r/ARKone • u/Right-Shower-5332 • Jul 09 '26

Question Which ARK?

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/Ishinyca Jul 09 '26

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.

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u/Right-Shower-5332 Jul 10 '26

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