Scorched Earth Expansion Review

Ark: Survival Evolved

I managed to get a copy of Scorched Earth on sale on Steam, and started on a public server. I would like to say I started easily, but I would be lying through my teeth. Scorched Earth is a desert map, and within the first hour you will die of thirst or sunstroke, or one of the carnivores trotting around in the intense sun.

The desolation for the map is reflected in the gameplay, resources are meager and after the initial concern of surviving the first few hours, setting up shop in an extremely inhospitable world is no picnic, even the choice of structures are life and death on this map.

   The dinos in Scorched Earth are specific to the environment,  with a few others from the main game thrown in, if you’re looking for Spinosaurs, you won’t find any, but all tamed SA dinos can be imported to regular Ark.

Probably the most important and first choice for a tamable Dino I would consider to be a Morellatops, which is basically a large camel, a walking well which harvests food and sap making survival far easier. The Jerboa, the water and oil bug replace the dodo and Lystrosaurus for early meat harvesting and the water bug helps slake your thirst. The unassuming Doedicurous is also a labor saving dino if you want to build an elaborate base, saving hours of time on resource collection. One of the most dangerous dinos on SA would have to be Kaprosuchus. When running for a drink, or watering your Morrellatops, a quick scan of the area would be advised, like the crocodile it resembles, the Kaprosuchus are deadly.
To say much more than these few hints might take the challenge out of the game for some of the readers, so th rest you have to explore yourself.

We also have the Ark server online once again, look for Oddysee ARK server and see an Officer or Community Manager for the password.

Another Ark player suggested a free app from Google play, works with both phone and tablet, called Dododex. It takes some of the guesswork out of taming, and tells you the most effective foods, narcotics and even a link to the dino’s Ark Wiki page.

With well over 1000 hours in Ark, I found Scorched Earth Expansion a different look at the world, and though in many ways the frustration and difficulty has been ratcheted up a few notches,it was for me thoroughly enjoyable and well worth the sale price at least, and at $21.99 CAD I would still get it. A challenge in an expansion is something I always look for.