ARK: Survival Ascended is Studio Wildcard's complete Unreal Engine 5 remake of ARK: Survival Evolved — the landmark 2017 survival game where players tame dinosaurs, build bases, and survive escalating prehistoric and supernatural threats on a mysterious island. The remake upgrades every visual system: Lumen global illumination transforms the jungle and beach environments, Nanite geometry handles the dinosaur models with extraordinary polygon density, and dynamic weather creates storms that genuinely affect gameplay.
The core ARK loop remains unchanged and as compelling as ever: punch trees for wood, gather stone, craft tools, build a shelter before night falls, tame your first dinosaur (a Parasaur for early warning, a Raptor for mounted combat), expand your base, advance to metal tier, and eventually face the Island's boss encounters. The taming system — feeding unconscious or passive dinosaurs specific food over extended time periods — creates investment in creatures that compounds over hundreds of hours of play.
Cross-platform multiplayer brings ARK's massive PvP and PvE server ecosystem onto modern hardware. Dedicated servers, official PvP servers with offline raid protection, and PvE servers for cooperative building all persist. The game launched in October 2023 with The Island; further maps, including remakes of earlier ARK maps, have been added over time, some as free downloads and some as paid expansions. Check the store page for the current list.
Tame many different creatures, from Parasaurs to Rexes, by knocking them out or feeding them specific food. Tames have levelled stats and many can be ridden.
Construct from thatch to wood to stone to metal to tek-tier structures with snap-point building and electrical/irrigation systems.
Unreal Engine 5's Lumen lighting and Nanite geometry remake the original's environments with dramatic visual improvements.
PvP and PvE servers and single-player on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The Steam page lists private sessions for up to 8 players and public online play for up to 70.
Release facts, mechanics and boss details on this page were checked against these sources on 12 October 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.