Ark's second expansion, Aberration, gets a trailer & release date
We're going deeper underground
Strange things are coming to the depths of Ark: Survival Evolved next month in the form of Aberration, its second expansion. It seems geared more towards the high-tech end of things, set in a significantly more hostile location than the regular game. Read on for a trailer and some more info.
In Aberration, players attempt to eke out a living aboard a damaged ARK environment that has lost much of its surface atmosphere, rendering the surface an irradiated, barren wasteland. But let us never forget the words of the great Professor Jeff Goldblum: Life finds a way. And that way is apparently downwards, into the slightly less irradiated crystal-lined caves below.
Down in the caves awaits a more overtly sci-fi setting than usual. An underground world of bioluminescent flora and fauna, and strange mutant creatures quite unlike the dinosaurs and dragonoid critters encountered in the main game. Some of the new monsters look especially threatening, such as the giant cave-crab shown around the halfway point, effortlessly snatching two fully space-armored players from the backs of their dinosaur mounts and pounding them into the ground.
There's also a focus on enhanced vertical mobility options, including climbing picks, and a motorized attachment for your suit that allows you to traverse ziplines upwards, meaning that caves are no longer something you just dive down into. There's definitely a higher-tech focus to the new additions. As fun as it might be running around in animal furs and poking stuff with spears, that just isn't going to cut it in an environment ruled by radioactive kaiju and thirty foot tall mega-crustaceans that eat dinosaurs for breakfast.
The release date announcement was also accompanied by a hefty update log, detailing the development team's woes with optimising and balancing automated gun turrets. It seems that by placing them in close proximity to each other, players were not only creating nigh impenetrable defenses, but lagging the game to heck. Under the next patch, turrets must be far more spread out, and a new heavy turret has been introduced for when you absolutely have to defend a single point with the maximum possible gun.
Ark: Survival Evolved is currently half off in the Steam Autumn sale, bringing it down from its regular £50/$60 price-tag. Aberration is set for release on December 12th, and is currently available for preorder as part of the Ark season pass, which is also discounted, down from its usual £35.
Our resident Robinson Crusoe stand-in Samuel wasn't too thrilled with the meat and potatoes grind of Ark back in September.