Many games these days claim offer unique or interesting experiences. Either through innovative gameplay or experimental storytelling, every now and then a company will truly deliver on the promise of a one of a kind title. However, the execution is what is most important, and a faulty one can dampen even the most fascinating of IPs. Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, a sandbox survival game from Panache Digital Games, is one such title for me.
The unique premise that Ancestors brings to the table drew me in immediately. You take on the role of an early human relative, ten million years in the past. You are tasked with looking after a clan of these hominids as you explore the world and essentially just learn. Using your senses of smell and hearing as well as your superior intelligence, you will discover and catalog plant life, animals, your fellow clan mates, new locations, and so on. Things you have no knowledge of are shrouded in literal shadows, spooky red eyes flickering beneath. Inspecting the item and learning about it removes the shroud and you are then free to experiment with the object. Unless it’s a predator, in which case your dopamine levels wig out and it’s time to run. New areas themselves cover the whole screen in unknown shadows and spooky eyes, as the “fear of the unknown" takes over. You must then use your senses to identify plants and objects that you recognize, until you are able to chase after a glowing ball of enlightenment or something and conquer your fear, unlocking the area. Conquering your fears is the key to experiencing and learning about the environment in which your clan lives.
You are able to carry two babies on your body, and each thing you learn and discover in front of the children will gain neurons and build neural pathways, which are the game’s take on experience points and skill trees. Using senses makes it easier to identify items at a greater distance, manipulating items will gain dexterity for bipedal movement and carrying things, communicating with your fellow hominids gives options for them to mimic you, and so forth. Discovering locations or what proper tools to use where act as sort of challenges that can benefit your clan’s lineage as they evolve.
Evolving is basically leveling up, but instead of just leveling up one super hominid, you’re actively trying to strengthen your entire genetic lineage. Having children in your clan allows you to lock in a certain number of traits from the neural pathway that will carry on to the next generation. Moving to the next generation skips ahead fifteen years, where you can continue the primary gameplay loop until you hit a wall on what you’re comfortable doing in your current state. Once you choose to evolve, the challenges completed will be counted towards years of advancement, even showing you what you’re learning faster than science has proven. It’s a really neat and tangible way to show your progress and growth. Your clan will then be plopped down into a new camp in another part of the massive map, and the circle of life continues. When it works, it is an interesting and satisfying role-playing experience.
However, when it doesn’t, it is a horrifying and frustrating experience. I absolutely have a certain level of understanding about the challenge presented in this title, it is a game about struggle and overcoming adversity to strengthen the genetic pool, until we’re kicking on homo sapien’s door. That being said, the game has certain moments of jank and absurdity that add a level that is simply unnatural. Such as giving you a stark message about not telling you how to play the game, followed immediately by tutorial tips that pop up in the middle of timetable and failable interactions, but leaving them only long enough for you to know they were there, while not quite long enough to fully read them. When traversing the map, trees, rocks and cliff faces are automatically grabbed and climbed when leaping at them, while vines and leafy branches can only be grabbed when the jump button is held down. Except when for no reason or with no notice, you’re not able to grab them. Not sure if it’s a collision detection issue or something, but oftentimes the branches I wouldn’t grab were no different to ones I previously dangled from. When climbing out to the end of a tree limb, the hominid will stand erect, allowing you to use your senses or an item in your hand. Except for when they just walk off the edge of it while a tiger is waiting at the bottom, again with no warning or seeming difference in limbs.
Speaking of the tigers, man, is dealing with predators a huge bummer. There are wild predators that roam the map, as is expected, from boars, to crocs, varieties of snakes, and of course big cats. All of these critters are bad enough, but you are able to spot them early with senses and they are avoidable for the most part. However, there is one king jerk, known as the “stalker cat,” a golden sabertooth tiger with teleportation powers. Yes, this bad boy shows up whenever he feels like it if you are moving along the ground. He will hop out from behind you, even if your back is against a wall. He finds his way into settlements that seem to be completely secured from every other beasty. Somehow this jerk’s family evolves just as intensely as yours, and frankly, with his magic, it is a wonder homo sapiens ever popped up at all. Seriously though, this guy is the worst, and really it wouldn't be so bad if there was any real defense. I get it, you’re an uneducated primate trying to figure it all out, but the only possible way early on to survive against big creatures is to threaten them and hope that works, or deal with a weirdly timed button hold-and-let-go maneuver that in six hours I never once nailed, and always left me bleeding out. Still didn’t help that the jumping attack lasts longer than the tutorial on how to survive it. Also, I imagine that even early hominids knew how to flail about, at least give me a “frantic pound-on-head” or “panic claw-out-eyes” button for these situations. Or at least give us a bigger field of view, the camera is so close to your character it’s difficult to really see your surroundings at times.
Jank aside, I also encountered a few devastating bugs. Usually, they involved a member of my clan getting stuck somewhere while following me. I wouldn’t realize until too late, and I could only solve it by locating the character and switching over to control them, in order to manually unstick them. However, in one instance, literally moments before I attempted to evolve, I lost my entire clan on load up. Well, I had two members that were following me from my previous night’s expedition, and when the game save loaded, they were there, but no one else was, including two babies (which are needed to maintain skill lines). They were not outside of the settlement, and their icons could not be discovered. I reloaded the game several times and ventured out of the settlement and returned to see if they would spawn. Finally on a random reload, they returned, with one stuck in the jungle for no reason, but at least returnable. It was something that would have absolutely killed the entire experience if it didn’t turn around.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is an infinitely fascinating title that does certain things very well while seemingly dropping the ball hard on others. It is certainly an investment, with me evolving only once and by choice in six hours, and only exploring one of seven available biomes. It could either be a forever game for a properly patient player, or a never game for someone who doesn’t want to risk the loss of forward movement due to janky handling and camera, as well as a learning curve as steep as a wall. I referred to the title at one point as “SnowRunner but hominids,” in relation to the slow and deliberate pacing, but I cannot argue that this title has the same level of polish and handling as SnowRunner. However, for Xbox Gold subscribers now might be the time to take a gamble on this unique title, as it is currently half price at $19.99. It’s also available for PS4 and PC via Epic Store (with Steam release later this year) for $39.99.