Trying to review any “Ark: Survival Evolved” experience, whether it’s the vanilla game, “Survival of the Fittest or Scorched Earth,” is like trying to hit a moving target. Developer Studio Wildcard is still obsessively adding content, tweaking gameplay fundamentals and rolling out balance updates on a weekly basis. Still, there’s enough content on which to hang a review. “Ark: Scorched Earth” is a massive DLC pack for “Ark: Survival Evolved,” and requires the base game in order to run. It adds an entirely new desert-themed map, numerous creatures that steer the series away from realistic dinosaurs and into mythological territory and a handful of new items. The items and creatures unlocked in “Scorched Earth” can be built or transferred to the base “Ark: Survival Evolved” game, which gives “Scorched Earth” players a distinct advantage. The map is arguably the biggest change in “Scorched Earth” and is responsible for the wildest gameplay changes. Unlike The Island or The Center maps, the desert is lacking in biomes. You won’t find redwoods, snow covered mountains or swamps here, just miles and miles of sand dunes and rocks, which makes survival much more difficult than in other locations. During the day, temperatures are through the roof and water becomes a survival necessity. At night, the bitter cold sets in and survivors need to have a healthy supply of food at hand to make it until dawn. The game is much less forgiving for newcomers. Gaining even the slightest foothold is a herculean task. You’ll die. A lot. It took me hours to establish a 1x1 stone base with a bed and enough resources to get me through the harsh realities of the environment. Unfortunately, much of the difficulty is due to the sheer amount of glitches, not purposeful game design. I lost count of how many times I spawned directly on top of a Terror Bird or Direwolf, only to be killed instantly and I frequently lost my bag of items in rocks or other flora, which is particularly devastating early on. It’s during these moments that the frustration sets in and the game seems unfair instead of challenging. Then, there’s the fact that “Scorched Earth” allows players to transfer characters (complete with levels and item engrams) between official servers, which leads to even more unbalanced scenarios. Within hours of the game’s release, "alpha" tribes boasting 10-20 members already had a stranglehold on the server. It took less than a day for metal bases to be erected and turrets placed, and to prevent competitors, many of these tribes systematically wipe out bases daily. This has been the case with nearly every official player-vs-player server I’ve tried, and I can see small tribes quitting in frustration. If you want to avoid frequent dinosaur and structure loss, I’d recommend playing on a player-vs-environment server. After a frustrating few hours, the real strengths of “Scorched Earth” begin to shine through-- the creatures. There are lightning, poison and flame wyverns, giant rock golems, colossal sand worms, mantises and more. It’s easy to see that these creatures are not just re-skins of old dinosaurs, but fulfill new and much-requested roles. The rock elemental is the best stone gatherer in the game, handily beating the Doedicurus, the wyvern is the perfect siege weapon and the mantis, which can hold tools or weapons, is a great mount for ground combat or resource collection. As has always been the case, experimenting with and riding new creatures is the highlight of the game, and “Scorched Earth” doesn’t disappoint on that front. I’m happy to see Studio Wildcard branching into the realm of mythological creatures and not staying too firmly rooted in reality. Simply put, these fantastical beasts can offer variations on gameplay that weren’t possible with traditional prehistoric predators, and it has me more excited than ever to see what’s around the corner. New items also mix up the game in fun ways. There are flamethrowers to mow down chargingdinosaurs, chainsaws to make wood gathering a breeze and preserving salts to store perishable food for longer periods of time. The new adobe structures provide protection from the sweltering heat and look particularly stunning in the orange and yellow landscape, and the new tent is a useful way to avoid harsh weather conditions. Like the dinosaurs, each new item is a winner and fills a necessary role perfectly, and being able to craft those items on the two other maps is much appreciated. Unfortunately, all of the jankiness of the base game is present in “Ark: Scorched Earth.” Dinosaurs get stuck on rocks, health gauges still don’t work properly, enemy AI is borderline stupid, hit detection is inaccurate and there are even misspelled names and grammatically incorrect sentences littered throughout. Then, there are the performance problems, which are present on both the Xbox One and PC. On the Xbox, Scorched Earth still suffers from constant screen tearing and 720p resolution. In areas with large structures, the game has a habit of slowing to a crawl, making quick escapes all but impossible. On the PC, many of the problems that plagued the base game are still here. Even with a top-of-the-line video card, running the game on the highest settings in 1080p still produces less than 30 frames per second on occasion and 1440p and 4K, maxed out, is out of the question. The frame rate bounces wildly, running at 60fps one second, and 15fps the next, which gives the game a jerky look. These performance problems are particularly troubling due to the time they’ve been in the game and the missed optimization target dates (DX12 support is the biggest offender, having been promised for the better part of a year). Future optimization has been promised on many occasions, but it’s still the weakest aspect of the game and needs to be fixed as soon as possible. In the meantime, players with underpowered gaming rigs should look to the Xbox One version or bypass the game entirely. With all that being said, the game is still in Early Access and the Xbox Game Preview Program and can’t be judged too harshly before official release. Many of the glitches and performance problems will most likely be ironed out before release. While “Ark: Scorched Earth” won’t change the opinion of anyone who dislikes the vanilla game, it adds an abundance of high-quality content for fans. The new creatures are a breath of fresh air, the map is challenging and the new items allow for some interesting gameplay opportunities. If Studio Wildcard can fix the game’s longstanding performance problems and frequent glitches and keep the great content streaming in, I see a very, very long life for the “Ark” series. I can’t wait to see what they add next. 8/10