Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a survival game that gives the genre some twists. In it we do not control a character, but a clan of apes in their odyssey towards human evolution.
The title is characterized by the lack of a clear objective beyond the question asked by Panache Digital: will we, as homo sapiens, be able to evolve our species faster than our ancestors did?
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The keys
Without any help
The hallmark of Ancestors is that, while monkeys evolve as a species, whoever has control of the command evolves as a player. Beyond small tutorials in the first minutes of the game, the title does not explain anything to you.
Precisely, the discovery of the game mechanics, their operation and how they interact with each other, is one of the most satisfactory aspects of Panache Digital’s work. However, this opacity can lead many to despair in the first hours of the game, so in this guide we will explain the most important thing so that you do not feel too lost.
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Still, we insist: discovering it for yourself is very rewarding.
A huge open world
Ancestors represents the fullness of the African continent from millions of years ago. This means that there are enormous territories of forest, jungle, savannah, mountainous places, caves, swamps and other places.
In each of them there are different ecosystems, that is, different animal species, different fruits, different vegetation, etc.
However, we commend you not to want to fully explore it from the beginning. Little by little you will improve your species, making it more suitable for other environments, and as you evolve, you will be transported to settlements in other parts of Africa that will leave you at an optimal point to explore new areas.
From tree to tree
The world of Ancestors , and the monkeys’ own movement, is not designed to make you go back and forth like simple homo sapiens. You have the agility and playable mechanics necessary to travel the African continent from tree to tree.
Apes automatically grab onto tree trunks and branches as well as stone walls. However, to grab the leaves and the vines you must press button A at the right time, and balance to jump: this is done by holding down that button and directing the joystick where you want to jump.
Traveling like this is the safest way, since on the mainland boars, snakes, cougars and countless animals await you that you will discover that they do not want to be your friends, but to have you in their stomach (or stomachs).
Use your senses
Monkeys have three types of senses: intelligence, smell, and sound.
The first is activated by pressing the Y button while standing, and allows you to identify the objects and animals that you have within your vision (which will increase in rank as you play, but we explain this in the evolution part of the guide). Thus, when you activate intelligence mode in an unexplored place, a lot of squares will appear on the screen; by pointing at them and holding down the Y button, you will be able to identify this object, and if you press it again, it can be memorized so that the mark remains on the screen as we move around the world. In addition, in this vision, rhombuses will also appear with a question mark in the center: these are symbolic places in the world that you must approach to discover them.
Smell works similarly, and is activated from the sense interface (by pressing the X button). Instead of seeing squares, the foods, predators, and monkeys that can be identified with the smell will show up as nebulae of different colors: by pointing at them and holding down the X button, we will analyze them and know what it is – unless that we have never interacted with said object, so we must go to it, pick it up and analyze it. Neural energy is also obtained by identifying items in this way.
Finally, sound has a shorter range than the other senses. We are shown a series of audio waves that identify predators and other monkeys. By concentrating on a sound after activating this mode with the B button, we can mark it as in the rest of the modes. This sense is especially useful for identifying monkeys from other clans: by activating it, if we see a yellow sound wave that does not belong to our companions, we will be close to a clanless ape that will join ours if we help him in the problem he has.
The use of the senses and intelligence to identify new objects or known objects in new areas contributes neuronal energy. Therefore, it is advisable to do this every time a new place is reached. We talk more about this in the section on evolution.
Mode and interface changes
When starting the game for the first time, we can select two modes: First Time and Survivor. The first is the traditional way: we start with a settlement of various adult, baby and elderly monkeys. In Survivor, however, we start with a single adult ape, so they will have to manage to find mates, and therefore it will be harder.
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Another option that is given to us when starting the game is to select the type of interface. Although this is very minimalist and it will take us a while to understand it, we can choose to play without it. But these interface options are also accessible from the menu, so the decision you make when starting to play is not binding.
Tips for newbies : The essential details to start playing the story of survival and evolution of humanity.
Construction, modification and diseases : In this section of our guide we explain the basic aspects that will allow you to develop your settlement, build objects and deal with diseases.
Evolution, the passing of generations and the neural network : In this section of our Ancestors guide we explain how the game’s progression system works and its skill tree.
Survival : Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is quite a complex survival game. We give you some essential details so that you survive the most complex points.
