ARK Survival Ascended is a survival game for the most part. Unlike the other survival games currently available in the market, this game does not feature a strong storyline. There is an underlying story, but that's not really important, nor does it have any major implications on the overall gameplay either. The game does feature a single player mode.
Despite the presence of its single player mode, most of the mechanics of the game are highly focused on the co-op/multiplayer side of things. But does ARK Survival Ascended have a story mode?
ARK Survival Ascended single player mode does not have a dedicated story
Yes the game has a single player mode, but there's no story mode. Although there are a few things that might cause you to question what you're doing in the game, or what the goal is, there's no way to know for sure what's going on.
All you get to know is that you've been stranded on an island, with a device on your wrist. Who implanted that device, and how you got there has always been a mystery in Survival Evolved, and will continue to be a mystery in Survival Ascended as well.
Despite the absense of a story mode, the single player campaign is feature rich. Yes, ARK Survival Ascended isn't exactly designed to be played solo, but you can still do so. The single player experience is very time consuming because once you make your way to the mid-game stages, gathering resources will be tedious. Not just that, taming or killing bigger dinosaurs will also be difficult.
To make this entire process easier, there are a plethora of parameters that you can modify to make it suit the kind of challenge you expect from the game as a whole. While it might be a nice idea to play solo on an entire map, it's recommended that you make your way to a shared map and play with other individuals.
Alternatively, you can also make a private map, and play with just your friends, because the experience that ARK Survival Ascended offers is best enjoyed in a group rather than solo.
That aside, the game is currently available on Steam only. Although it's supported on both the Xbox Series X and S, and the PlayStation 5, the console launch has been delayed.
Up until last month, it was just the PlayStation launch that was delayed, but Studio Wildcard has delayed the Xbox launch twice in a row now. Although they're yet to announce a release date, Studio Wildcard is hopeful that they would be able to release the game sometime early next week.
