Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Reviews
Initial bewilderment gives way to fascination as you understand what Ancestors is trying to do, but fiddly controls and a lack of hand-holding leads to frustration
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.
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.
My most confident recommendation of Ancestors goes to casual gamers
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.
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
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a great survival game with an extremely steep learning curve.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
It'll be an acquired taste, but for those who have the patience for its deliberate opaqueness, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is the type of game its fans will be playing on and off for months, if not years. Its challenging nature makes it equal parts compelling and frustrating, but there's no question this smart survival adventure contains loads of rewards for persistent players.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a rebellious game about human evolution, replete with challenge and storytelling opportunities of bare survival.
Ancestors is anything but a traditional product.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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.
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
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.