ARK: Survival Ascended is an Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original ARK: Survival Evolved game. It was announced on March 31, 2023. Currently planned to be released in the end of October, 2023 as an early access title. with DLC content released over time.

GAMEPLAY


improved third-person

New third-person camera (with the option to opt out)

ping system

Ping Map to better communicate with tribe mates.

improved character creation

Overhauled the Character Creation system for ASA so that characters look less survival-jank.

overhauled building system

New third-person camera (with the option to opt out)

No move speed

Disabled leveling of movement speed on creatures and players on Official Network (Unofficials can change this via config, of course) 

DINO MANAGER

New Dino-Manager system (view the real-time status and track-locations of all your creatures at will through one unified menu)

Rafts, Cryopods and TEK

Rafts will be available on Day One and the Rhyniognatha on The Island; however, TEK creature variants and Cryopods will not be available. TEK will come with its respective maps / bosses.

CAVES

They have done a pass on caves with some balance adjustments to choke points and improved the caves’ internal appearance. They were hesitant to make dramatic changes to cave balance as we didn’t feel a complete overhaul was wise.

improved inventory

Chibi and Skin Slots added to inventory.

More!

Cross-platform multiplayer
Cross-platform modding
Snap Point Improvements
Improved Breeding

Queueing System
Directional Sprinting and Walking
Cross-Platform Anti-Cheat

Gamepad Cursor
Wild Babies
New content, QOL improvements, balance, and gameplay changes

technical


Unreal engine performance

Unreal Engine 5 performance gains: instanced rendering (higher performance when drawing large bases), threaded server networking, and UE’s custom physics engine

Updated Minimap

Unreal Engine 5 overhaul with Nanite, Lumen, and NVIDIA’s RTXDI

increased stasis range

Increased the stasis-replication range for structures (significantly) and dinos, by about +70%. This means you’ll be able to see them from further away before they “de-render”.

full crossplay

Soon.

interactive foliage

Grass will move and sway around characters and dinos

dynamic navigation

Dynamic navigation mesh and creature path-finding overhaul

more!

Dynamic Water
Opening Cut-Scenes

Nvidia DLSS Support
Total UI Revamp

Photo Mode
New camera systems for players and dinos, with the option to revert to the old systems.

new Dinosaurs


Each DLC will be brought back with a brand new, community-chosen creature to be found and tamed in the landscape:

aberration

Yi Ling

scorched earth

Fasolasuchus 

RAGNAROK

Gigantoraptor

extinction

Dreadnoughtus

The center

Shastasaurus

more!

Over time they’ll be releasing 11 Brand-new creatures (More than any previous DLC expansions)