As ifARK: Survival Evolvedand its latestARK Aquaticaexpansion didn’t have enough controversy leading up to it, the official launch of the DLC itself has been met with a wave of overwhelmingly negative reviews. Following the less-than-stellar reception to the remasteredARK: Survival Ascendedand frustration over a lack ofARK 2updates, the latest controversy hits even harder for the series.
ARK Aquaticahas already had a rocky start with its heavily criticized announcement trailer, as all footage and audio used were quickly criticized as being entirely AI-generated. Following the reveal, Snail Games released a statement stating that the trailer, which was poorly received, was the sole product ofARK’s marketing department and was completely separate from the development team. Despite the quick apology,Aquatica’s trailer still left a bad taste in fans' mouths, with some even urging Snail Games tosell the franchise off.
Why Players Are Upset With ARK Aquatica
Quickly Becoming ARK’s Worst Rated DLC
Even ifAquaticawasn’t already off to a rough start for its public perception,the release of the ambitious DLC itself was littered with an overwhelming amount of game-breaking bugs. From noticeably worse performance, missing textures, game-breaking bugs, and corrupted saves, it’s no wonderAquaticahas been hit with so many negative reviews.
Shortly after the launch, Snail Games released a pre-Aquatica beta branch that can be enabled in ARK: Survival Evolved’s Steam page properties.
The biggest issues relating to theARK Aquaticaupdate affect any players or servers with mods installed, as the latest update has left countlesslong-term projects entirely unplayable. If these issues weren’t bad enough, many issues have been reported bySurvival Evolvedplayers who never purchasedAquaticain the first place, with its effects plaguing the base game as well.
ARK Aquatica Devs Are Handling It In The Best Way
Consistently Transparent Updates Are A Rare Sight To See
In a surprising turn of events, theARK: Survival Evolveddevelopment team has been taking criticism of theAquaticadisaster in stride, while making it apparent these issues won’t last forever. Being quick to react toARK’s latest issues, the development team has been releasing daily Steam updates to combat the situation.
TheARK: Survival Evolveddevelopment team has been taking criticism of theAquaticadisaster in stride.
As if the updates weren’t enough on their own,ARK’s developers have been incredibly transparent about the issues facing the game, with just some of the major changes reported in the officialAquaticaSteam updatesbeing:
Being praised for not only the speed of the updates, releasing several major patches within 12 hours of each other,Snail Games has also been incredibly transparent in clearly outlining everything that was fixed, or is still being worked on, with each update.
Other Studios Can Learn From This
Taking Its Controversy In Stride Without Blaming Others
Even if there has been a growing animosity towards theARKseries and its developers after a series of unfortunate decisions,the sheer dedication ofAquatica’s developers has been more than commendable.Rather than blaming external factors or releasing a fix months later, like some studios,ARK's developers have been incredibly proactive in addressing its community’s biggest concerns.
In an even more surprising update, a member of Studio Siren’s development team also hosted an hour-long Developer Live Stream to explain previous updates, preview what fixes are on the way, and answer questions directly from the community itself. Even if it’s still frustrating that it happened in the first place and raisesconcerns overARK’s future content, the dedication ofARK: Survival Evolved’sdevelopers is a refreshing change of pace for the industry.
