Snail Games apologizes for Ark Aquatica DLC as update breaks the survival game

Ark: Aquatica was supposed to be a special celebration of Studio Wildcard's original survival game, but it's been met with a hugely negative response as many players find their saves unplayable, settings reset, and mod compatibility broken. The underwater expansion has just launched to mark ten years of Ark Survival Evolved, reimagining the world and giving a reason to return from its newer Unreal Engine 5 remaster. Unfortunately, an accompanying update appears to have caused a plethora of issues with the core game, even affecting players who haven't bought the new DLC.

Ark Survival Evolved continues to prove popular more than two years after the launch of the UE5 Survival Ascended, and holds a much more positive overall Steam rating than its newer sibling (84% positive from over 554,000 reviews, compared to ASA's 59%). Studio Wildcard tells us it sees several reasons for this continued playerbase; people on older machines that can't run the remake, expansions that have yet to migrate to the new game, and those waiting for something completely fresh to arrive in Ascended.

Taking all those factors into account, Ark Survival Evolved remains firmly on our list of the best survival games, so the launch of Aquatica should have been a point of pride. It boasts a completely submerged Ark, with new gameplay mechanics, a fresh twist on the lore, 21 additional creatures, and the ability to start in "a more approachable biome designed for players of all ages." It's currently just 18% positive on Steam, however, and this is mostly tied to an update that has rolled out for the core game alongside the expansion.

Among the responses, players report that the update has caused various problems. Some have seen their settings fully reset. Others are finding texture issues on the new map itself. Dinosaurs have been lost. A large number of the best Ark mods have been made incompatible, meaning they'll require an update from creators. One user writes, "Didn't even have Aquatica, but it screwed up both my single-player files and my unmodded, unofficial island server, so I purchased the pack just to come here and tell everyone else not to buy it."

As a temporary fix, the Ark developer has enabled a public branch called 'preaquatica,' allowing you to roll back to the previous build. While you won't be able to access the new DLC, your existing games and servers should work as normal. "This branch is available for clients and dedicated servers," Studio Wildcard's parent company Snail Games, which has taken responsibility for the development of Aquatica, explains.

"We will be working on fixing mods in the main branch in the coming days," it continues. "If you are unable to see this branch, please restart/exit Steam. Even if you have purchased Aquatica, you can use the branch to get back to the mods while we update." It asks players who have encountered issues to submit them to the 'bug reports forum' in the expansion's official Discord.

"We ask for patience, collaboration, and trust that fixes are coming to both Ark Survival Evolved and Ark: Aquatica," the developer adds. "We remain dedicated to making sure that Ark Survival Evolved is celebrated for this ten-year milestone."

If you need something to tide you over as we await fixes, take a look through our pick of the best dinosaur games and the best open-world games on PC right now.

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