![]() After all, gamers often don’t have the time or the inkling to redo the exact same thing over and over again! Again, it does mirror what happens in the natural world, but there needs to be a better balance between realism and gamification here. You may have to re-acquire the vast majority of skills you learned with your last clan, and this can be incredibly time-consuming and frustrating. Through bad playing or plain bad luck it’s entirely possible for your clan to be completely wiped out, forcing you to restart proceedings with a new lineage. Whilst this is a neat system, there are big drawbacks. These evolutionary leaps mirror the speed of real evolution, and, during the course of the game, you’ll be able to watch your ape clans slowly become more and more humanlike. Past a set point in the game you’ll also be able to move evolution forward anywhere from fifteen to a hundred years. In the menu you can build and expand neural pathways, bringing forward the best qualities from the previous generation and leaving disadvantages behind. ![]() Once enough experience has been gathered, you’ll be able to update the gene pool (essentially a skill tree) with new abilities. As the game revolves around the process of evolution, each brush with adversity will increase the accumulated knowledge of your clan. Thankfully, as Ancestors progresses, your tribe begin to learn new skills, and the tools you’ll become accustomed to using (rocks and sharpened sticks) allow you to become more adept at taking on the dangers of the jungle. At the opening of the game these interactions are hard to avoid, and, with the game’s awkward dodging system, it’s irritatingly difficult to come out of these encounters unscathed. Exploration of the world is interrupted by prowling wild cats, crocodiles waiting in ambush, and opportunistic eagles who make survival a constant battle. But what exactly is there to be scared of? Well, the thick jungle foliage hides a plethora of predators that pose a threat to unarmed apes. As fear of the unknown builds, you’ll slowly lose control of your character, meaning that it’s vital to monitor this metric just as closely as you do thirst or hunger. Speaking of the dangers that lurk in the jungle, your ape is prone to fear-induced hysteria. ![]() However, during the initial hours of the game, when you’re unprepared for the threat of dangerous wildlife on the ground, finding safety in the canopy is the difference between survival and death. Sadly, these moments are often marred by clunky controls and a few too many falls when suitable branches to land on become scarce. Reach the top and you can leap from branch to branch in what are some of the game’s most exhilarating sequences. As you move through the jungle and approach either the trunk of a tree or a rock face, you’ll automatically begin to climb. When you’re not stationary, you’ll be able to try and make it as a fully-fledged king of the swingers. Annoyingly, you’ll need to stand completely still for this mechanic to work, but this arguably mirrors a wild animal becoming still and using its keen senses to build a clearer picture of the environment around it. Key objects to interact with will show up on the screen, as well as locations in the distance that offer new insight into the vast game world. To scope out the environment around you, you’ll be able to utilise and train your primate senses (sight, sound, smell, etc). Throughout each day you’ll need to maintain your water intake, make sure your ape eats enough, and manage the fear that arises once you leave the safety of your clan. The concept is certainly original and exciting, but this is recognisably a survival game at heart. The ultimate goal is to learn, thrive, and ascend further up the evolutionary ladder, all while navigating the dangerous world around you. In fact, a recurring theme of the gameplay is that, to make it in this cruel primeval world, you’ll have to learn from your mistakes, utilising trial and error to craft tools, find food, and support the rest of your ape clan. Taking place in prehistoric Africa, Ancestors throws the player-controlled ape straight into the jungle with next to no instruction. 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.
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