ARK: Survival Ascended has hit a wall of backlash from the global community following its latest massive update, sending its Steam review score into a tailspin. As a reminder, ARK: Survival Ascended is the Unreal Engine 5 remaster of the original ARK: Survival Evolved.

The current chaos stems from the arrival of the 'Dragontopia' and 'Genesis Part 1' updates. While the developer hoped Dragontopia—a DLC priced at roughly 50,000 KRW—would be seen as a substantial expansion, it instead became a lightning rod for complaints. Between the abysmal optimization and a series of server stability issues, the game's Steam user rating has taken a sharp, unavoidable nosedive.

Players leaving negative reviews are pointing their fingers at two primary culprits: 'terrible optimization' and 'absurd storage requirements.' Unreal Engine 5 offers gorgeous visuals, but that means nothing if the game can't maintain a stable frame rate. To make matters worse, the update size is colossal. One frustrated player wrote on Steam, 'Requiring over 150GB of free space just to apply an 80GB patch is nothing short of a digital terror.'

The content itself hasn't fared much better. The new Genesis Part 1 has been criticized for feeling like a lazy 'copy and paste' job from the previous title, with some areas appearing woefully unfinished. Throw in the immediate 'rollbacks' and bugs that cause players to lose their characters and hard-earned items, and you have a game that is, quite frankly, bordering on unplayable.

The DLC is taking just as much heat as the update. Dragontopia is being mocked for its watered-down taming mechanics, with many questioning why such a high price tag accompanies so little meaningful content. The primary concern, however, is the power creep of the new creatures; players are openly accusing the developer of pushing a pay-to-win monetization strategy. Since the update dropped on the 4th, the review section has been flooded with a relentless tide of negative feedback.

On the brighter side of the Steam charts, Mecha Chameleon continues to hold the top spot with 15 million units sold, followed by Cyberpunk 2077, which jumped to second place thanks to a 70% discount on its 40 million sales milestone. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Rethinked, launching on the 9th, currently sits at third.

In the concurrent player charts, TBH: Taskbar Hero saw about 20,000 players drop off over the weekend as server issues and glitches continue to plague its reputation. Meanwhile, Rust has slipped from 5th place on the 3rd to 9th, as the steam from its 'Apartment' update finally runs out. Elsewhere, Mecha Chameleon remains a mainstay at the top, while GTA5 Legacy has managed to climb back into the top 20.