Ark: Survival Evolved vs Rust
Ark: Survival Evolved
Ark: Survival Evolved is a hardcore, prehistoric-themed (this means dinosaurs... lots and lots of them), survival sandbox MMO set in an astoundingly gorgeous persistent world where everybody is fair game. There is insane amount of resources that you can harvest, items you can craft and dinosaurs that you can tame. Not to mention, you can and will probably need to build shelters for yourself and your tamed beasts, and of course, defend it from other players.Being a hardcore survival game, you'll also need to take care to feed both you and your dinosaurs and that death is pretty permanent in this game. Even the tools you craft has durability that will gradually wear down when used. It might be difficult to be a solo player and thus, you are often encouraged to team up whenever you can.
Ark: Survival Evolved is definitely not the sort of game to play if you're easily frustrated. The learning curve - let alone the "survival curve" - can be pretty steep especially when you keep getting killed or harassed by other, better equipped survivors.
Rust
Rust is hardcore survival game where the only aim for every player in the game is to survive. Being a survival game, your character will have needs that you'll need to fulfill or risk getting ill or worse... dying from it. There are tons of recipes for you to craft a wide variety of items from as long as you've got the resources you need, and you can also hunt and built a shelter.As fun as this game may sound, the community in this game can be a bit toxic. Most players have a kill-on-sight policy (even if you're naked and literally have nothing with you) and this means playing alone can be very frustrating. If you're planning to play this game, you might want to get a larger group of friends - maybe somewhere around 5 or more players - or you'll quickly realize you want your money back now.