Despite how vocal some folks like to posture themselves regarding the uniqueness of the medium and its use of interactivity to convey experiences not found in other artforms, judging from Ancestors' lukewarm reception, both from the critics and the consumers, it appears that the notion of utilizing gameplay with the purpose of anything other than immediate "fun" is still vastly underappreciated and maligned by most. Designing an entire game around the idea of discovery and progress through the process of trial and error seems like a sure way of shooting yourself in the foot, yet somehow Ancestors manages to pull off this venture while creating a unique combination of immersive survival sim and surprisingly good edutainment.
Initial frustration and sense overload that accompanies the first couple of hours eventually lead to a succession of small victories as you slowly figure how your fragile ape manipulates himself and his surroundings, and the ever presence of predators lurking about makes each detour into the wild an exciting and dangerous quest that has you dreading every second you aren't on top of a tree, making each territory conquest an important milestone. Ancestors succeeds in implementing the experience of human evolution through its guideless gameplay, making it hard not to feel the crushing weight of time and nature as you get your ape to stand on his two feet and guide his clan into the outskirts of the even more perilous Savanah setting where there are no trees to hide in.
If anything, I wish the game was even more cruel. As the game systems and mechanics start to unveil themselves over time, the artificiality of Ancestors inevitably starts to show off, and much of its previous obstacles and challenges start to become either obsolete or easy to shrug off, with birth even becoming just another tool to exploit. Maybe it's just me speaking from a place of privilege, considering I played Ancestors after a bunch of QoL updates were added in response to the inumerous criticisms at launch, but in a world where Rain World exists, I do have to wonder how much better my experience with Ancestors would have been if I didn't have the ability to choose how much HUD information was displayed and if the game continued its initial punishing difficulty until the very end.
It's depressing to see that the one time Ubisoft people stop doing Assassin's Creed to do something else much more worthwhile, it is immediately shut down, which kinda sends mixed signals about how much people really want them to do something different. But when you take into account that Ancestors came out in the same year as works like Death Stranding and Pathologic 2 did, I guess we can be optimistic about the future of videogames.
PS: No, you can NOT throw your feces in this game. I know, I was beyond disappointed as well.
Initial frustration and sense overload that accompanies the first couple of hours eventually lead to a succession of small victories as you slowly figure how your fragile ape manipulates himself and his surroundings, and the ever presence of predators lurking about makes each detour into the wild an exciting and dangerous quest that has you dreading every second you aren't on top of a tree, making each territory conquest an important milestone. Ancestors succeeds in implementing the experience of human evolution through its guideless gameplay, making it hard not to feel the crushing weight of time and nature as you get your ape to stand on his two feet and guide his clan into the outskirts of the even more perilous Savanah setting where there are no trees to hide in.
If anything, I wish the game was even more cruel. As the game systems and mechanics start to unveil themselves over time, the artificiality of Ancestors inevitably starts to show off, and much of its previous obstacles and challenges start to become either obsolete or easy to shrug off, with birth even becoming just another tool to exploit. Maybe it's just me speaking from a place of privilege, considering I played Ancestors after a bunch of QoL updates were added in response to the inumerous criticisms at launch, but in a world where Rain World exists, I do have to wonder how much better my experience with Ancestors would have been if I didn't have the ability to choose how much HUD information was displayed and if the game continued its initial punishing difficulty until the very end.
It's depressing to see that the one time Ubisoft people stop doing Assassin's Creed to do something else much more worthwhile, it is immediately shut down, which kinda sends mixed signals about how much people really want them to do something different. But when you take into account that Ancestors came out in the same year as works like Death Stranding and Pathologic 2 did, I guess we can be optimistic about the future of videogames.
PS: No, you can NOT throw your feces in this game. I know, I was beyond disappointed as well.
4 Comments
Been watching my SO play it next to me for a while and it was simultaneously funny that she loved it and had fun with it for all the reasons people were saying it wasn’t fun.
It still looks like the grind for mutations is a bit much as the game goes on which feels left out here (SO herself threw up a cheat table at some point) but this is a good review!
It still looks like the grind for mutations is a bit much as the game goes on which feels left out here (SO herself threw up a cheat table at some point) but this is a good review!
@kingbancho Thank you! Yeah, I definitely understand why this one was so overlooked, it sits at an awkward intersection between games that attract an audience looking for something different and games that attract an audience who demands to be in full control and aware of how every single mechanic and system works from the start, it was always gonna be a tough sell. The scientific and grounded realism exterior of the game is not gonna be calling in the crowd it wants.
@QuilDewlvy Yeah, you are definitely right about the mutation grind at the tail end of the game, I was gonna talk about it in my main critiques of the game but decided not to elongate the review. Thanks for reading!
KB0
3 years ago