Ark: Survival Evolved goes underground in Aberration
Nice hole
If life has grown a little too familiar and comfortable in Ark: Survival Evolved, you might fancy going somewhere weird with its new expansion, Aberration. While Ark's original land is an island paradise (aside from all the deadly dinosaurs and murderous survivors, obvs), Aberration is set inside a busted ark where life has been forced to develop underground across an elaborate cave system. Along with new alien species to collect and/or murder, this caveland brings new tools for getting around, from climbing picks to wingsuits.
So! With the surface of the ark barren, Aberration goes underground to do those same old survival sandbox things -- collect, craft, murder, grind, die -- in a new way. It does seem pretty interesting, more than a reskin, as the cave system makes the vertical dimension far more important. It has big spaces to glide through, walls to climb, and gaps to zipline across.
I've little interest in survival games, Ark included, but I do like the sound of an expansion making different forms of movement more important rather than just adding more stuff.
The caves do have new life too, including wall-crawling invisible chameleons, giant crabs, and little lanternfish friends to light up the darkness. Oh right, yes, there are also terrible things lurking in the dark, so don't turn out the lights.
Aberration costs £15 on Steam, or comes as part of the £35/€40/$45 season pass which also includes the Scorched Earth expansion and a third still to come.
