A fresh batch of freebies has arrived on the Epic Games Store, with this weeks offerings coming in the form of dinosaur survival adventure Ark: Survival Evolved and the video game adaptation of acclaimed board game Gloomhaven.
This isnt Ark: Survival Evolveds first outing as an Epic freebie – it was given away in June 2020 – but if youre a survival fan who hasnt yet given it a look, its still probably worth checking out.
Released back in August 2017 after several years in early access, Arks base game offers a broadly compelling (if rather rickety) blend of dinosaur taming and breeding, base building, and survival meter management, all in service of massive-scale tribal warfare – unless you opt to join a PvE server, in which case your most terrifying foe is usually a pillar. Subsequent expansions, not included with Epics freebie, have upped the sci-fi and fantasy factor, which, if you enjoy the base games rhythms, you might find more to your taste.
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As for Gloomhaven, its an excellent adaptation of designer Isaac Childres sprawling, turn-based tactical dungeon crawler. The original board game iteration serves up a persistent fantasy world thats packed with characters, items, and scenarios, all gradually unlocking over the course of a 100+ hour campaign. Its a thrilling, richly designed, and all-round fantastic RPG experience, and one that also happens to come in a very big box.
That fact developer Flaming Fowl Studios digital version wont fall off a shelf and kill you is probalby reason enough to give it a look, but its also a cheaper, more manageable version of Gloomhaven that – with 4-player online co-op support – ends up being faithful to the original while making the most of the change in medium.
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Both Ark: Survival Evolved and Gloomhaven are free to add to your Epic Games Store library right now and will remain so until next Thursday, 29th September – at which point Drone Racing League Simulator and Runbow take over.
