First ARK game! Which should I buy

[LyaranTirel]

I've seen this one is still in Early Access. Should I buy the Ark Evolved instead or this one is already in the finishing stages?

[Serious]

Realistic is between end of 2026 - 2028.

If you don't like EA games i can strongly recommend ASE. Many things at ASA are exactly how you describe EA... buggy, unfinished, unoptimized.
The result might be awesome in ... a few years. But currently it's just this EA.

ASE on the otherside is finished and there are thousands of high quality mods available.
Though note that if you plan to play on official server only that those are not available anymore for ASE. But that's a no-issue for 99% of the playerbase as most already played long before on unofficial or singleplayer worlds.

[mtjeeves]

ASA and ASE are almost the same. Same problems etc. ASE doesn't have support from wildcard, but the last 3 years it did, most fixes were made by the community anyhow. ASA isn't stable, they can't keep it running. You will just spend time rebuilding between patches that screw up the game for months while they try to sell you DLC. I would just play a different game honestly. Owning both games and all the DLC, I can't recommend this game or evolved to anybody. They blew all the money they had to start an electric car company and some other bunk projects. The only things they will do for this game from now on is DLC items that they get from other users who are creative. They can't fix their own patches, the game has been broken for most of us for about a month now. The reviews should be the first thing you look at as well. They are terrible also. I would suggest any other game in this Genre, don't buy an ARK title.