Prehistoric survival game Ark 2 has been teased in a new trailer.
The video, which was shown during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, confirms the sequel to 2017’s Ark: Survival Evolved is coming next year. Although only a cinematic trailer, it demonstrates the core premise of the upcoming multiplayer title: survive in a hostile alien world populated by vicious dinos ready to tear you to bits. You’ll also be taming the beasties, letting you ride around like you’re attending a Jurassic rodeo.
Although no gameplay was shown, the teaser offers some background lore to the upcoming game. Players will take the role of descendants of interstellar human colonists who attempted to settle a hostile exoplanet after Earth was destroyed in a brutal planetary war. Presumably, it didn't go too well for them, since their offspring are reduced to using primitive tools befitting of cavemen, rather than the bleeding edge tech you'd expect of a spacefaring civilization.
“Survive the past. Tame the future,” the video’s description reads. “Suddenly awakened on a primal world filled with dinosaurs and humans struggling for dominance, you must team up with legendary heroes to confront powerful dark forces.”
Watch the gameplay below for a taste of gigantic reptiles you’ll be trying to tame.
As in the first game, Ark 2 seems to be guided by a single evolutionary truism 2: the big dino eats the little dino. While the first extinct reptile shown in the video is little more than a measly dodo, each new creature introduced is incrementally larger, until the final dinosaur shown is just bewilderingly enormous. Is it a T-Rex? Is it a Gigantosaurus? Who knows, but it’s ludicrously large.
Ark 2 currently has no set release date outside of 2023. That could be in the second half of the year, so don't expect a firmer date to be announced in the next few months. And if you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, you’re in luck. The game will be hitting the subscription service on day one.
If you just can’t wait to try your hand at a spot of prehistoric survival, you could always check out the first Ark game, Survival Evolved. Its Nintendo Switch port received a massive overhaul earlier this year, finally fixing its egregious technical bugs.
