Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a survival game from Panache Digital Games, published by Private Division and directed by Patrice Désilets. It came out for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in August 2019. The action takes place in prehistoric Africa, where players control hominin species in the human evolutionary line, working to keep them alive and drive their evolution.

In this third-person survival game, you manage a hominid clan member’s health by eating, drinking, and sleeping. The open world starts in an African jungle 10 million years ago, filled with dangers like Machairodus, Metridiochoerus, Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni, Adcrocuta hyenas, African rock pythons, giant miocene otters, and African buffalo. You can climb trees, but falls or predator attacks cause injuries. Progress unlocks new areas. When exploring or being hunted, a hominid enters a "fear" state, which is controlled by rewarding actions—like crafting tools, eating, or conquering new locations—that build dopamine. If fear lasts too long, dopamine drains and hysteria sets in. The apes use heightened senses to hear predators, lost clan members, or outsiders to recruit. Intelligence lets them pinpoint items and make discoveries, like new food or tools. Discoveries boost intelligence and unlock skills, such as making leaf bedding or using medicinal plants. If your character dies, you switch to another clan member. If all die, the lineage goes extinct and you restart. The goal is survival and slow evolution into a new species. As the clan grows, you can play as infants, adults, elders, or parents carrying children. Social tasks include calling clan members to hunt or migrate. While sleeping, you develop the hominid’s neural system—a skill tree—to unlock abilities like using both hands or standing upright, which aid evolution. Skills pass to future generations through procreation. The game lasts 40 to 50 hours, covering eight million years of evolution.

Development began after Patrice Désilets left Ubisoft and founded Panache Digital Games in 2014. He built a toolbox for extensive environmental interaction. The team chose prehistory to avoid building vast cities. Désilets was "bored of the whole 10,000 BC [setting]" and set the game 10 million years ago. He read paleoanthropology books, though some elements were exaggerated, and avoided film or pop culture influences to keep