Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Reviews

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is ranked in the 30th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
VideoGamer
Josh Wise
Top Critic
5 / 10
Aug 30, 2019

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey replicates the fumbling, trial-and-error progress of evolution, which often isn't fun, but there are monkeys in the game, and that is brilliant.

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Unscored
Aug 26, 2019

I wrote most of this review, then felt maybe I was being too harsh. So I took a break and went back. I wanted to enjoy it.

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90 / 100
Aug 26, 2019

So far, I have put about six hours total into the game between both sessions. I am very excited to learn how to weild a weapon to kill predators, and to explore more into the jungle. This has been a really unique and challenging experience, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. You can get Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey on PC via the Epic Games store on August 27th, and for PS4 and Xbox One in December of 2019. It's currently retailing for $39.99

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Dec 7, 2019

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a great survival game with an extremely steep learning curve.

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6.5 / 10.0
Dec 9, 2019

The things that make Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey so appealing are the same thing that make it frustrating. Many things stand in the way of your progress, many of those things being mechanics, and rewards come sparingly. At the same time, there is something wholly unique here that, if you can properly sink your teeth into it, you could find yourself completely engulfed in it.

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8 / 10.0
Dec 6, 2019

Ancestors The Humankind Odissey is tough to master but fascinating to play, thanks to the freedom of its atypical open world. Every discovery becomes an exciting moment, although not always easily interpretable; in addition, the later release of the console version allowed the developers to improve it in all its features.

Review in Italian | Read full review

6 / 10
Dec 6, 2019

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey has a huge gene pool of potential, but endless repetition and clunky controls need to be removed from its DNA. For die-hard survival and exploration fans there is a worthwhile experience here, but for everyone else this is a game that's so repetitive it'll drive you bananas.

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55 / 100
Sep 7, 2019

I may come back later when it’s had time to sit with the general population only to really discover its wonders. But for now, my dear reader, I’d rather forget about my ancestors lost to time and play a game like Ape Out instead.

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Unscored
Aug 26, 2019

Overcome the difficult initial impressions and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey turns out to be a rather engaging and fun survival game.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Aug 26, 2019

Ancestors is a great step forward for the survival genre. It has all the pieces you'd expect, including water and food requirements but also a few unique ones. All of these tie into the game in a much better way than in most other survival games. Plus, its narrative of guiding humankind through its early evolution in prehistoric Africa makes for a great story to play in a beautiful place to do it.

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Wccftech
Top Critic
5 / 10.0
Aug 26, 2019

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey was such an interesting idea on paper but from its complex and unexplained environment to the severe lack of exciting objectives and goals to work towards, the game doesn't quite manage to entice the player to make the very best of humanity.

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75 / 100
Dec 10, 2019

The evolution simulator offers a lively, original world, but grind and half-baked ideas leave a bland aftertaste.

Review in German | Read full review

6 / 10.0
Dec 16, 2019

While the idea of being able to influence the evolution of your clan of apes seems novel and exciting the reality is that it's a bit of a repetitive slog. Through bad decisions or sheer bad luck, it's far too easy to wipe out your whole clan which means that you'll have to start all over again from the beginning. It's an interesting experience but one that's tough to recommend to anyone but the most patient of gamers.

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4 / 10.0
Sep 10, 2019

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a wonderful idea that fails to deliver on almost every level. While it can be breath-taking to look at, it is a tedious chore and needlessly unforgiving. I applaud Patrice Désilets and his team for attempting something new and fresh, but great ideas alone do not make for great games.

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Sep 5, 2019

Our ancestors didn't have it easy, and that's the for-better-and-worse message reverberating through every interaction in the game.

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PCMag
Top Critic
Aug 30, 2019

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey puts humanity's evolutionary past in your hands and leaves you to figure out the rest. The unstructured gameplay is more frustrating than compelling.

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7 / 10
Aug 30, 2019

Ancestors Humankind Odyssey is a game which we embody the deans of humanity, immersed in the fascinating, extremely immersive and often moving adventure of the great story of life. However, Panache Digital Games has not completely managed to offer a game always technically up to the originality of his proposal. It is nonetheless a singular experience that arouses great sympathy and for which it would be a shame to miss out, especially if the few really disabling design flaws were to be corrected soon.

Review in French | Read full review

Justin Woo
Top Critic
5.8 / 10.0
Aug 27, 2019

A:THO ignores the mechanical DNA that make open world games and survival RPGs so much fun. There's nothing revolutionary about depriving you of map functionality and an adequate tutorial. This isn't an evolution so much as a freak mutation that will die off in the wild. There are other games that achieve what A:THO attempts; play them instead.

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7.2 / 10.0
Aug 26, 2019

Ancestors is anything but a traditional product.

Review in Italian | Read full review

6 / 10.0
Aug 26, 2019

My most confident recommendation of Ancestors goes to casual gamers

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