Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Ancestors is a fantastic translation of evolutionary concepts into a game. It presents a fully-realized world that forces you to pay attention to every last detail if you want to survive.

Yet despite its complicated objectives, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey challenges players to think outside the box by using contemporary, evolved knowledge to survive in a prehistoric world. We must tap into our own reptilian minds to solve ancient problems -- like where to find food and how to stay warm during cold nights. Panache Digital Games has created a truly immersive, lush environment that's thrilling to explore and traverse. Utilizing our natural instincts for discovery is truly the most ingenious aspect of the game, as it rewards us for problem solving in ways that already come nat...

Ancestors rejects mass appeal and instead favors a grueling but awe-inspiring look at our earliest ancestors.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey does something genuinely original with the survival genre; no matter how often I’ve missed a jump and splattered on the jungle floor or got blindsided by a panther I kept on playing. Every time I’ve been infuriated, I’ve come back for more. It may lack a concrete story, but you’ll find yourself writing little stories in your head as you roam – the time you dodged that giant eagle, or distracted a tiger just long enough for your fellow primate to reach a tree.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a history lesson you'll either love or quickly run from. Our review...

My most confident recommendation of Ancestors goes to casual gamers. Despite the game's apparent commitment to realistic survival mechanics, it doesn’t ask you to raise your nerd levels to any great heights. It isn’t weighed down by lore, for instance, nor do you need to read a Wiki to figure out how to do stuff. Rather, your motivation is simple—you’re a monkey—and you solve challenges with patience and by following on-screen instructions. “Hold A to give birth.” Got it. Now enjoy watching your baby monkey bounce around. Show Ancestors to your friend who doesn’t really like complicated or dif...

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey has some good ideas, but the slow pace and repetitive gameplay will wear you down quickly. Watch some gameplay footage before picking this one up.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey has some fascinating ideas in it. You’ll need to try to take your small clan of apes through 10 million years of evolution. Every action you take can influence the survival of your species and it’s up to you to try to ensure that future generations can thrive. Even with the exciting setup, it’s a shame that the final result just ends up feeling a bit too repetitive.

Set 10 million years before the dawn of humanity, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is the story of ape to proto-human evolution, with particular emphasis on the dangers that forced our fuzzy forebears into learning the skills that ensured the human success story.

Experience evolution by repetition in this prehistoric survival game.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a new game from Patrice Désilets (of Assassin’s Creed fame) and its concept is some of the strongest stuff you’ll hear in games to date: a living, breathing simulator of our own evolution – taking us from proto-human apes to the two-legged bumpkins we are today.

But even the complete death of my clan doesn’t mean I lost. it just means that my evolutionary strategy was unsuccessful. I can always start over in Ancestors, understanding a tiny bit more of what I need to do.