Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Reviews

Honestly spore did it better, boring clunky. A guessing game about what the devs wants. Not even fun. if u want a survival game go try something else.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is one of the most unique and ambitious survival games ever made, offering an experience that feels truly different from anything else in the genre. Its concept—evolving from early primates to the first stages of human civilization—is nothing short of brilliant, and when everything clicks, it’s an exhilarating journey of discovery, adaptation, and survival. But while the game’s potential is undeniable, it’s held back by clunky controls, frustrating mechanics, and a lack of essential tools that make progression feel more tedious than rewarding. One of the game’s strongest aspects is its open-ended evolution system. Experimenting with different skills, adapting to new environments, and slowly passing down knowledge to future generations is incredibly satisfying. The game doesn’t hold your hand, which makes every breakthrough feel earned. Learning to use tools, mastering movement, and figuring out how to avoid predators all add to the immersion, making it feel like you’re truly guiding your lineage toward survival. However, the controls are where Ancestors starts to stumble. Movement often feels awkward, especially when climbing trees or trying to navigate the environment with precision. Jumping between branches is unreliable, leading to frustrating falls that can injure or kill your primates. Worse yet, dodging predators—one of the game’s core survival mechanics—feels laggy and unresponsive. Timing a dodge properly is more about luck than skill, and since death means losing a valuable clan member permanently, these unfair encounters can be infuriating. The lack of a map makes things even harder, and not in a good way. While exploration is meant to feel organic, the reality is that it often just leads to wandering in circles. The game encourages you to mark landmarks and use memory-based navigation, but without any clear guidance, getting lost is a constant struggle. For a game that requires you to manage an evolving clan, the absence of even a simple tracking system makes survival unnecessarily frustrating. Despite these flaws, Ancestors remains an incredibly engaging and thought-provoking experience. When it works, it’s one of the most immersive and rewarding survival games out there. But its rough edges—particularly the frustrating controls, laggy dodges, and lack of a proper navigation system—can turn that excitement into sheer aggravation. If you’re patient and willing to push through its flaws, there’s a fantastic game underneath, but it’s one that often fights against itself.

17 hrs in and i can say that this game is by far nothing less than interesting. In my opinion it is unique, straight adventure, RPG style. This game is honestly a huge break from Shooters, and big clunky games. Just play it and learn from mistakes. id recommend watching a few you tube videos just to get a grasp on the unique material crafting tree. and just become the king of the area with your mob monkeys. give monkey a stick and you will conquer.

Wouldn't recommend. The game doesn't tell you much, Spent an hour trying to build a sleeping cot. Reddit told me I had to analyse an adult monkey and switch with it because child monkeys cant build....gave it another chance..told me to go mate, found one, then it says I have to groom them...with no other direction, i don't want to use Reddit to get through the game

I like the concept, but the controls are frustrating. Specifically the climbing, swinging, etc. My first three deaths were from falling. It says you can grab onto leaves to swing, but I swear it only works 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time you fly through the leaves, grab nothing, and plunge to your death. The survival and discovery elements are cool but there are so many steps to everything and each step takes a few seconds of you holding a button down and then letting go at the right moment. It makes the entire game feel slow, especially when you destroy what your trying to craft. I get wanting the player to experiencing what it was like to discover stuff, but I also get why taking it to this level isn't for everyone. Ill try it again after I've had some time to cool off and start another lineage but for now I would say the game is being held back by it's weird controls more than anything.

I played long enough to make my apes smart and strong so I don't really understand complaints saying "The game won't tell you what to do" well, it's your journey, you decide to do whatever you want. It's all up to you to figure out and discover something. You just don't have the patience. At first I was also confused as well. What am I gonna do? I can't do this? so maybe that? Nope, I can't as well. I fell from a tree and died. Got attacked by anaconda and died. I was bleeding dunno what to do and died. It keeps happening but hey, at least I learnt something new. Now I can kill anaconda that killed me before, even the sabertooth. I know what to do if my apes bleed, have broken bones, get cold etc. My apes only died from old age. You will learn it slowly. Just like the monke.

It's a good game, the controls are a little weird though and it doesn't give you much help but it's fun

Very unusual game, you should try it Input: Y for intellect, hold Y to concentrate X to snif, hold X to learn sniffing B to voice, B in intelect meny to hear A to jump, to grab X to learn Mechanics: You can choose sex, hud level You should learn the word around Have new mutation and teach childrens

It itches a scratch to return to monke. I actually wish there were more games like this - or more to this game. I honestly just love flinging around the trees eating fruit and whatever as a relaxing aspect of the game, and it also hits something primal when you kill big predators with sticks xD The ai can be wonky if you try to move your clan, or take some other monky friends with you - sometimes they get stuck on trees and you have to go take control of them to get them unstuck, which can lead to death, and there are obviously some other shortcomings, but overall I really enjoyed it, and it's a unique experience. I'd like to encourage more of these games- even more fleshed out if possible!

Great game. They oughta make a sequel, cause it feels like humankind’s journey is not complete yet