Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey – Review per PlayStation 4

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is the latest effort of Patrice Désilets and his new studio, Panache Digital Games, finally landed on too PlayStation 4.

For those not in the know, Désilets is the director he worked at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as well as author and artistic director of the series Assassin's Creed until the third chapter, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood;.

After leaving Ubisoft and having witnessed the cancellation of the project 1666: Amsterdam, the Canadian decided to set up his own studio, Panache Digital Games.

Working with just that, he developed and finished Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey; an ambitious project that takes considerable inspiration from various elements of Désilets' earlier works.

Following a first version of the game released on PC this Summer, the PlayStation 4 version of the title. How will the Panache title behave in front of theconsole ecosystem?

The genesis of man

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey looks like a game survival open world where thescouting is the host.

From the beginning we will be catapulted intoAfrica del Neogene di 10 millions of years ago, and Our task will be to create a progeny of ominidi to which we will have to teach to survive in prehistory, in such a way as to evolve the species through the eras up to theHomo Sapiens.

Obviously the dangers of nature will not be missing, the unexpected and predators that will take us by surprise throughout the course of the adventure, to which we will have to pay extreme attention to prevent our hominids from being killed and consequently our clan extinct.

A complex structure… perhaps too much

Even before actually starting to play, a game notice will tell us what they will be very few the aids given to the player throughout the experience and we will have to discover the vast majority of game mechanics.

This will happen through a system of trial and error. It will also be possible eliminate altogether HUD and tutorial, option extremely not recommended especially for players who prefer a lighter experience.

Our progress will be marked by target which will act as guidelines and will be given to us in order to learn one game mechanic at a time, however we will be able to explore the game world in our own way from the beginning without any barrier.

As mentioned earlier, the key element of Ancestors is exploration.

In fact, we will have to send our hominids in advance in search of resources: food and water - which we will have to analyze closely the first time we come across them - unexplored places and even other hominids to help and join our clan to increase our population.

Recommended traveling with puppies on their shoulders as this will generate neuronal energy to each of our actions that will allow us to strengthen the brain of hominids.

Each time we reach a new place, the hominids under our control will have to face the fear of the unknown, displayed on the screen as menacing figures surrounding the area.

We will have to use ours senses, smell and hearing, and theintelligence - mechanics largely influenced by "Eagle eye"Of Assassin 'Creed - to analyze the surrounding environment and, once fear is rationalized, follow the" light " dopamine is exhausted to overcome fear.

Another fundamental element is certainly the management of our clan, consisting of hominids of different ages and sexes of which we can take control, each equipped with different peculiar abilities.

They will also be equipped with “nuclei” representing thelife expectation bunting and daily lifestyle, based on food and water intake and hours of sleep.

The most important element is i puppies, which once they become adults will pass the new genes developed through the generations. For this it will be necessary to form couples in the clan e procreate as much as possible.

although we appreciate the developers' attempt to leave complete freedom to the player and make him immerse in what is in effect a faithful one simulation experience, we would have preferred a less hotel cumbersome, repetitive and certainly more intuitive than what was proposed to us after the finished product.

Also an expert of the genre will in fact be found in the first hours of the game a fight with the controls andand mechanics same as the title, finding himself catapulted into an unknown world with very few references with which to start moving.

Evolution is intriguing, but also repetitive

Il gameplay offers various elements in a single cauldron, starting with the system of free running - loosely inspired by Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed - which will allow us, as apes, to move freely on trees and rocks, but being careful not to run out of stamina.

While the freedom of movement given to the player is to be commended, the controls often turn out inaccurate, starting with the fact that the run and jump command is assigned to one button.

In fact, it has often happened to us to jump when we do not want to and land on the wrong point, perhaps from great heights that could cause fractures.

Also calculate the distance of each jump results intricate and not infrequently our hominid it will not cling where we would like, especially when it comes to moving through the Liane.

In short, where in the previous works of Désilets free running was fluid and fun, unfortunately in Ancestors it is more of a stumbling block what else.

In the course of our expeditions through the various game environments we will often come across many species of predators, who will attack us without giving us respite.

We can decide to intimidate them, even if very few animals will escape from us, most of the time it will be us who will have to escape from them.

When a predator attacks us, the game will trigger one slow motion in which we can decide to escape the attack if we will release a key at the right time or even of reply - the outcome of our attack will also depend on the luck.

Again, the combat system is extremely poor e repetitive, and also when we will be able to unlock new options evolving our species (after many hours game), the story will still be the same.

As for evolution, it is dictated by a kind of spherography that we will have to unlock by developing our own neurons. This element takes full advantage of the concept of imprint mnemonico del DNA of Assassin's Creed.

Once we have accumulated sufficient neuronal energy, we will be able to connect the neurons between them e unlock new skills (Or improve those already available).

Some neurons will be inaccessible since we will necessarily have to do a generational leap 15 years and hope that our offspring independently acquire new ones innate characteristics.

When the time is right, we can decide to to evolve our offspring at the next stage of evolution and progressing more or less quickly than is advocated by science.

Whenever we evolve, we will find ourselves at a distance of several million years anywhere on the map completely different from the previous one.

A crude, but well packaged package

The technical sector is well cared, as well as the graphic aspect, characterized by a excellent lighting, high resolution texture, procedural climate change and compelling polygonal models; even the animations of hominids and other animals are by ottima qualità.

However, we found a frame rate dancer which in no way precludes the gaming experience but is nonetheless not a little annoying, and an art direction that has opted for an extremely style realistic which is, however, decidedly uninspired.

La overabundance of elements on the screen sometimes makes it difficult to juggle the various areas of the game, also due to a camera that occasionally compenetra in the game world templates.

From the point of view of the sound Ancestors è impeccable, thanks to the game audio it really feels like being in the middle of a primeval jungle, and the verses of the hominids and their predators are convincing.

Even the soundtrack, although anonymous, contributes to make alive the surrounding environment thanks to music dynamics that accompany the pace of the game.

All in all, being a title developed for just over thirty years people, we remained pleasantly surprised from the technical quality, despite the defects presented.

However, we would like to reiterate that we would have preferred a more game system immediate e intuitive able keep glued to the screen despite the repetitiveness.