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The major reason to even play it would be to get new dinos that are only being added to ark survival ascended. Many of those new creatures are locked behind paywalls.
And also to play on official servers, which only exist for ascended.
Yeah after much research it seems, some new dinos locked behind a paywall is about it.
The graphics are a huge bust too, requires more but looks more cartoony, seems they were trying to appeal to console players (kids). Welp think i will stick with the old ark which clearly is the better pick.
Yes.
1. Unreal Engine graphics
2. Same issues as ASE and with some added ones.
3. Heavy microtransactions both in the form of ones sold directly by Snail-Wildcard and others through the premium mods program(yes charged for mods where the mod maker only gets 50% of the revenue and the rest is split between Snail Games and Curseforge.)
4. Less people comparatively playing ASA than ASE
5. Not all maps available(yet) on ASA that ASE has. Some are being kited in release over and over again with some looking to be late 2026 or even 2027 at this rate.
ASE:
1. Unreal Engine 4 graphics.
2. Various issues exist but has been more stable compared to ASA due to the abandonment by Wildcard in Sept 2023. That isnt to say that issues dont occur but most are tied to user end issues with poorly managed rigs and mods.
However with Snail Games taking a direct branch studio (Snail Games Colorado) to push out Ark Aquatica for ASE now, that stability may be significantly reduced. I predict they will create new issues for the game unfortunately in the form of backend changes.
3. Outside of dlcs(maps) there are no microtransactions for ASE..... yet. Sadly with the given issues of money for Snail Games, I predict that they're going to start considering it with the lack of revenue coming from ASA.
4. More people comparatively playing than ASA.
5. 12 DLC's available 7 being free with the base game and 5 being charged for.
And now with that sixth dlc coming that will be priced higher than any other DLC to date for ASE in the last almost 9 years(Scorched Earth came out 2016), that's considerably more content that what ASA offers. Dont hold your breath either on the release of it all for ASA given the financial issues either.
It's beautiful now. ASE was awesome but ARK ASC rules. Baby dino's for a get-go.
They have released loads of patches and I get almost 60 fps with everything on epic except shadows and because of DEE ELLE ESS ESS, I pop it on QUALITY even.
AND BUTTER
For example the maps are very similar but they have very minor differences all over the place.
Evolved feels a lot more polished and you won't have to patch over 100GB every week to keep the game updated (something ark survival ascended does). I say this as someone who has 500 hours in survival evolved and although it had issues, we had work around, and I never found a spot that people would call a "mesh spot" as a lot of those were fixed. However in under 25 hours of Survival Ascended I have already located a mesh spot where you can stand inside a tree. I don't play multiplayer so this isn't an issue for me as no one will abuse that.
There are wild babies in Ascended but they're only somewhat useful. For example on Aberration both Evolved and Ascended have a bug where bees don't spawn so you can't get honey. In evolved I had to transfer in Honey I mined from honey rock in Fjordur to tame a roll rat, and Aberration has dangerous obelisk locations to say the least. Whereas in Ascended it's a lot less work as if I see a high level roll rat with the symbol that shows it has a baby with it. I can take it out and adopt the baby after. In fact my first tame on that map was when I saw a baby Karkinos walking around after some Paraceratheriums took out the adult. I raised that as safely as possible so that I could then have a bodyguard. Overall the babys don't get taming effectiveness bonuses so they aren't that useful late game. But a good starting mechanic.
Unfortunately there are a lot of things that Survival Evolved did better. Like tether distance on non-dedicated sessions, Cryopod and Cryofridge functionality, Accessing and using console commands, and other small things I'm probably forgetting.
However that said there is a lot that ascended has that evolved doesn't but the kicker is it's mostly paid content. There are a few new creatures you can tame with just the base game. However there are DLC creatures that can only be tamed if you own said DLC, apparently even tribe mates if they don't own the DLC, can't use the one you tamed for the tribe, not sure if that has been changed. Those creatures are a ripoff. There is also a "bobs tall tales" DLC which in fairness does add some cool engrams and buildables, as well as the ability to tame a few different DLC creatures. So it isn't the worst deal, but it's still an extra cost for the full experience. Even worse is if you don't have the DLC, the DLC creatures will still spawn, but if you try to tame them then you get a pop up telling you to go to the store page to buy DLC. Nothing keeps the gameplay flowing like an MTX pop up after you downed a cool looking creature that seems like it would be powerful to tame.
It what I described that makes Evolved feel like a better product. You pay for the ultimate edition, you have all the DLCs (Except for that new ocean one that will come out, but that's a whole can of worms that I don't want to get into, the skinny of it though is the publishers want more money and hope this will get them it. No one really wants or cares about the new ocean map and long term players are saying that it is an asset flip and is mostly just creatures from other maps anyway.) whereas in Ascended, they're still remaking the maps that this game has. And when an old map does come out, typically there is a paid DLC not far from it, normally putting a powerful MTX creature on the free map. So at best for the full map experience you have to get the DLC, and at worst you're playing PvP and not getting the ability to use a new powerful creature is essentially bending over and telling other players who do have the DLC to jump in, not fun at all.
If multiplayer is your thing, I'm sure there are plenty of ASE unofficial servers that host it. Or if you're into local multiplayer with your friends only, ASE is better at that as well with tethering distance being something you can change in a text file in ASE, and that's if you don't go the ark server manager route and set up your own server, which is possible in ASE but in ASA they want to make server hosting as difficult as possible so they can sell Nitrado servers which is a company who has a complete monopoly on ASA servers so they charge whatever they like. Single player though the games don't really feel like they have an advantage over the other.
Overall, Ark Ascended can offer more "content" over time but you'll have to pay a lot more to get it. However Ark Evolved is currently a rather well rounded experience, only needing 1 purchase, and liked by the community for a reason.
People are welcome to disagree but this is how I see it.