ARK: Survival Evolved, which first surfaced in Steam Early Access back in 2015, has hit its 10th anniversary. While the milestone triggered a new DLC launch on the 16th and propelled the base game back into the global best-seller charts, both the expansion and the title itself are currently being hammered by a torrent of criticism.

The new DLC, 'Aquatica', is an expansion map focusing on deep-sea exploration. As the environment shifts underwater, it introduces 5 biomes including Crystal Caves and the Abyss, along with 21 new creatures. Players also gain access to 74 new engrams and 7 top-tier items. While it is true that the 10th-anniversary update expands the scope of gameplay, the expansion is currently sitting at a 'Mostly Negative' rating (23% positive from 307 reviews).

Players are slamming the title for abysmal optimisation, noting that even rigs equipped with an RTX 4090 are struggling to maintain 30 frames per second. The content itself feels like a lazy asset flip; users have pointed out bizarre animations—like lava pooling on underwater rocks—and bugs where new bosses spawn halfway outside the map boundaries. It seems the technical rot has unfortunately bled into the base game as well.

User reviews are rife with complaints that mods, which functioned perfectly fine before the DLC launch, are now completely broken. It is no exaggeration to say that mods have been the lifeblood of ARK: Survival Evolved, with high-quality community projects often being integrated as official free maps. Some users are now going as far as to suggest that staying away from the game entirely might be the safest bet.