I used to play and like the game. The full release sucks to be honest.
Before full release:
It doesn't really have a story, but its a swat game where you basically can play different maps in any order you want, when I still liked the game, I liked playing the Port map due to the nice rainy noir atmosphere and phenomenal soundtrack they used to play. Voice acting sucks though
Full release:
Completely Massacred, voice acting is even worse, they changed the style of music from Classical to crappy electronic music, the game is also becoming heavily censored, the games difficulty became absolutely Bullshit, its now as Linear as a Cod game and I simply don't like it in my opinion.
Overall: You missed out on when it was Actually alright.
there was a DLC released for ARK known as "Aquatica" that has received universal hatred from everyone due to it's laziness, but it also has broken the base game as mods are unplayable right now.
here's a quote from a steam user that said the following that explains it well: "When I saw ARK: Aquatica, I jumped out my skin. I have thalassophobia and I was expecting to enjoy my favourite game with a brand new DLC map. Especially after all the official servers got shut down in favour of ASA. When they revealed Ark Aquatica, it was revealed with a AI trailer which backfired on Snail Games immensely. Then it came to light that Snail Games more or less told the developers (wildcard) NOTHING about that trailer and screwed them over HARD. They released NO REAL gameplay. Real dinos. Real movement e.t.c about this map at all, UNTIL the release date a few days ago. Absolutely disgusting. I think Snail Games needs to be investigated or HARSHLY punished for their shameful display. They released Ark Aquatica for £8 (for launch sale) and... let's just say - Snail Games released this with no testing. No optimisation, no love, no passion. The only intent with this DLC is a rush job to put more money in their pockets. The servers are broken. Practically none of them work. ALL of the mods that passionate modders make, are all broken and don't work. If you do connect you crash instantly more or less. Shameful. Snail Games, you need to be investigated. I will NEVER support Snail Games AGAIN. PERIOD."
overall: Ark is in a state of hell, and I doubt that Snail will fix the problem, they claimed that "Oh were gonna fix it" but it's obviously Bullshit.