

When you’re being chased by predators, you’ll enter a state called the Fear Zone, leaving your vision hazy and impaired. Keeping safe from predators will also be something you’ll have to be mindful of. Slipping and falling or misjudging a jump can lead to broken bones or other injuries, which have a lasting impact on the ape you’re playing as. Survival is a key element of the experience here, which means that even as you’re climbing trees, you’ll have to ensure that you’re doing it properly. Parkour in Ancestors is going to have some stakes though, and won’t be as automated as Desilets’ earlier games. You primary method of traversing the world will be by climbing trees and cliffs in the environment, which, given that you’re playing as an ape, makes a lot of sense. Eating a new type of food for the first time, leaving your injuries untended and bleeding out, and not getting enough sleep are just a few of the ways you can get yourself killed.Ĭoming from the guy who made Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed, it’s no surprise that climbing and parkour are going to be a major mechanic in Ancestors. It’s going to be just you versus the elements, and you’ll be faced with threats of all kinds- from the environment itself to predators in the wild to sicknesses, injuries, fatigue, starvation, and a lot more. Set in pre-historic times, you can probably guess that surviving in the wilds won’t be an easy task. No, we will, instead, be taking control of an entire ape clan, and moving from ape to ape and going down the clan’s lineage as time in the game moves forward. By the time the game is finished, we still won’t have reached the birth of homo sapiens, though, so don’t expect to see the world change that radically.Īs we mentioned, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey charts eight million years of evolution, but we obviously won’t be playing as one ape who somehow lives for eight million years. The entire game, in fact, from start to finish, will chart eight million years of evolution of an ape clan’s evolution (more on this in a bit). Let’s stick with that central premise for just a bit longer, because Ancestors looks like it’s going to double down on it in a lot of ways.

This is a game about charting the evolution of what would go on to become the early, early human, and ensuring your survival in the harsh, wild wilderness of pre-historic Earth promises to be a fascinating experience. Players will begin the game playing as an ape, and will be tasked with ensuring its survival while helping it and its clan grow and survive. With its launch right around the corner, in this feature we’ll be talking about fourteen things that you need to know about this intriguing not-so-little game.Īncestors isn’t just giving us a historic setting- no, it’s taking things a step further, and going full-on pre-historic. Patrice Desilets, who at Ubisoft revitalized Prince of Persia, before going on to create, Assassin’s Creed, is now in that indie space, and his studio’s first game, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is looking like a very interesting one. There's a real sense of accomplishment when you look around at your happy clan and think "I started out alone - now I have this thriving family!"Īnd losing a clan member you went out of your way to "rescue" and add to the clan hurts a lot more than losing one that was handed to you.It’s hard to find games in the current market’s AAA space that exude creativity and are willing to take risks with unconventional ideas- and that’s where the indie scene comes in. Putting together your own clan - instead of having one handed to you - really binds you to the members and gives you a reason to look out for them - especially when the babies come along.
ANCESTORS THE HUMANKIND ODYSSEY CUSTOM GAME FULL
It makes a lot more sense to people coming to the game from a traditional gaming perspective, and I think if reviewers had played this mode *first*, the reviews would have been a lot more positive.īeing dumped into a game with a full clan already just means there's not much to do in the early game, so the gameplay seems dry and repetitive. IMHO this should be the default mode, it's much more traditional from a gameplay standpoint as you start alone and have to add new members to your clan by finding them and giving them a reason to join.

After playing on the default mode for awhile a new mode unlocked - "Survival".
