Survive Human Evolution
Embark on the most incredible journey known to humankind with Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. It is an open-world survival game where you take on an exhilarating adventure to advance your clan to the next generation. This game will take you back to 10 million years ago in the Neogene period of Africa and take in the role of humanity’s ancestor. Your choices will write your clan’s history and will determine whether or not you can survive human evolution.
Explore, Expand, and Evolve
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is director and designer Patrice Désilet’s first published game after she left the Assassin’s Creed series. The idea behind the game is that it is a simulation of the dawn of man, letting players take control of our primitive forebears. Your journey will begin 10 million years ago, in the Neogene period of Africa, where the first hominids were nothing more than a group of apes.
To play the game, you will need to guide your clan out from the animal kingdom until the earliest days of what we recognize as humans. However, it is not a strategy game, as the mechanics might suggest. You will be playing as one of the apes—and eventually, men—moving around the jungle and interacting with everything around you. You will have to explore your surroundings by sniffing, poking, and even eating stuff to learn how things work. Basically, you will have to do the same way our ancestors did back in their time, literally, because the game does not tell the players how to do things. It does not have FAQS and walkthroughs, so you will have to play it by trial and error. If you are not fond of exploring games on your own, this can be quite frustrating.
Additionally, you will have to expand your territory and your clan to increase your chance of survival. You will have to traverse the game’s wild and wide landscape to find areas where you can start a new civilization, and you will have to unite new members of your species and give birth to the next generation. Your clan will be of big help in intimidating predators during expeditions.
The end goal of Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is having your characters evolve from primitive apes to the very first hominids. Besides exploring and expanding your territory, you will also have to hone your physical skills and make crucial discoveries that you can pass onto the next generation. Your decisions will play a crucial role in your clan’s evolution. As the evolution in this game is not set on stone, how you play the game will make your experience unique.
A Grand Idea with a Lot of Letdowns
At first, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey may have been a grand idea. Its representation of the sweeping and perhaps the pivotal moment in our history is something fresh and fascinating. However, the game comes with a lot of letdowns that might get you frustrated. In addition to the lack of walkthroughs, it comes with a rogue-like element to it where you start at the beginning whenever you start a new game. There aren’t any chapter in the game to skip to, and there are no advances to bookmark either. Every timeline you play into begins and ends with the hominids you control. You will start anew—literally—every time your character dies.
And if that wasn’t annoying enough, it can be hard to avoid being killed with how your movement is frequently busted, especially when you’re anywhere near a cliff or rocks. The danger is everywhere. But while you will need to intimidate predators, you can never interact with them directly. You can only respond to clumsy QTEs.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey lets you unlock new abilities by repeating existing QTEs. But without anything to tell you how to do it properly, it might take you ages to unlock even one.
Excellent Idea, Bad Execution
Taking things into consideration, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey may have had an excellent idea that highly differs from other survival game. Experiencing the evolution of apes to man is a thrilling idea. But it takes a long time, and without any idea how to do it just makes it an even bigger pain. With the way the game plays out, it seems evolution may only be a good idea for an origin story but not something gamers will play through in a video game.
