Ancestors The Humankind Odysey

[Ommamar]

I just found out about this game, it is on sale at the moment but think it is an Epic game exclusive as it doesn't show as available on steam until November 2020 and not shown at all on GOG.com.

I think some people on this forum might like it but it is a very different game. The premise is that you are a ancestor of humanity 10k years ago. The area you live in is relatively safe but the area around it is a jungle teaming with danger. The whole objective is to survive and evolve as fast as you can. To do this you must explore your environment while balancing that against surviving the dangers. You are not just one individual but a clan of them so if you just focus on developing one individual while neglecting the others in the clan you might or might not pass on the development to your offspring. How you deal with the offspring is another aspect you can take them with you and they get some of the benefit of what you learn while exploring. But if the individual you are playing dies while with the infant you have to get the infant back to the safe area where most of the clan will live, unless you have them all follow you. Once you are satisfied with the development of that generation you can skip forward 15 years which means the infant will have grown, the adults will have become elders and the elders will have died off.

I have watched a few play through on YouTube because this game does not hold you hand at all even on the first time player tutorial it gives you a few hints then stops. In my first play through I found a lost infant but then fell from a tree while dodging an anaconda attack. This resulted me in breaking my leg, I was then bitten by a poisonous snake, knocked over by a warthog into water where a crocodile ate me. When the leg was broken my movement was severely hampered and the poison made the screen all blurry. I am very impressed with it so far but will definitely have to start another lineage or maybe I will continue with this doomed one to see how it goes.

I will say it is designed for the use of a game controller, the developers are very upfront even stating it in the introduction. I am stubborn though and will continue to try to play with a keyboard and mouse.

[King of Worms]

I tryed the game, and failed to find a real enjoyment in it. To me its a classic survival game obfuscating itself with some wanna be novelty, but there is really nothing new there and the gameplay is lacking. Harsh review, I know

This is the only reviews I trust, he is the same type of player as me, and I can say I agree with his points.



Still, someones nightmare can be other mans joy

[Ommamar]

Fair enough. I can see the points he makes it is just so different from what most games are doing. It has a touch of a god game to it as you are trying to create a species as opposed to an individual but you are doing this through building up different individuals. This brings in almost a farm or zoo type of simulation as you are trying to manage the traits of the next generation.
I do agree that the controls are clunky and the game gives very little help on what to do or how to do anything. It is interesting how he compared it to a university app to simulate how evolution might of occurred. In one of the developer interviews I watched it seems it came out of a university student project to show how one individual evolved then they took the idea and developed it. Another thing I saw where the movements being modeled of human beings acting how they thought apes or neanderthals would move about.
Anyway it is only $20 on Epic games so might be worth a look but not sure I would of payed full price for it. I can see it being developed into a series from 10 million years ago to today. Of course it will likely be a niche game so funding might be hard to come by.