The evolution of mankind has always been something mystical to discover. Where did we come from? How did we learn things? How did we adapt to hazardous environments? How did we protect our homeland against predators? Just a few questions that sparked the interests of a few scientists that eventually put their mark on history. Panache Digital Games took these answers by heart and created this interesting simulation of our primal Ancestors who set our legacy in motion…
Ancestors: The humankind Odyssey is a fairly interesting game that bases itself on scientific research. It’s a sandbox game where “exploration”, “survival” and “evolution” are the main focuses. The game sets things off with a representation of the circle of life, in other words, eat or get eaten. To get the player started, a primal ape with her baby has been attacked by a vicious bird and it’s up to you as “head of the tribe” to find the lost kid… This “setting” is only to become familiar with the main concepts of the game. It’s a small chapter of your journey where you learn to harness your instincts and use them as you see fit. As a primal ape, you get a grip by your surroundings by using your ears to locate certain sources of sound and smell gives you a heads up of interactive objects like food or utilization items… You can use your intellect to remember “discovered” items, put a custom marker or take a look at “points of interests”. Learning to use them is one thing but using them properly is something entirely different.
The game’s a sandbox game and you start off in the dark. By exploring and learning new things in your surroundings, you’ll be able to know your world and craft items that’ll help you with your journey. You’ll have to maintain healthy stamina which can be influenced by hunger, thirst or fatigue. The world you’re in is a living thing and throws different confrontations towards you like weather conditions, venomous beasts, and poisonous plants. Only by taking action, will you learn what’s good or bad. But in the end, you’ll eventually get smarter and you’ll be able to identify everything around you. This is where the game becomes interesting because you know all of these things and now’s the time to experiment with them and make the most of your “knowledge”. Even though the game presents itself as a sandbox survival experience, you will have to expand and improve your tribe to assure your legacy. Getting children is one part of your duty but taking them along with you during exploration is also key for maintaining the knowledge you’ve gathered.
Just like any ape, you’ll be able to explore by swinging from branch to branch and even climb the highest tree. However, this seems more enjoyable in theory than in-game. When the mechanics work, they work but sometimes movement just feels a bit clunky and slow at times. Your apes can run towards a tree and jump the gap to reach a branch… if it works. I have often found myself jumping and eventually land my ape with his face planted into the ground. It’s because of the camera system that this system often fails. The camera’s a bit too close to get a clear view of your surroundings which resolves in these kinds of accidents. Another thing that I found was the fact that even though some parts of the trees seem climbable, the ape doesn’t reach for it at all and you fall.
Exploring the environment does come with its dangers. Like I’ve said before, the game shows you the representation of “eat or get eaten”. The jungle is filled with predators like lions, crocodiles, and even snakes. These animals are constantly on the hunt and won’t hesitate to strike at you. Some enemies are more stable than others, so you’ll have to make use of your senses. The thing is, all of these predators are very close by, even though you can’t really see them. Using your senses, anticipating where these predators can be and using your knowledge of your surroundings will definitely keep u safe. The more you evolve and adapt or even utilize things that you’ve combined, the easier these battles get. You plan ahead and you strike before they can strike you. There are also other situations where the predator has you in its target and attacks you. If you weren’t anticipating this, there’s a quick time event that gives you the opportunity to dodge incoming attacks. This system is a bit dreadful to use but it still gives you the option. The moment you learn how to kill certain animals, the gameplay because a little bit better but it doesn’t take long before you’re bored out because every battle has the same mechanic.
If an animal strikes you, different conditions can be applied to your ape. Some of these conditions are easy to fix but with the right ingredients. If these ingredients aren’t in your near surroundings, chances are high you won’t make it. Sometimes eating or sleeping helps, but eventually, these 2 things aren’t enough to fix every condition. All of these conditions also show different signs that can influence your orientation as a player. Bleeding out blurs your screen, stomach ache influences your hearing, … If you die, there’s no need to worry, you’ll be spawned inside the bodies of one of your members of the clan and you can continue where you’ve left off.
“Talking about immersion, the world itself looks amazing and truly feels like a living, breathing world…”
Speaking of clan members, these members also need to learn, sleep and eat. You can tag them to join you on your exploration sessions, but this isn’t always in your advantage. Most of the time, your clan members are very dumb and will be in your way. They will also get their selves in trouble because they try to intimidate predators but only a few ones succeed. If they don’t intimidate, they’ll start running and climb in trees but often will fall to their death because they’re not really paying attention to their surroundings like the player is doing.
Another feature the game offers is the “skill” system where you gather neural energy that forms up neural links in the brain. It’s a cool adaptation of an experience type of system. By gathering neural energies, you can create different neural links that give you different skills, but the downside is, you can only lock in some of your “known” skills that can be transferred once you evolve to the next stage. This slows down your feeling of progression. Some skills are definitely handy like buffing your counterattack and others seem more like a waste of time like walking faster. These “waste of time” kind of skills just aren’t impactful enough. There are also some design choices that haven’t been thought through like “holding 2 items, one in each hand”. Sometimes you’ll need to use one item with another to unlock new things, but those specific items need to be in a specific hand before the combo exists. Talking about designer choices, the use of your buttons didn’t feel natural as well, so I couldn’t get used to it which then again breaks down immersion. Breaking immersion is never good, especially in these types of simulations. The use of actions looked simplistic but felt a bit complicated.
“The game could have been more than they’re showing.”
Talking about immersion, the world itself looks amazing and truly feels like a living, breathing world thanks to the sounds, weather effects, and natural flora and fauna… If all of these things come together, you’re in for a treat. Too bad that this couldn’t be said about your clan members as well. Even though, they look great, act natural and authentic there isn’t much use for them, except for the babies. The apes act very “dead inside” and they often just follow your lead when you’re pointing out the obvious.
Conclusion:
The game could have been more than they’re showing. The presentation of the apes is decent enough to start your journey. The moment you begin your journey, everything feels overwhelming without actually knowing what to do. However, it’s a game that has a bit of a learning curve which will help you spark your interests for your surroundings, and you’ll try to push your generation forward into the future. This “phase” is fun to do but in the end, everything’s more of the same and you’ll get bored. To have the option to build your skills and make the apes better than before is a great system but the “evolution” reset feels like the developers want to slow down your progression throughout the game and this feels like a drag. It’s okay to build every generation up again but it gets old very fast. Technically speaking, the game looks great, especially when you’re out exploring but the action buttons should definitely get a rework because it didn’t feel natural and therefore breaks the immersion. It’s definitely a game that’ll have its’ player base, but it won’t be for everyone. There is a lot of other survival/ sandbox type of games that can challenge the player even more and can bring in a lot more variation. The game’s not bad and will give you a decent simulation about “evolution”, however, I feel like the game’s concept ‘“looks good on paper” but that fun factor that keeps you going.
