Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey (2019)

Chronolog I: The “Ancient” Era part I – Where It All Begins

This game doesn’t kick off with kings or pyramids—it starts millions of years ago, with your early hominid ancestors clawing their way up the evolutionary ladder. In Ancestors, you don’t just play a character—you play a species evolving. You begin walking on all fours, slowly unlocking - strain by strain - the ability to stand, grip items with more control, and use tools. Every action, every bit of trial and error, contributes to the next evolutionary step.

Eventually, your clan becomes Homo Sapiens, capable of doing things we now take for granted. It’s a fascinating look at our roots, told through interactive gameplay.

That said, as a backlog gamer, I have to be picky about time investment. Ancestors is immersive, but it also demands patience and repetition. The grind starts to outweigh the novelty, and at some point, I had to ask: is this fun enough to finish?

For me, it was a partial check-off. I made it through a big chunk of the game, appreciated the evolution arc, and then watched the final sequences on YouTube.

Chronolog: Ancient Era main post <--> The Stone Age

To think that I would play the game that is set in the earliest time period based on the hominid species, let alone set off the first bookend of my backlog in the chronological order.

Ancestors' survival gameplay core goes by the evolution stages of the said species, as you discover the nature and interactions to spark new methods and physiological capabilites. Henceforth, you gradually make progress through practicing and selecting abilities in the synaptic skill tree. I've been playing for nearly 8 hours, trying my way around to discover new possibilities that this game offers with playable monkeys. On the other hand, this game admittedly doesn't hold hands and rather encourages initiatives in experimentation... (only caveat being that a player like me isn't well-versed in ancient anthropology)

Eventually, I decided to check this off my backlog, having familiarized with the basic gameplay and saving my valuable time for the following games in the chronology. It would have been satisfying to follow the evolution that shaped the mankind we knew, let alone represented in the backlog games overall. But I think the videos on Youtube is well enough for the saved time and follow how the dev team made their presentation for what this game is showing. Can recommend only to survival fans and biology enthusiasts.