ARK Aberration Comparison ASE vs ASA 

Contrast needs to be fixed on asa

one thing i liked about ase was how the colors and atmosphere was a lot more darker which allowed the lighting of drops and other glowing lights to pop/stand out from the rest. The new ASA map has also made the water less vibrant and made the atmosphere too eye sore.

I miss real stone and not sandstone.

Why does it lowkey look better in ASE in like 99% of shots? Is it just me?

“Yeah let’s make one of the most gritty maps have the brightness of a sun that’ll work!” - wildcard

Wtf were they thinking with the lighting here?

There's just way too much contrast between the light sources and the surrounding area, they've removed all the soft subtle lighting. It's like you get flashbanged everytime you look in a new direction. I feel like fixing that would be a massive improvement. 6:03 is a perfect example of this lol.

In my humble opinion... Before everything was a darker, sober and scary environment, just what Aberration means. With more depth and contrast in the lighting, you could perfectly understand what the designers wanted to convey. Now it looks like an arcade with lots of rgb everywhere.

I hope the lighting doesnt remove the atmosphere and ambience the ase version had

Red zone in ASE was more ominous. Reapers blended in better and it gave you the feeling that you descended to a new level of hostility. Now it looks like blue zone 2.0 with the lighting

I had so much hype for this map and I feel like the final product didn’t reach my expectations…

Overall the asa version is too bright and lost a lot of the identity it had on ase tbh. The whole reason why there were glowing shoulder pets was to keep monsters away and iluminate your path... now there is almost no need for them (try to spot them in the video). On areas near the surface the terrain look kinda bland now somehow (look like they are using a lot of regular rocks and plants from other maps, feeling like they dont belong on abb).

Look how they massacred my boy...

Wow I love all the new LED lights to add to my gamer room

How tf does this look worse? Overused the sandstone texture again just like on Center and the lighting is way too bright! Going to have to wear sunglasses not to burn my eyeballs!

Devs cant decide if they want more blue or no blue

Feels like the real Ascended version is the Evolved one. The new one is just ARK Survival Descended😂😂😂

This map is now perfectly "Too bright and Too dark" at the same time

2:05 thanks raasclark, its all over my screen now.

Ab lost its identity imo, ambience is no longer scary.

Why is it so stinking bright!

1:24 is hilarious, what have they been doing? The fog and lighting is odd, blocky, and pixelated, all the water is a gross brown and green for some reason. runs terribly, crashes every couple minutes. i mean come on, what did they do to my boy, why. the surface looks much better. and that's about it...

What the heck is with all the BLUE....everything is bloody blue....

Somehow they made it look worse even with higher quality assets. Very disappointed in my favourite map just being like this. They also ruined my favourite base location the gas plateau :/

Honestly I kinda like ase more

Genuinely feels like wildcard hasn't got the first clue how to use UE5. If they wanted to make a port they should've just started from the ground up. Its supposed to be a fixed engine but its littered with the same bugs as ASE. It doesn't even look like that much of a graphical improvement because they just took the same hideous lighting issues in ASE and turned it to 11 with the lumen tech in UE5. Ark 2 is never coming out and I cannot say that I'm upset about it. How this company hasn't gone bankrupt yet is astonishing.

Wow old one looks much better. Looks like all the colour has been bleached out of the new map.

This is way too illuminated to be aberration imo

In ARK Survival Ascended only Scorched Earth is winner

The textures and assets are obviously way better, and ignoring the brightness I feel like some of the areas lost a bit of uniqueness. Especially the blue bio zone..the water quality and colours is what made it amazing imo. Now its all just white and blue.

My precious!?!? What did they do to aberration? Whys it so bright? I have so many questions but atleast both the surface and red zone look quite cool😔😔

The map is so dense and lush I got lost for real and panicked

im surprised im saying this but the old one looks better by quite a fair bit. yes the new one does have better looking lighting but man the old one gave you a real sense of scale and the way the lighting and contrast was done really made it looks nice

"what is wrong with you? why are you blue"

The change is immense although i feel some things are missing from the asa version and it still has the ase vibe to it. Mainly the lighting and aspect of the map aint just there it couldve been a bit better. All and all though an amazing map and ark ascended probably needed this especially with the release of the second bob's tale dlc.

I. I am at a loss for words. I hate the ASA makeover, It completely lost its character. ASE looks so much better This was my favorite map man…

Turn the gamma down and lightbloom and im sure it'll be fine. Not too keen on the purples and reds being blueified.

I knew it was going to be very bright. The lighting engine has been a big point Wildcard have tried to sell this game on, which is why the previous maps have been so bright.

Ark: migraine version

Maybe it's a PC thing, but on the Xbox Series X Aberration looks like crap. Honestly worse than ASE, not kidding.

Wait, why does it look like a crayon painting that was done by one of my 9 old cousins? Ark survival evolveds version looks like the upgrade. This is what all the delays were for? Oh yeah and the 80% improvement to graphical performance, they pulled that number out of their asses. All false marketing scheme. Anyways im back to no mans sky. Will be back to see what else they ruin when extinction launches, the same time as my grankids are born

Every map just looks like the island besides scorched.. the green zone has lost its beauty

Horror aspect gone, ambiance gone, darkness gone, wild card ruined aberration

I don't get why people in the comments are saying it looks bad, I think it's absolutely gorgeus. The lights in the green zone really highlight the liveliness of the are, the blue zone is well, the bioluminescent zone and the red zone has a combination of that erie blue glow making it look more alien and the purple/pink molten element. And noone can say the surface looks worse, so help me god. The only thing I don't like is the use of sandstone LITTERALY. FUCKING. EVERYWHERE.

The lighting looks nothing like the original, most areas are way to bright and alot of the same colors. In the original the different colors helped alot to see in what area you ware at, now it all looks the same :/

My 4080: haha I'm in danger

I never got to experience ASE’s version of Abb but it looks truly amazing for its time but wow some of the glow ups of certain areas is truly incredible. Those beautiful blue glowing plants in the ASA version are stunning

in ASA, just looks like a beautiful cave with an abandoned facility rather than broken ark

If they fix some of the brightness issues, Asa would be so much better.

In general I think it looks better overall. There are certain areas of the green zone that were pretty bright and honestly I think they should be because the green zone is the first area right from where the sun is, you think that sun isn't going to be shining in through those Vines (0:39). It's going to be like a laser. Then there were some areas that were still pretty dark and they actually looked pretty good dark (0:55). The areas in the Red Zone where the spine is, it looks like they added a light, so seeing that area illuminated makes sense. It kind of gives off an alien abduction vibe (2:46). The yellow Crystal walk I think looked very nice in ASA (6:07), however I do think the Blue Zone was a little too illuminated (1:47). There's a few places in the red zone that I actually was a real big fan of the change and then there are a few places that I thought it could be toned down a little (4:55). The rockdrake nests areas definitely need re-examination (4:16). Finally the surface, the first comparison you showed had a very dark area and then the ASA comparison was a more brightly lit area with red backlight and I thought that made it look really creepy (7:12), however I think the comparison with the green obelisk the ASE version was better. The Geometry overall looks much better. There were some confusing choices though, like turning the blue zone river crytals from purple to blue (2:30). They did this in The Island caves crytals too.

I can see some improvements in the level of detail and where they tried to make the environmental effects more realistic but in doing so they've made it worse in most of the areas shown, the surface looks horrible now why is red instead of daylight and all the rivers and lakes went from blue to invisible, the map is suppose to be mostly pitch black with only luminescence as light sources from the plants, trees and the purple crystals that are now gone WD need to sort it out.

Definitely prettier at places. It looks really scenic. Portal area is really nice. - Though one thing did catch me, what's with the insane brightness at places like the rockdrake trench?

Wow, 0:51, 0:57, 2:46, 3:08, 3:31 and 7:04 were some really nice improvements. Nice job on the photos Raas!

It is like someone turned the light switch on

I would understand the green zone being brighter if it got darker the further down you went but it's just all bright... Honestly the blue zone is a 100% upgrade though, but the red zone.. what happened?! Why would Wildcard remove the element water?? And with so many crystals gone it's not even that red anymore! Also the rock drake den was massacred; it's blue & purple with a touch of SUN now? Like what: 4:25 Okay it seems the red zone isn't all bad, I think less brightness darker rocks and removing the (element infusion? whatever those blue steaks are) from the rocks would make it look WAY better. 6:02 - this is one of the shots that is just 100% better in ASE. The dark background highlights the small glows of the crystals, and the water drops into darkness. In ASA the default light level is what the crystals emitted in ASE, and the ASA crystals are even brighter! Also this shows why the blue rocks just don't work anywhere but the blue zone. 6:22 - brightness DONE RIGHT. Remove the surrounding glow from the rocks / crystals and that ASA shot is amazing! It looks like subnatica tech! 6:37 - when I said make it darker this is not what I meant surface is great but again, kinda bright during the night. Okay that's all thanks for reading I really want ASA to be better, I'm just pointing out stuff I don't like this is not meant to be offensive okay byeee

Some of the lighting is weird but that's easily corrected in settings and honestly it looks great I think it looks fresh and new even though it's not. I think they did a good job and I'm excited to see the next maps

That bit of the part with the purple obelisk, bro, the moon looks so good

Really only a few shots look better. They really dropped the ball on the red zone area, most of its eeriness came from the lack of lighting and its dark walls. ASA never fails to disappoint in some departments

Huge improvement in all aspects. Great job🎉

The island and Scorched Earth were really good upgrades but The Center and Aberration miss way more than they hit. If they continue to use the sandy rock than I fear for Extinction and Gen.

What have they done with the brightness? All the Atmosphere is kinda gone.. I guess Aberration is gana be the first map where i have to turn Gamma down instead of up lol

Lotta people complaining about the new lighting, but honesty I love it. Fertile chambers look like a properly sunny region now (fitting since it's the only one that gets actual sunlight), biolum chambers look absolutely GORGEOUS with all the blue lights, the elemental chambers have gained a far more foreboding vibe, and the surface looks even more hellish and desolate than it did before. I get that a lot of people are upset about it not being as "dark" as before... but I'm gonna be honest "darkness" was not ASE Ab's strongest trait either. The rock drake trench was comically bright, more so than some places in the LITERAL SUNLIT UPPER CHAMBERS which had some weirdly dark places despite that fact, and both the biolum and rad chambers had their fair share of really bright and dark spots too. And then the surface was kinda just... dark and dusty looking, despite all the unobstructed starlight coming from up above... The ASA iteration feels like it made the lighting in these areas more consistent across the board. Overall its brighter yeah, but some spots have also become a good bit darker to be more in-line with the status quo with the main chamber of the drake trench being the best example here. Where the ASE version is really bright overall with that neon pink glow from the element, in the ASA version the liquid element doesn't illuminate the whole place anymore so most of the lighting is instead that ominous blue glow seeping down from the biolum chambers above, which I think is a MASSIVE improvement. Overall, while it may not be quite _as_ dark as in ASE, Aberration Ascended goes way farther with the actual "vibes" of each region. Making them each feel more wonderlandian, alien, or hellish depending on the one in question. And I personally consider that a well deserved upgrade for this gorgeous map.

oh dear god ive always liked ase's graphics more (i just like the grittier style) but this is a new low, glad i aint playing that travesty of a remake with you folks i never left ase

Some parts look like a nice upgrade but overall it lowkey looks like utter crap

Feel like some of the areas in ASE were more eerie and vibrant in the right areas. ASA Abb has this as well, but it's a tad bit brighter. I can dig it it

I’m hoping that the lighting is just an issue with lumen that gets fixed at some point. The green zone seems fine for the most part (since it’s the closest to the surface it would stand to reason it’d be the brightest), but the blue and red zones in particular for sure need toned waaay down. Also, why are the crystals at the Crystal lake no longer that pink color? That is my favorite location to build in, but it feels like the colors were just arbitrarily changed, which messes with the vibe of that location imo.

Suprised just how beautiful the blue zone now looks with the new trees. Also suprised with how much they changed fertile lakes

Just contrasts and every glow doesn't need to be powerful as a sun. Subtlety! It's meant to be a dark map. You adjust to the darkness / need a light creature for a REASON. I hope I can edit some of this myself or they make changes quickly.

Aside from maybe being a bit too bright, the new maps is absolutely stunning! So much better than the center's glow up.

Lighting is a mess. Shadows are gone. Red zone is no longer scarry. Ugly map ASE looked better. WC screwed this up ..... Again

A lot of noticeable structural changes, including the lighting and counter shading. Now I wonder how it will look at night. I also do hope they would rework the bioluminescence/fluorescent of the creatures, making them more prominent and noticeable

It's actually impressive... how they managed to fuck this up. The most atmospheric ASE map... and they spent time and effort downgrading it...

Looks amazing tbh

Cant wait for my Xbox to burn my house down after trying to tame parasour

Я ждала эту карту больше всех... Потому что после первых трейлеров asa я мысленно представляла, как же круто будет смотреть aberration на ue5... как я ошибалась.... Остров и выжженная земля были просто отпад, но дальше всё вышло из-под контроля... Мои глаза... Никто не сможет стереть из моей памяти то, как они подземную карту сделали ярче, чем наземную.. Деревья в голубой зоне ase были очень крутыми (теперь это какой-то аватар), по мере отдаления от зеленой зоны чувствовалось погружение вглубь карты. Да, в ase карта не была идеальна на 100%, но цвета, контрастность и освещение давали просто безумную картинку и атмосферу... Теперь этого нет, и я очень разочарована....😢

dont know why people are conplaning asa version looks AMAZING!! it was worth the wait :)

By reducing brightness and increasing fog and particles you could solve most complaints, but that will surely weigh on the graphic features and performance, they will fix it after the graphics engine performance update that is supposed to come out next to this map but was delayed.

I thought ascended would look good, but as soon as I saw what it actually looked like on other videos, I changed my mind 🙁

God i missed this soundtrack so much

theyve taken abberration and made it so bright and got rid of the aberration feel

Can you do a video on where to find every (Spawn Locations) Aberrant variant creature and Aberration Exclusive Creatures????

Generally does look more detailed, but the color scheme of ase is better. seems to be the case for every map so far.

ASE looks like it has more dark spots than ASA. like Bob ross ones said: "have to have dark in order to have light". ASA aberration has too much light. ASE aberration is a piece of art.

how does bro upload this so fast

It’s actually crazy how much Ase looks better in some of those pics 😂

Was never a big abb fan but it looks great.

Lighting needs to be fixed bigtime on ASA. Hate the constant flickering of textures of light going through trees. I see what they're trying to go for but it just doesn't work

Evolved looks so much better in my opinion. ASA abb really lacks that dynamic ambiance and incredible atmosphere the ASE abb has.

Why does ASA look worst than Ase lol

Ase ark: dangerous dark abyss, Asa ark: Motley nightclub

Lighting needs major adjustment, the ambience and feel of Aberration isn't quite there. Far too bright. Lighting aside it looks great.

I hate to say it, I prefer the original, especially in the radiation zone and the surface :'(

Yeah....while the ascended version is pretty it's extremely cluttered with trees and bushes, also some of the lighting doesn't make sense in some areas. I'm gonna choose evolved aberration over ascended. Good try though.

Was watching live last night, not sure if it’s just the RU-vid quality or not as I haven’t tried it myself. But I feel they could have done better with this. To me it seems more like they are lowering quality slowly over time to try and improve gameplay and stability also to lower demands on PC’s. Things just looked a little blury. Lighting does seem a little bright, but will have to take a look myself before I can really judge it.

With every map that releases I die inside knowing I cant run ASA

I'm not going to say it looks BAD, because it doesn't. But there were definitely some...interesting decisions made when it comes to the lightning. I think some areas they went waaaay too hard, and it lost it's "creepy horror" vibe. Maybe they can tweek it a bit later, but I wouldn't hold my breath, it might just be what it is. Semi unrelated - Any other ps5 players here? Is it running like absolute dog water for anyone else? My entire ground texture will just randomly flicker in and out as I'm running, and the lag is quite bad. Had zero issues on all the other maps though

Blue zone turned into a blue tinted flash bang

For now I prefer the look of the ASE version of Ab, but maybe the new ASA version will grow on us.... like a wart. 😹 Love the comparison vid though, Raas! Great work. ♥

Much love homie

the surface is the only part that actually looks nicer imo ngl. it's way too bright, lost the horror aspect, lost the atmosphere, and just doesn't feel right. luckily i don't play asa❤