Fittingly, the use of music is rather sparing, allowing the shrieks and hisses of the jungle to speak. Ancestors has such potential and could be so much more if it were streamlined, but in this state, the gameplay and controls are too frustrating and confusing.Īs far as audio goes, Ancestors generally hits the mark. What it feels like at the end of the day is that this game has too many specific functions with atypical control styles. There are other controls for combat, building things, socializing, etc., that feel out of reach since the basic controls are so arduous. To dodge them, you have to hold X, wait for the right moment, let go, and push your analog stick away from them. For example, while exploring your surroundings, you can run into predators that will charge at you. Exploring the environment and navigating the jungle space works all right if you can figure it out, but different scenarios that feel flimsy are thrown into the equation. While most games' achievements tend to drop off over time, this sudden drop is a strong indicator of the controls and gameplay issues.Įven if you were to appropriately decrypt the controls, the gameplay is too varied and stretched out, so it's not fully fleshed out. This can even be seen through the achievements on PlayStation Network the first achievement has over a 90% clearance rate, but the next one in order drops to under 50%. The game only explains these vague concepts a few times, either baffling the player into disinterest or making them navigate the help screens with each new interaction. The controls are so muddy and ill-explained that it feels like a puzzle to control your character and explore the environment - the crux of the game's intention. To explore different plants in the wild, you must go to your senses, smell them, mark the smell, walk over to it, press X to grab some of it, stand completely still, and hold the Square button again to examine/eat it.

You then direct the camera toward what you're interested in, hold Triangle again, and rapidly press it to create a marker on your screen. While they employ creative measures to fulfill humanity's base survival and social instincts, it still feels off to have 'emotions,' 'intelligence' and 'senses.' For example, to use the intelligence control, you have to stand still and press the Triangle button, which allows you to focus on your surroundings. Perhaps this is a translation issue, but the controls are inadequately explained and have incredibly vague descriptions. The screen is dark and hazy, and it's covered in ghostlike, roaring faces of predators as the game shows you the controls and focuses on discovery and survival. As you start the game, you watch the circle of life play out - admittedly less inspiring than The Lion King, but I digress - resulting in many animal deaths, including the ape you rode in on. On paper, it's an interesting concept to have confusing gameplay illustrate the chaos of the world of an evolving ape millions of years ago, but the implementation is less stunning. The messiness and confusion of our species is explored in an interesting way, although it lacks some follow-through. Titles like Pokémon, Spore, and others depict the concept in a fun, cartoony way that appeals to younger children in tone and gameplay, while Ancestors aims to tell a truer narrative, highlighting the grossness and realism of our ascent from animals to humanity, and how blurred those lines can be.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey plays on evolution in a deeper, more profound way than most other games that touch on the subject.

Ancestors the humankind odyssey ps5