Skip to content
Ark 2 will be a third-person game with “soul-like melee combat” and an entire enemy AI force to fight in PvE. In other words, it sounds quite different from the original Ark: Survival Evolved.
After the game received a new trailer at the Xbox-Bethesda Summer Showcase, developer Studio Wildcard sent out a press release detailing a number of newly announced features and revealing some surprising details. The biggest thing is that the game swaps the original’s first-person perspective for third-person, promising “expanded character traversal mechanics include mantles, free climbs, parkour, slides, and swings!”
Coupled with this change is a melee promise similar to FromSoftware’s Souls games, offering “aim lock, block, dodge, combos, staggers, and special attacks” with an emphasis on player skill. Ark 2 will also feature an entire enemy AI squad called Aratai who will “hunt and attack them while riding their own tamed creatures as they attempt to drive human invaders from their world”.
The original Ark was built around players crafting, looting, fighting, and taming dinosaurs on a shared server. Ark 2 sounds like a more traditional narrative game in many ways – and will be set on a brand new planet “where native flora and fauna are being overrun by invasive primeval creatures from an extinct earth”.
It’s hard to get a feel for it how another Ark 2 will be from the original game as we have yet to see the gameplay, although today’s new movie (above) is said to be in the engine and made with Unreal Engine 5.
Studio Wildcard also promised some other features:
- “REVOLUTIONARY CROSS-PLATFORM MODDING – Fully stackable, user-made mods for new creatures, items, and gameplay features, with maps distributed across all platforms – including Xbox – and support for modded servers powered by mod. ok be activated.”
- COMPONENT-BASED ITEM CRAFT – Construct weapons and tools from a variety of different modules to customize their look and functionality – Millions of possible combinations allow players to craft their own unique gear! Resource options in unique regions of the world.”
- “DYNAMIC WORLD EVENTS – Natural and unnatural occurrences are always happening in the game world, regardless of your presence! Your choices in deciding whether to interact with these events will bring rewards or challenges.”
There’s a lot we don’t know about Ark 2 yet, but one thing we do know – for some reason, Vin Diesel stars. The actor plays the game’s “hero protagonist,” Santiago, and his daughter Meeka is played by Moanas Auli’i Cravalho. It will arrive in 2023.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Keep following him Twitter. Do you have a tip for us? Would you like to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].