Studio Wilcard launchs the Survival Arena mode of ARK on Steam totally free of charge and aiming for the wild west of eSports. The hunt is on!
The game is still in Early Access and needs some further polishing and balancing of their core features as well as some some essential bug fixing. There is no question about that as we get for the first time inside this brand new jungle, breath deeply amidst the deceptive quietness and prepare our tribesmen for the dangers and trials that are about to come – angry dinosaurs included. But apart from that, ARK: Survival of the Fittest is fully functional, looking gorgeous and already on Steam for everyone curious enough to try it out.
ARK: The Survival of the Fittest in a Nutshell
Survival of the Fittest comes as the MOSA (Multiplayer Online Survival Arena) version that Studio Wilcard is presenting for the burgeoning sSports scene. It brings the spirit and essence of the original ARK: Survival Evolved game and takes it to the next level of large-scale battles.
It offers action-packed tournaments between 72 survivors who will have to fight and survive for as long as they can until they are pushed to the final showdown. When the “ring of death” closes tight, only one Tribe will survive.
Players can choose to create one- to six-person Tribes with the option to browse between Unofficial and Official/Ranked servers and a pretty nice variety of game-lenghts in which to play: from quick 30-minutes “instant action” skirmishes to epic battles of up to 3 hours.
There are more than 30 starting creatures to tame and ride, plenty of weapons, traps armors to acquire and upgrade and, of course, spectator and ranking features. Keep an eye as well to the so-called Evolution Events, a bunch of random modifiers that will alter and affect the outcome of a game. They are divided into Helpful and Harmful and adaptation to them will be key.
Studio Wildcat is pushing strong on the community side in order to develop The Survival of the Fittest to its fullest potential. They promise “massive and intense focus on interaction with the community” on their forums, community hubs and social media with the addition of Q&A and feedback rounds and testing sessions. “Just like Ark, you are pur primary benefactors”, they state on their Steam page, “and we are making this game with you, and for you”.
The final version of the game is currently scheduled for Q4 of 2017. It will remain free to play for everyone.
[Source: Survive the Ark]
