own ARK: Survival Evolved including all DLCs and expect much more than a graphics/engine update
- mods do not matter to you
- you do not want to spend money on “Bob’s Tall Tales”
Is ASA worth the price? Yes and no. While this largely depends on you, 49.99 euros is definitely too high given the technical issues of the game. In contrast, the discounted price of 24.74 euros is much more appropriate. If you meet 3-4 of the requirements for a worthwhile purchase, then this is a price that is reasonable.
If you purchase ARK: Survival Ascended on Steam and then find within 2 hours that the remaster is not for you, that your PC does not meet the technical requirements, or that the game crashes permanently, you can return the survival game. You can read how to do this and what conditions must be met for the return on MeinMMO: Steam: Returning a game – it’s that easy
