I’m no stranger to survival games, and I also like dinosaurs, so ARK isn’t anything new to me, though it’s been a couple of years since I last played the game on my PlayStation. It’s a title that receives many updates and expansions, the most recent of which is the Ragnarok map – as someone who enjoys a bit of Norse mythology, I immediately felt drawn to the name. So, I decided to revisit the dinos on mobile with the ARK: Ultimate Mobile Edition, hoping and praying it goes better than last time. A megalodon ate me after falling off a cliff. It was rough.
If you’re familiar with ARK on other platforms, you’ll know exactly what to expect – you need to explore a vast world, look for supplies, craft items, and do all you can to survive, which includes fighting off fearsome beasts. There are numerous maps to choose from, assuming you purchase them or have the ARK pass, each with its own perils for you to face, namely the obscene amount of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures that want to make you their dinner.
Your time on the Ragnarok map is no different, though you may encounter an angry dodo within minutes of arrival as I did, and I’ll tell you what, the pink, angry bird put me in my place immediately. But it’s okay; I exist in the real world and fortunately am not extinct, so who’s really laughing here? As with any map, there are numerous biomes for you to explore, and each poses a different danger – if you head to the mountains, for instance, you’re likely to freeze without the proper equipment.
Despite having a good time running away from dodo, my gameplay experience wasn’t the best. Full disclosure: I played the game on an iPhone 13, so three generations behind the most recent Apple flagship, which may explain some of the issues I encountered. There’s a frequent drop in frame rates when I play, sometimes so much so that it brings the entire game to a standstill for seconds at a time – perhaps this isn’t so much of a problem with the more recent models, particularly as the iPhone 15 and 16 series phones have processors better suited to running performance-intensive games.
The touch controls are smooth for the most part, responding well and making it pretty easy to traverse the world. My one real complaint here is swiping up to jump, but maybe console games spoil me with a designated jump button and the freedom to choose what direction I move in with a d-pad or analog stick.
Ark Ultimate Mobile Edition is fun for fans of the survival game, and the influx of new maps can help to keep things fresh, though there’s not too much difference to me – you do all the same things regardless of your setting, but maybe I’m still salty that my pleasant jaunt through Ragnarok was promptly ruined by dodo, followed by me becoming dinner for various beasties. At least I have my uses in the apocalypse. Overall, if you want something fresh, Ragnarok is still fun to explore and it only costs $2.99 if you don’t have the ARK Pass, but the performance issues on older phones somewhat hinder the experience.
For similar experiences to ARK, make sure you check out our lists of the best dinosaur games and survival games. We even have a guide dedicated to all of the Jurassic World games you can play on Switch, mobile, and PC handhelds.