Have you ever wanted to be in control of your own park filled with dinosaurs? Maybe even fight a few dinosaurs along the way? Well that is exactly what ARK Park attempts to bring to your virtual reality fingertips. From the first few moments of the tutorial, this game displays enormous potential. Being guided by a robot dragonfly that talks you through the basic mechanics of the game and how the park operates was like a step into the future. The “Park Lobby” was one of the most fun areas of the entire game because it consisted of several holographic dinosaurs that can be tossed around or interacted with. This game is clearly designed for teleportation gameplay, which should be emphasized before you choose the other option, which is touch to move. There is a lot of traveling long distances and the speed that touch-to-move travels is infuriatingly slow. You are locked in this form of movement until you exit all the way out of the main menu and reload the game.
Once you get past the tutorial however, the game loses a bit of momentum and not to mention the dragonfly guide disappears. There is no real direction as to what to do in this game even though it is relatively linear. You go to a location, gather its resources, discover several new species of dinosaurs and then return to base camp. You can use those materials to build items and use the “genes” you collect from the dinosaurs to unlock said items. That is about half of the gameplay summed up. The other half of the gameplay is a wave-based tower defense where you kill dinosaurs that are trying to destroy your tower. If you beat the level, you unlock the next one and gain some materials as well (and a dinosaur egg if you are lucky). This gameplay does get rather monotonous after a while, but the visuals certainly do not. Getting to feed your first triceratops apples and hatch them out of an egg is always an amazing part of this game, but once they are fully grown there is not much to do with them. It really is lacking an open world element that only feels necessary for a game where you are raising dinosaurs on an island. And raising the dinosaurs takes absurdly long hours at times, which must be spent in game. A big downside considering the dinosaurs are relatively purposeless and are solely meant to look cool in your home base.
That being said, this game is still very enjoyable at times. You can teleport to several different “Explore” locations, but once you see them, the effect of them is worn off a decent amount. Luckily, there are a good number of places to explore so there are plenty of dinosaurs to find.
There are in-world events that happen when you are exploring the locations that make the game very exciting and immersive, and I was constantly wanting more of them. For example, when riding in a jeep you speed under the legs of a Branchiosaurus and then get chased by an angry Gigantasaurus as you physically glance behind you and scan their heads to gather DNA. The cinematic sequences with interactive elements are definitely a highlight of this game and make it entertaining. I think this game would have been a lot more successful if they had dedicated it solely to the exploring option where you gather resources, find dinosaurs, and then using that research to raise dinosaurs. The tower defense feels relatively out of place in this game and purposeless. You are shooting dinosaurs in one area of the park, but then observing them in their natural habitat in another. This makes the battle section feel more like a mini game and not part of the actual game itself. Not to mention that the tower defense is very difficult to beat and the dinosaurs do not even pay attention to you shooting them, but instead only attack your tower. There is pretty much zero replayability in this area of the game, however, because once you beat the level there is no reason to return to it.
The new Pterosaur Hill DLC adds some great new visuals, but more of the same gameplay. This DLC adds three new explore environments and one new battle environment. The gameplay may remain the same, but the visuals make it very refreshing and these new explore environments are very impressive.
The hot air balloon ride is another mesmerizing cinematic experience with interactive moments. It was pretty outstanding to float through the sky and have dinosaurs of all sizes peak inside the cart to inspect it. The ride is very slow, which was nice the first time through, but its novelty wears off fast. The battle environment on the other hand is not as impressive. I desperately wanted to love flying on the back of the pterodactyl, but I found it nearly unplayable. You control the direction the dinosaur flies by tilting your headset around, so quick turns are not possible and if you bump one object you die instantly. It reiterates my point that this game’s efforts should be spent in its explore section and not the battle section. My biggest issue with this game is that you can’t really interact with the dinosaurs very much. Once they are in your home base area the only thing you can do is ride them or feed them an apple. And when you ride the triceratops it follows a predestined path and you have no control.
Overall, ARK Park lacks an element of user interaction with the dinosaurs that would have really set it apart from other games. All of the actions in this game feel peripheral because most of the game is spent observing the dinosaurs from a distance and not doing anything with them. It does have a strong spectacle appeal as you traverse through a park inhabited by dinosaurs out of their cages. The visual aspect and cinematic experiences of this game are its saving point and certainly pick up some of the slack that the gameplay leaves behind. I found myself physically ducking and jolting back as dinosaurs swooped down at me or charged at me. The small moments where it felt like I was actually inside the park and experiencing life with the dinosaurs were a saving grace for this game. Regardless, ARK Park has a pretty hefty price tag when you consider the actual content of the game loses a certain amount of charm after the first play through.
Rating: 5.8/10
Check Out the ARK Park Pterosaur Hill DLC Trailer:
ARK Park is on the HTC Vive (SteamVR and Viveport), PSVR, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Detailed pricing info for each store – along with platform exclusives – can be found below:
Steam
Standard Edition: $39.99
Deluxe Edition (including Tek Package): $47.99
Store URL: http://store.steampowered.com/app/529910/ARK_Park
Viveport
Standard Edition: $39.99
Store URL: https://www.viveport.com/apps/05589bd7-a11d-4d9e-acc4-f0664df27713
PSVR
Standard Edition: $49.99
Deluxe Edition (including Hunter Package): $57.99
PSVR PlayStation Plus members only: Desert Camouflage Outfit.
Store URL: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0781-CUSA10975_00-ARKPARK000000001
Related: ARK Park Pterosaur Hill DLC Now Available for FREE on SteamVR, WindowsMR, and PSVR
Steam/HTC Vive Review
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Overall Score - 5.8/105.8/10
I've always been a huge fan of video games and their ability to completely immerse the player in their world. I got my start in FPS games like Halo, but I have branched into nearly every area. My current fascination is surrounding VR and how it completely changes one's gaming experience.
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