Player with 35,000 hours leaves negative Steam review and asks for refund

After pouring 35,000 hours into Ark: Survival Evolved, one player has left a negative review and asked for a refund.

When you sink hundreds, if not thousands of hours into a game, the general assumption is that you enjoy tend to enjoy said game. Though, of course, as us gamers know, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes the situation can be a little more complicated in a love-hate sort of way.

Regardless, how long a player dedicates to a chosen game doesn’t always mean that they’re happy with it, as a user on Steam has clearly shown in a recent review.

After pouring a whopping 35,000 hours into Ark: Survival Evolved, this particular user has written a negative review and even demanded a refund.

Ark: Survival Evolved player with 35,000 hours finally leaves review

In their review posted on July 18, 2025, they first claimed that Ark is one of their favorite games to play with friends and family, after mentioning that they’ve enjoyed the 35,000 hours they’ve spent on it.

“I ran an ASM server w/mods for years until today,” they explained. The issue? They bluntly claim that nothing works anymore. They pointed out that not only do the servers not match, but the mods also no longer work, based on their experience.

“And of all this is to force us to ASA. I have that game as well, and it sucks. That is why we went back to ASE, and now you have managed to screw that also,” they added.

At the end of the review, they wrote: “You had something great. Hope you don’t choke on your GREED!!! How do I get a refund!!”

Others in the recent reviews also echoed many of the points raised in their recent experience. The game currently has a “Mixed” review on Steam, and it’s mainly due to the July 16, 2025 Aquatica update, which received backlash from fans due to all the issues it brought to the game.

Amid all of this, the devs’ statement saying “Take advantage of the introductory Aquatica discount in the meantime — you can buy it now and play later once fixes have been made,” following the update in an announcement, just added even more fuel to the fire.

All that aside, though, considering the Steam refund policy, it’s unlikely this user would be able to get their money back. The platform only grants refunds for games purchased within the last four days, and you need to have less than two hours of playtime. They certainly don’t meet that criteria.