Fast forward a few more years and now it’s commonplace to find not just functional console RTS games but damn good ones. Enter Ancestors Legacy, a title released on Steam in 2018, but always. Read reviews and ratings of Ancestors Legacy from our experts, and see what our community says, too! Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.

There was once a time in history where the gaming industry scoffed at the idea of the RTS genre on console. I mean, how the hell were developers supposed to simulate the hot-keyed madness of real time strategy with a couple of control sticks and a hodgepodge of buttons and triggers? Eventually the likes of Command and Conquer and Halo Wars were able to bring competent RTS facsimiles to the living room, but these releases were still few and far between. Since then, only a handful of titles have even attempted the feat, so when the recently released Ancestors Legacy hit the PS4, I was curious to see if they too had what it took to make the jump from PC to console. Have they managed to stick the landing, or is the inclusion of control sticks just part of the problem?

Making the Transition

Though the series is new to the PlayStation audience, Ancestors Legacy actually graced PC last year. Ever since that time, developer Destructive Creations has been hard at work streamlining an admittedly robust experience into something that is consumable without the aid of a keyboard and mouse. These sorts of optimizations are a tall order to say the least, but it certainly appears that they’re on the right track. Plus, if you are a fan of historically grounded battle recreations, this will certainly check all of the right boxes.

Set during the heyday of Vikings, the game covers the warring factions that were coming to blows during this volatile era in history. The four playable factions include Vikings, Teutons, Anglo-Saxons, or Slavs. Each group has at least one dedicated campaign, focusing around the conflicts that defined them. Granted, it doesn’t take much research to realize that there were several liberties being taken in the name of constructing a compelling narrative, but considering that the “raping” portion of “raping and pillaging” is also being put to the side, this can certainly be forgiven.

The core combat is very much of the squad-centric variety, somewhat in the same vein as PC classic Company of Heroes. Regiments can be grouped together with other squads to move collectively or be moved individually. Over the course of battle the number of troops in any squad can both wane and grow, depending upon if more bodies can be recruited from the surrounding settlements. In response to getting your ass surprisingly handed to you in a paper sack, there’s an option to retreat, which is mapped to a singular button the controller. Hitting this command sends all selected units scampering back to their nearest base of operations, with their collective tails between their legs.

Warcraft relations map. This is supposed to be a map of relations between the most important characters/clans/artifacts until the end of The Frozen Throne storyline. For all of you who are a bit confused by the tremendous amount of characters in the world of Warcraft. World of Warcraft's map is huge and sprawling, so someone recreated it in the style of Google Maps to help you find your way. Azeroth (pre-legion) Underwater (pre-legion) WotLK + −. Maps of all zones with support for pins and coordinates display, with options for sharing. This is not a geographical map, rather, this is supposed to be a map of relations between the most important characters/clans/artifacts until the end of The Frozen Throne storyline. For all of you who are a bit confused by the tremendous amount of characters in the world of Warcraft. World of warcraft map coordinates addon.

If the settlement has the proper resources available, squads can replenish their units upon reaching the base. This is why it’s key to make sure that each group never entirely depletes their soldier count. Once the squad is completely gone, they are perma-dead. All it takes is a single survivor to potentially rebuild an entire regiment, so keeping a keen eye on the body count can be a key to early success.

Bringing the Pain

There comes a point during each campaign where caution is thrown to the wind, in favor of unleashing all different manners of hell on the opposition. This is where the effective use of the different unit types becomes essential. Everything boils down to close, middle, and long-range combatants. Each faction has their own equivalents to these core character archetypes, so once you’ve grasped the rock-paper-scissors mechanics, switching between factions becomes a breeze. Other factors come into play as well such as a unit’s mobility or shield strength, but again, these are just slight permutations on the same core formula.

It’s paramount to understand how to effectively use differing units in combat, because they all have both strong suits and substantial deficiencies. Archers are not the type of combatants to be positioning at the frontlines of conflict, as they will be torn to ribbons by close-range units before they can even unsheathe their quiver. Best positioned well behind the frontlines of any battle, it’s still important to make sure they are close enough to clear their own team’s offensive troops. Failure to do so will result in arrows falling well short of their desired targets, subsequently raining down hell on their own squad mates in an unfortunate case of friendly fire.

These sorts of give-and-take scenarios take simple trial-and-error to fully grasp. There’s no way to completely prevent silly mistakes from being made while learning a new faction’s finer points. Thankfully there’s a very generous checkpoint system in place, which will actively help protect the player from themselves, so to speak. I can’t even begin to estimate the number of save points that bailed my over-aggressive ass out of serious jams over the course of Ancestors Legacy’s meaty forty-plus hour campaign. Yes, you read that right. The game features over forty hours of single-player action, stretched across more than thirty missions.

Losing the Battle

As nice as it was to be rescued by the autosave, there was nothing that felt better than out thinking the AI. In stark contrast to many RTS titles that I’ve played recently, the computer-controlled factions tended to behave more realistically than I would’ve anticipated. That said, when you find a way to keep an enemy’s forces occupied on one front, while simultaneously sneaking around the proverbial back door and flanking them into oblivion, it’s so damn gratifying. Part of the reason it was so rewarding was because I tended to be more on the receiving end of this scenario than the aggressor, but enough about my RTS deficiencies.

Speaking of leaving something to be desired, there appears to be quite a few bugs that are in desperate need of squashing. In damn near every gameplay session I experienced some odd quirk that completely pulled me out of the action. The issues ranged in severity between low-impact events like the sound completely dropping out or the HUD disappearing entirely, without any ability to bring it back. On the opposite end of the spectrum I also encountered whole combat encounters where I lost complete control of all on-screen units. Another time I was treated to a sketchy camera that kept shaking from side-to-side like it was being operated by someone literally sprinting with a camera on their shoulder. In the later case it made me so seasick that I had step away from the PC. Once again, checkpoints came to the rescue because in order to resolve any of these pesky problems a complete restart of the application was required.

Additionally, when trying to micromanage several groups of troops I found myself desperately swapping back and forth between units, in order to fully take advantage of fighting battles on multiple fronts. An unfortunate side effect of being confined to the PS4 controller is quite a bit of potential disorientation. While I understand the fundamental difficulties that the developers were up against, I couldn’t help but think that several games have done a better job of making you feel like you were truly in control of every combatant. It isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but there was just something intangible missing.

If you’re looking for a beefy console RTS experience that’s inspired by real events and oozing violence out of every bloody orifice, then look no further than Ancestors Legacy. It may not be the perfect experience, but it’s shockingly solid, especially when you consider the design hurdles that the development team must have been facing. This is the perfect entry-point for anyone who’s been curious about real time strategy, when armed with only a Dualshock.

Ancestors Legacy review code provided by publisher. Reviewed on PS4. For more information on scoring, please read our Review Policy.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a unique third-person survival game that takes place over millions of years. You take control of a primate clan as you acquire new skills and learn more about your environment. The goal behind Ancestors is to make sure your lineage doesn't go extinct. In order to do this, you'll have to savor the experience and slowly uncover the mysteries of your surroundings.

Explore the world

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Bottom line: Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a great survival game with an extremely steep learning curve.

Pros:

• Dangerous open world
• Great visuals
• Deep survival mechanics
• Offers structured gameplay option

Cons:

• Slightly clunky animations
• Starting out is frustrating
• Animal encounters are tedious
• Poor Xbox One X support

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey exploration and setting

Ancestors takes place in a massive open world that's hard to traverse due to the dangers that lurk in the wild. From your waterfall base, you have to slowly explore the surrounding area as you try to remember where various hiding spots and resources are located. The game doesn't feature a map, so you'll have to discover landmarks and where your group is in relation to those.

Luckily, you have a number of abilities that allow you to memorize and identify objects you encounter. Unfortunately, the dense foliage of the jungle makes it hard to keep your bearings so I would recommend always climbing the tallest trees to reposition yourself. However, beware of the massive eagles because venturing too close to their nests results in certain death.

For example, when you discover certain landmarks, meteorites fall from the sky. These can be easily spotted because of the smoke they create. However, you won't be able to find them unless you're able to see the trails from above the trees.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey crafting and survival

As much as Ancestors is about exploring the world, uncovering what you can do with various plants, rocks, and other objects is just as important. Before you can even eat or drink, you'll have to discover what they are. For example, the first step is finding a freshwater source that doesn't poison you. After that, you'll have to inspect berries, herbs, mushrooms, fruit, and other items that look potentially edible. Only after that will you be able to satisfy your hunger and thirst meters.

In order to sleep well, you'll have to use various techniques to construct sleeping mats. This is the only way to access the skill tree and evolve, too. Apart from that, you can fashion rudimentary tools by sharpening sticks and hitting rocks together to form cutters or grinders.

Instead of randomly banging rocks together, you have to listen for a small audio cue. When you release the rock at the cue, it'll have the most impact. This also applies to shaping branches or even grooming other members of your lineage. It would've been nice to have some other indicator because this limits accessibility for those with hearing disabilities.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey evolution and skills

Ancestors uses two distinct means to level up. You can unlock various skills by growing neurons. This is the simplest way because all you have to do is repeat a few actions and you gain new skills. For example, just by using your senses and identifying items around you, you have the option to unlock new, but similar abilities. The same applies to movement and other traits.

However, evolution is more important. If you're able to complete certain feats, like intimidating a wild animal or finding a new home for your group, then you can skip ahead hundreds of thousands of years. This allows you to access new locations easily and gain new abilities to unlock.

The game takes you from 10 million to 2 million years ago. You'll start off in the jungle, but eventually find yourself exploring the African Savanna. While early encounters with wild animals can be quite deadly and frustrating, it seems like the later ones place you in control. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to experience this stage for long because Ancestors is an incredibly difficult game, especially when you're first starting out. Luckily, there's a guided mode available that helps you quite a lot.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey performance and visuals

Ancestors looks really good on Xbox One X, but it doesn't appear to have any major enhancements like a significant boost to resolution or frame rate. The title appears to be running at 1080p and 30 frames per second (FPS). While the menus are 4K when it comes to the text, everything else is ever-so-slightly blurry.

I recognize the fact that developer Panache Digital Games is a small team, but other games like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and No Man's Sky look stunning at 4K on Microsoft's upgraded console. The Ancestors team could've upgraded the resolution at least if it was too demanding to render the game at 60 FPS.

While the performance is stable, Ancestors has a number of minor bugs that harm the experience. Aside from the slightly clunky animations and frustrating combat against wild animals, children clip into each other often if you place them on a sleeping mat. The game as a whole needs a little bit more polish, and the combat needs a complete overhaul in my opinion. Even a simple action like dodging an attack is imprecise.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey final thoughts

Overall, Ancestors is a good game despite its problems. You should be prepared to spend several hours learning the mechanics. You may have to restart a few times if your tribe doesn't procreate enough. Unfortunately, that happened to me a lot because an aging and ill population is a real problem in this game.

Aside from making sure your birth rate exceeds your death rate, you should make sure that all of your members are healthy. Sometimes, even younger primates get sick and taking control of them is the only way to nurse them back to health. If you're having a hard time getting the hang of Ancestors, I would recommend watching tutorials on YouTube because once you get into the game, it's supremely rewarding and quite addictive.

Survive and evolve

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

It's the story of humanity

Survive your evolution in Africa starting 10 million years ago. Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a third-person survival game where you explore, expand, and evolve to advance your clan.

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This game was reviewed on an Xbox One X with a copy provided by the publisher.

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