Ark: Survival Evolved vs The Culling
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.
The Culling
The Culling is, in many ways, a potentially great PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds alternative game. In fact, many would say that this is perhaps the very first standalone, battle royale game that is inspired directly from the Hunger Games. As such, you'll expect a pretty brutal arena set on a remote island where players will not only need to explore the foreign land to scavenge for resources but also to craft a wide variety of weapons, traps and tools just so you can ambush your fellow players. Naturally, being battle royale and all, the last man standing will be the victor.Each match can contain up to 16 contestants (and yes, like Hunger Games, The Culling is apparently a game show) and the game lasts for around 20 minutes. There is also a tutorial, a training mode where you play against AI bots, and a special 8-player Lightning Round where players get access to the best weapons early on in the game. As a game show, the "organizers" will often spice things up with special in-match events that have some pretty crucial rewards too. Like the Hunger Games, players can also each call in an airdrop (a.k.a. "care package") containing valuable items but getting to that airdrop in one piece without having your stuff stolen before you reach there can be quite a challenge in itself.
Now, unlike PUBG's shooter-heavy gameplay, The Culling has a more visceral, action-based, melee-oriented gameplay that will make every successful kill a very satisfying one. Don't get me wrong - the game does have ranged options like bows and guns but having a firearm or any ranged weapons may not be an advantage if you don't know how to keep your distance. Players can easily be disarmed of their ranged weapon if they are ambushed by a melee player, and of course, if you missed your aim, you may not have a second shot.
However, due to a plague of problems between the developers and its community, The Culling seems to be a pretty dead game at the moment and hence, finding a match can be quite difficult. Similar to PUBG, The Culling is not a free game either and this game is on the pricey end considering its almost non-existant player base.