Back in 2018, the Switch received one of the worst and most unplayable ports in the console’s history, a remarkable distinction considering how rough the platform is. You know this because it’s a hugely popular first-person open-world survival simulator. Ark: Survival Evolved. Now four years after its first release, Ark It has a new Switch port that uses a newer version of Unreal, and it might be one of the most impressive improvements to a Switch game I’ve ever seen.
The Switch has some awesome ports. games like Witcher 3 and Doomsday 2016 The aging portable hybrid console not only looks great, but also plays well. It’s not easy to do, mind you. The Switch is old and not very powerful, so it’s hard to get modern, big, sleek looking 3D games running on it. I mean, even games published by Nintendo are like new Pokémon fight over it. So it’s no surprise that for every awesome port, there are dozens of bleh ports of great games. But then there are really cliff ports, one wonders why they were even created. And perhaps the worst of the worst is 2018 Ark: Survival Evolved.
Ark It wasn’t just bad on the Switch in 2018, it was downright awful. Many sites and critics called it If not one of the worst ports ever released for the Switch. It featured an incredibly low resolution and horrendously bad framerate, with tons of stuttering and stuttering.
Even when it worked well, it looked like crap with lots of blurry objects and fuzzy shapes around. Some of these were apparently intended for dinosaurs or trees. It was hard to say. This Digital casting Video from 2018 It’s a great look at the port and how poorly it plays. Fast forward a few years later and now this month a brand new version of the popular survival game is out on the Switch. And friends, it’s very impressive how good everything is.
Eurogamer and Digital casting took a look at this new port and spoke to the developers behind it. Apparently, the entire game has been rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal 4. In fact, according to the developers, nothing remains of the original game. Instead, this port is based on a newer Xbox build of the game. New port developer Grove Street Games (yes, the same guys behind the hatred, hatred GTA Trilogy remasters from last year…) also uses dynamic resolution scaling to help things look sharper and run better on Switch.
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New port Ark Better looking shadows and less pop-in features thanks to the new tools available in UE4. Even better, the notoriously long load times have been reduced to just 30 seconds. That’s still a lot, but keep in mind that in the original port it can take about three minutes. Yes, big improvements all around.
To be clear: This is still a rough way to play Ark: Survival Evolved compared to more capable platforms. Of course, playing the game on newer more powerful consoles or a powerful PC will provide a better experience. But for people who prefer portable gaming or only own a Switch, it’s nice to see a publisher go back and spend the money and time to completely fix a bad port and replace it with something better. It’s not something you see very often, and even if the new port still has its issues, the new version is an overnight improvement and should be applauded.
Ark: Survival Evolved – Ultimate Survivor Edition is now available on Switch and is free for previous owners of the old port. Can be Outer worlds can you get a better port next?
