Written by Alexander O. Cuaycong and Anthony L. Cuaycong
Title: Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey
Developer: Panache Digital Games
Publisher: Private Division
Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG
Price: $39.99
Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey is as much an experiment as it is a game, and just a few minutes of playing confirms the contention. The open-world survival offering is ambitious, seeking to retell a dramatized version of the evolution of mankind spanning 10 million to two million years ago. Unfortunately, the things it gets right often blend with the things it gets wrong, ultimately compelling players to exercise not inconsiderable patience lest they be frustrated with its flawed interface.
At its core, Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey wants players to wear the shoes of African forbears during the Neogene period and walk the path they once trod. It calls for survival in a cruel world, and doing so requires the examination of plant life, crafting of useful tools, and, at times, dodging or overcoming the many predators that roam the jungle. Scaling trees, hunting for food, jumping along vines and climbing branches, and even finding a mate and raising offspring – these become part and parcel of life within the game. Its core premise is clear: the main character, the leader of a clan, has to stay safe, stay secure, stay fed, stay with others, and keep others safe, secure, fed, and together as well. And, conceptually, it works pretty well, with progress involving a natural push towards more dangerous territory, wary of surroundings, but eager to learn more. If nothing else, it encapsulates the plight of early man – more like ape, really – and conveying the helplessness and fear he must have once felt.
However, while the premise of Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey is sound, the game doesn't do so well with the controls. Whether using a peripheral or a keyboard-and-mouse combination, players will occasionally find themselves struggling with and for control. The aim for a realistic approach to survival is admittedly laudable; sight, sound, and smell are requisites to scoping out large swaths of land. The character will be gathering items to use as tools, or ducking into tall brushes to hide – great in theory, but difficult in practice.
When the same command keys tend to lead to different things depending on the character’s stance and posture and on the context of the action, the inability to execute moves as desired allows frustration to set in. For example, the character will constantly be stopping to pick up items when players actually want him to use other senses. Thus, much of the first part of Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey requires wrestling with the controls. Even after players get used to the interface, comfort and comfortability never set in; commands feel more like vague suggestions, thereby curtailing freedom and necessitating repetition. It’s a pain in a controlled environment, and an absolute nightmare in moments of stress. Again, patience is a must.
That said, Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey can prove satisfying, and perhaps oddly so. Assuming players get past, or used to, the clunky, annoying controls, they’ll appreciate the effort of Panache Digital Games to present a feral world that Earth was once, and to show the determination of mankind to buck the odds, transfer knowledge to descendants, and keep plodding on. Its opening cinematic conveys the state of nature, uncaring and cruel, and close to impossible to survive. And in the moments the character does survive seemingly insurmountable challenges, players feel like champions. The moments are few and far between, but they’re there. When an elusive prey is struck down, or when a predator is outwitted, for instance, pride sets in; because elements of the game – and the game itself – put up fight after fight, triumph tastes doubly sweet.
Considering how Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey unfolds, it’s fair to wonder if the developers meant it to run as it does. Was the hard-to-tame control scheme a deliberate attempt to parallel the uncertainty and fear progenitors might have once had, similar to how Resident Evil or Silent Hill used their tank control and awkward camera angles to evoke terror? Is the elicitation of sheer annoyance an attempt to immerse the player in the game even more? It’s anybody’s guess, although there can be no doubting the artistic choices they made to see their vision come to life.
At the end of the day, Ancestors: the Humankind Odyssey winds up as a conceptually interesting release. Vexation can set it, but perseverance does have its rewards. Which, in a nutshell, is life itself. People live, people suffer, and people triumph in spite of the odds. And then people start all over again.
THE GOOD
- Visually pleasing, featuring outstanding environmental character design
- Near-realistic attention to detail with regards to actions, requiring good use of sound, sight, and touch for navigation
- Movement is fast and fluid
THE BAD
- Clunky general control scheme, with most of the things to do in-game having a layer of tedium
- Repetitive at times
- Unintuitive combat and game design
RATING: 8/10
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