Steam page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/529180/Dark_and_Light/
I recently picked this up last week, it shares a lot with ARK (similar UI and same engine), however there are some gameplay improvements that I think sets it apart. It's early access and is getting pounded due to having the same owners as ARK (different dev team but publisher owns Studio Wildcard and evidently there has been crossover in assets) but I think there is a good platform underneath (I put 500+ hours into ARK).
- No engram system, skills and level based so you level up skills based on doing things rather than arbitrarily being restricted by a points system. i.e. taming skill increases based on utilising tames or taming more creatures which in turn unlocks saddles etc.
- Magic/Spells, plenty of variety from transformation spells (at top level can morph into a wyvern) to illusion spells (blend buildings into environment).
- Starting Cities, you spawn in one of these based on your race and it offers a level of protection compared to randomly spawning in the wild. Also allows you to respawn there without issue (unlike in ARK where you needed a Bed). In addition there are NPC's which you can sell items to for gold and buy items such as Armour and Weapons, you can donate to them to increase their rating which means they will sell you higher tier items (thus avoiding the need to level up those skill lines or harvest mats). This is a bit buggy atm but broadly the mechanics are in place.
- Meteorite drops, these spawn enemies and provide loot drops including things like elemental enemies which if killed can be stripped of their elemental cores which can be used to craft more powerful weapons/spells.
- Taming is a bit different to ARK, requires you to get up close and personal to pin down and tire out the tame using hooked arrows. There are slowing spells to assist in catching tames that usually flee. It's a slightly better mechanic and avoids cheesing tames into walls to torpor them down like you could in ARK. Food requirements for tames are largely similar to ARK if less complex (no kibble from what I've seen).
- Goblins...attack in packs, rob you, strip you naked and leave you for dead...
- You can revive dead pets once you reach certain level/requirements in game. No longer will you need to worry about having to find that perfect pet if you lose your favourite tames. Need to grind some resources to revive but doesn't take too long.
There are other mechanics that I haven't got into yet, summoning, dungeons, invasions etc.
Cons so far:
- It's early access so all the negatives that go along with that, performance is average, bugs aplenty. I'd suggest staying away for now unless you're willing to accept that! That being said there is a solid game foundation there that should be fleshed out over the coming months.
- I'm playing on a private server at the moment as apparently there are some pretty toxic players on the official servers. I never played ARK outside of a group of friends on a private server for the same reason. They are working on offline raiding and bugs associated with it (wall glitching is a thing atm) so again steer clear of PVP if you aren't interested in the griefing. There is a house seal system which protects guild houses within range of the seal (unless a house declares war which you accept) but I don't know if this is working/implemented properly yet (you can craft it).
- Taming rates on official are as obscene as ARK, we currently run 5x taming rate just to get it down to more sensible times.
- Melee combat is rubbish currently in terms of hitboxes but is supposedly being worked on but it definitely needs a lot of work. Harvesting can be rather annoying on corpses as a consequence. Update: recent patches have improved this considerably but still needs work!
- City system is buggy and not fully fleshed out, mechanics are there but it's fairly barebones currently.
- Building system has all the limitations of ARK, whilst I didn't enjoy Citadel: Forged with Fire, one thing I'd say is their building system is a lot better. Possibly something they can change but I suspect it's probably going to stay as is, that being said some people are making some pretty awesome structures so maybe it's me
Update: On the higher tiers the building system feels a bit more varied and wider scope than ARK.So yh one to keep an eye on if you enjoyed ARK (I gave up because it felt like engrams/dinos were prioritised over bug fixing). I think it has more potential than ARK and looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
Some screenshots I've taken:
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