When Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey launched on PC over the summer, its players were divided into two camps. One was in awe of its possibilities, and another was scared away by its laissez-faire design. 

Finally arriving on PS4 and Xbox One months later, the developers behind Ancestors have used the re-launch to bring a host of new features to one of the year's most ambitious games.

Where do these new onboarding changes leave us?

Well, I didn't play Ancestors before this major patch, but having played several hours after the fact, I can say Ancestors is a game that will infuriate you nearly as much as it will fascinate you — and maybe that's okay.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review — Survival of the Most Patient

No one ever said evolution was supposed to be easy, and in Ancestors, it never is. Panache Games' prehistoric ancestry simulator starts slow and welcomes you to keep it that way. Even as Ancestors is clearly at its best when you follow that slow path, it's still an often obtuse, confusing game that punishes players in a hurry and taunts, "now survive."

Coming from Patrice Desilets, the creator of Assassin's Creed, it's funny to see Ancestors reject so much of the rote open-world experience he helped birth. The game has several large hubs, and each of them has a different biome, such as jungle, desert, and swampland.

However, you won't be chasing repeating icons across the map to perform side quests. Across these hubs, our early human ancestors from as far back as 10 million years ago are in your hands, and survival is purely what's at stake.

"Now survive" was once nearly the only implied prompt PC players received, but with recent patchwork and the launch on consoles, the game now holds your hand a bit more. However, that hand-holding is still nowhere near enough to earn the time of most players. Ancestors still feels delighted to be obtuse.

It's a blessing and a curse, really. On the one hand, such a design feels authentic. Early hominids didn't have to time button presses to crack open coconuts, and they weren't able to swap among other members in their clan at will (especially upon death). Even so, these gamified mechanics feel designed to stay as true as they can to their ancient actions.

Yet, because of the way players interact with the world and start from nothingness, the evolution of the controller layout is one of its biggest problems in Ancestors.

Simple movements we take for granted, like moving an item from one hand to another, are among the first abilities you learn. Inspecting an object, for example, is an ability, which alters another ability still, and that ability is timing based. Collectively, it can take a Harmonix-like manipulation of the controller just to peel a branch of its leaves.

While these early maneuvers become the foundation for learning new things and get easier over time, they're always replaced by new confounding mechanics to understand.

Design like that speaks to a Cageian intent on revolutionizing how players manipulate virtual worlds. Still, in Ancestors, it can all feel so unsatisfying and slow that it creates a glacial learning curve.

Consider then these first few hours of learning simple tasks like how to eat, sleep, mate, climb, and so on as the Darwinian test of will for would-be players in this extremely ambitious world. Get beyond those first few unforgiving scenes, and the sense of reward and progress grows exponentially, even as it never ceases to introduce more layers too complex for their own good.

While you start as a herbivore, later evolutionary leaps take you millions of years into the future, up to about 2 million years from today. In that time, you'll grow from a small clan of relative imbeciles to eventually much smarter, fiercer, more capable hominids.

Early encounters with predators such as snakes and crocodiles are brutal and tough to escape, especially when they unfold in territories with which you're unfamiliar; the game clouds those regions in an effectively haunting haze meant to depict your innate fear of the unknown.

But conquer those new lands and you allow your clan to explore further, experiment more, and thrive like never before. Anything you do should always come with two infant hominids clinging to your body, as it's only through their witnessing of your actions that you can ensure genetic progress is passed down through generations.

While it can be grueling, the uplifting part about Ancestors' design is how all experiences are conducive to learning. Eating poison berries will leave you sick, but they'll also build up immunities. Getting attacked by a crocodile is terrifying, but narrowly escaping teaches you how to beat the odds. When the little ones watch it all unfold, it's like seeing the future where they have gone and done better directly because of your instructional living. 

When my first clan died off, and I had to start over, I was disheartened at the roguelike nature of evolutionary progress. It takes a lot to grow your clan and ensure they're progressing as needed. It's not a fun game to start anew. Because of that, it's crucial anyone who survives the first act — to see some traits passed down to future generations — ensures they never go extinct.

The open hub nature of Ancestors makes for a smart setting that begs to be explored. New challenges and triumphs can be found up every tree and under every rock. Watching for predators, or better yet, evading or fighting them, is a repeatable high-intensity moment with real stakes. That feeling is heightened given the game's use of permadeath, especially because the game always seems to give you what you've earned.

New traits are dripped out to players slowly, but your actions have consequences. That can mean making vital strides over a few hours, or it can mean instant death when you try to snatch a giant bird's egg from its nest — seriously, don't try this at home.

Many people will downright hate Ancestors, but it's blatantly designed for accepting that eventuality. Patrice Desilets and his team seem to understand that their vision of visiting prehistory in such a grand way means treating the experience, including UI, controller input, and survival odds, with the seriousness of the subject. Whomever they lose on the way are not among the fittest.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review — The Bottom Line

Pros:

• Pulls no punches
• Discovery and successes feel extraordinarily earned

Cons:

• No really, pulls NO punches
• Controls are often unwieldy and unintuitive 

I'm still not sure I even enjoyed Ancestors. That is to say, I know I didn't have fun with Panache Games' take on the subject matter like I did reading Harari's Sapiens. But fun seems like the absolutely wrong metric to apply to Ancestors.

As fascinating as it is to read about our early hominids or watch a documentary about them, the interactivity of games seems to mean the concept won't travel well for most players.

Among those who are up for Ancestors' relentlessness, many will find their favorite game of the year. And if that's a small portion of the overall players who try to evolve through this game, then so be it, says Panache. I tend to agree.

[Note: A copy of Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey was provided Take-Two Interactive for the purpose of this review.]

WiLD

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• Developer: Wild Sheep Studio
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• Platforms: PS4/PS5
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• Release date: 2019/2020
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WiLD has been in development since 2014, and there are rumors that it will appear as a PS5 exclusive at the launch of the new Sony console. For now, it is unknown when exactly Sony will release their new toy.

WiLD is probably one of the most ambitious survival games ever. The game will have an endless procedurally-generated open world, where players will take on a role of a pre-historic human, who tries to survive with the help of small and big wild animals, which can be controlled using special shamanic abilities.

This sounds really cool, but it would be great if there was any indication of the release date. For now, you can join the development team at the official game's website.

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Let us know about your personal most anticipated survival game in the comments section below, and be sure to check other most anticipated games lists here at GameSkinny:

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• 11 Most Anticipated New MMO Releases of 2019
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• Top 10 Strategy Games We're Looking Forward To In 2019
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• Ten Most Anticipated Action Games of 2019
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• Top 11 Most Anticipated VR Games of 2019
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• 10 Awesome RPGs to Look Forward to in 2019
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Generation Zero

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• Developer: Avalanche Studios
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• Platforms: PC
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• Release date: TBA 2019
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Killing robots is really fun in Generation Zero -- an action-packed cooperative shooter for four players. The game starts with players arriving at a Swedish tourist attraction in the late 1980s, where there is no one left alive.

Mysterious machines emerge from nowhere and start attacking every living being, including you and your friends. The game offers an unusual approach to story-telling and survival, where players will have to figure everything out on their own.

The most interesting aspect of the game is that enemy machines retain all the damage dealt to them by the players. This creates an illusion of realism like no other game on the market right now.

Pandemic Express

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• Developer: TallBoys
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• Platforms: PC
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• Release date: TBA 2019
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Here is an interesting take on a zombie survival cooperative shooter. Pandemic Express focuses mainly on trains as your means to escape from those pesky zombies.

The gameplay footage looks fun, and shows bits of what players can expect from this quirky shooter. The gameplan involves players to catch the train that will help them leave the zombie-infested location.

But there is one problem, apparently there are more zombies on the train that will keep attacking you. So by the look of it, surviving will be really hard in Pandemic Express.

If you like what you've seen and read, then sign-up here for the upcoming alpha test.

Vigor

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• Developer: Bohemia Interactive
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• Platforms: Xbox One
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• Release date: TBA 2019
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The creator of DayZ makes a comeback in the form of Vigor, an upcoming shoot'n'loot survival game that takes place in the post-apocalyptic Norway. The gameplay is designed for 8-16 players that will have to fight against each other for precious resources in order to build a shelter for themselves.

Vigor will be a free-to-play game, which should attract not only fans of DayZ, but also the rest of the survival community. Too bad the game is exclusive to the Xbox One console, but since it is based on Unreal Engine it should appear at least on PC as well.

Days Gone

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• Developer: SIE Bend Studio
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• Platforms: PS4
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• Release date: April 26, 2019
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Days Gone takes place a couple of years after the global pandemic that  destroyed half of the Earth's population. As a result a major part of the population turned into Freakers, which aren't exactly zombies. According to the game's lore, zombies are dead, while Freakers are still alive.

Also, zombies are always evil, while some Freakers can be peaceful and even retain the ability to think logically. The main protagonist of the game is Deacon St. John, a former criminal and a mercenary.

The game takes place in an open world of the Pacific Northwest, which will include both abandoned territories infested by Freakers and cities with human survivors. Players will have access to various traps, tools, weapons, as well as vehicles.

Left Alive

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• Developer: Square Enix
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• Platforms: PC, PS4
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• Release date: March 5, 2019
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If you've played the Mission Front series of games, then you will have an idea of what to expect from Left Alive, an upcoming survival simulator from Square Enix. The events of Left Alive will take place between Front Mission 5 and Front Mission Evolved.

There are three main characters in the game who act independently of each other. During the game players will be able to switch between them. The world of Left Alive consists of separate levels, where players will have the chance to control battle mechs from the Front Mission universe -- Wanzers.

One of the most interesting features of the game is the possibility to craft your own unique weapons, which should definitely be a lot of fun.

Remnant: From the Ashes

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• Developer: Gunfire Games
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• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
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• Release date: TBA 2019
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Remnant is a brand new survival shooter that comes from the offices of the Gunfire Games, the developer of Darksiders III. This means that the game will definitely be of high quality and the description sounds really intriguing.

In Remnant the players will fight interdimensional monsters that spawn in a variety of dynamically-generated realms. Each of these worlds will have unique means of survival and monsters that will range from normal sized creatures to some as big as the buildings. These aliens will be so hard to beat that players will have to cooperate in order to survive.

The first revealed trailer looks really promising, so let's keep our fingers crossed for potentially one of the best survival games of  2019.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

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• Developer: Panache Digital Games
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• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
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• Release date: TBA 2019
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Ancestors is all about human evolution and the early stages of human history. The story begins in Africa 10 million years ago. Initially, the developer planned to break the game into several short episodes each devoted to different time periods. However, later the decision was made to make all time periods accessible to players from the very beginning.

This is the first game of Panache Digital studio, but at the helm of it stands Patrice Désilets, the creative director behind many Assassin's Creed games. This means that we can at least expect gorgeous landscapes and fun gameplay.

Unfortunately, there isn't much info on the game yet, but the first playable server should be open to public some time next year.

Deadside

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• Developer: Bad Pixel
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• Platforms: PC
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• Release date: TBA 2019
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Here is a realistic survival shooter for those who are tired of killing zombies in their games. Instead of zombies players will hunt animals and focus on survival on the map as large as 225 square kilometers.

The developer promises highly realistic combat and physics of all weapons. For example, bullets will lose speed and change trajectory when penetrating various obstacles. This will make combat especially difficult, which will require players to pay attention to every single detail.

Players will be able to meet NPCs and trade goods with them. There will also be a possibility of killing strangers and looting.

Deadside is expected to enter Early Access at Steam some time in 2019.

Dead Matter

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• Developer: Quantum Integrity Software Inc.
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• Platforms: PC
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• Release date: Q1 2019
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Dead Matter is one of the most anticipated survival games in the works that can be supported by the community through an IndieGoGo campaign. The developer decided to make the game as realistic as possible and that is why you will not see any perks or skill tree system in the game.

The open world will be really huge and cover the territory of 400 square kilometers. The map will be populated by zombies, and one server will be able to handle between 60 to 80 players at once.

Players will be able to unite into different factions with quite intriguing names, such as First Responders, Cannibals, Soldiers, Neighborhood Watch and others. So this really looks like it's going to be a big game as soon as it releases.

World War Z

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• Developer: Saber Interactive
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• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
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• Release date: TBA 2019
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Surviving alone can be hard, especially in a zombie-infested world of World War Z. That is why the game's developer offers a survival game for four players and not just one.

It is worth noting that World War Z is based on the well-known book, which got that movie with Brad Pitt from 2013. The action unfolds in the same way as it happened in the movie, where characters had to deal with entire swarms of zombies.

The main story campaign of the game focuses on unique survival missions in selected cities, such as New York, Moscow and Jerusalem. The players will be given a chance to use traps, ambushes and environment in general to stay alive using various types of weapons.

Survival games have become a staple of the industry, which is why we see survival games of all sorts to satisfy the great demand. However, making a truly exciting survival game is as hard as it can be.

In the last few years we've seen huge backlashes from the gaming community towards many survival titles that simply couldn't deliver on the promises (e.g. No Man's Sky at launch). But this only means that gamers are really passionate about games they want to play, and that is why we've chosen a number of new and upcoming survival titles that should bring a smile to your face in 2019.

This short list includes games from such acclaimed developers like Sony,  Square Enix and Bohemia Interactive, as well as, ambitious newcomers that will surprise many people with their unusual and innovative gameplay mechanics.

If you’re the kind of gamer who pays attention to industry trends, you may have noticed a strange phenomenon. Over the course of the next year or two, developers will be releasing several games that focus on humanity’s distant past. 2016 and 2017 are going to provide gamer’s with ample opportunities to cling to only their most basic instincts as they plan for hardship and survival as a caveman (or cavewoman, or caveman-like person).

We’re not the first person to notice this trend. Remember when storming the beaches of Normandy was fresh and exciting? Or when wading through a horde of undead was spine-tingling? And now they’re just boring. That’ll probably be cavepeople in five years, but right now our troglodytic cousins are set to take the stage in a big way.

Just check out what developers have in store:

ARK: Survival Evolved

Already released to great acclaim as an open beta, you can currently get your prehistoric groove on through either Steam or Microsoft’s Xbox One Preview Program. The full game will be released later this July; at the moment, though, it’s basically just a sped-up simulation of the evolution of technology. And that all begins by waking up naked on a beach, fashioning crude instruments of survival, and overcoming the elements. (If you want a leg-up, check out some of our Ark guides.)

Sure, you eventually graduate to metal buildings and automatic rifles, but you begin your game as man once did, afraid and alone in a hostile wilderness. Then, of course, you get to ride a Bronto.

WiLD

The creator of platformer Rayman has something new in mind with his latest, the PS4 exclusive WiLD. French designer Michel Ancel is set to blend the fantastic with humanity’s real history. Set in the Neolithic period between 6,000 and 5,000 B.C.E., WiLD follows a shaman who’s able to commune with nature in some pretty cool ways. Summon gods, build colonies, and commune with animals to help tame the vast procedurally generated open world of ancient Europe.

As Ancel explains, “In this period ... the spirits are a mix of animals and humans, because nature was the most powerful thing on earth.” Also, there’s animal taming.

Far Cry Primal

The folks at Ubisoft are set to take the Far Cry experience to a place its never been before. After exploring Africa as a mercenary, bro-ing your way through a dangerous tropical paradise, and freeing an oppressed people (only to get them re-oppressed almost immediately), Ubisoft Montreal is expanding on the caveman-esque dream sequences of Far Cry 4 with Far Cry Primal. 

Set for release on February 23, Primal throws players into the central Europe of 10,000 B.C.E. Expect a heavy reliance on the game’s patented melee combat and sneaking mechanics (which have developed into the best part of the series, anyway), as you lead your player character, Takkar, to his destiny as a tribal leader. Here's the first 50 minutes of gameplay for your consideration.

P.S. More animal taming.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Another PS4 exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn sets itself apart from the crowd because it actually features a woman for once, and there is no animal taming (that we know of). Also, while it incorporates caveman-like fighting tactics (a la the bow and arrow), it’s technically set 1,000 years in the future and the primary enemies are robotic dinosaurs for some reason. Honestly, do you really need a bunch of context to get excited about a game starring evil robo-dinos?

A huge, post-apocalyptic journey awaits the game’s star, a hunter named Aloy, as she embarks on an epic journey … yada yada yada … big secret … blah blah blah … forgotten civilization, etc. We're just happy the premise is actually unique within this new cliche. Anyway, the gameplay looks killer.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

The guy who re-worked Prince of Persia and invented Assassin’s Creed, Patrice Desilets, is now working on a game that hopes to explore humanity’s history in its entirety as a third-person action survival game. Players can expect only the first episode or two to focus on our Stone Age origins. What’s more, Desilets seems to be going for something of a more peaceful vibe with this open world outing.

For example, according to the developer: 

“Our ancestors back then weren’t that violent. They weren't fighting each other. Cooperation and compassion are really part of the reason why we survived...There's no evidence of war before the invention of agriculture on this planet. That doesn't mean they didn't exist, but we've never found any evidence of it. There's not a lot of human beings on the planet, and once you first come across one, your first thought is not of killing them. It's like, 'Holy s*** there's somebody else! Let's try to help each other to survive because there's not a lot of food and there's a lot of beasts out there.’”

Before

Facepunch Studios (the guys behind Rust) unveiled Before in late 2014. The highly stylized RTS(?) stars a bunch of cavemen trying to establish themselves in a hostile world.

Not a whole lot is known about this one, but you can check out the ongoing (and painstakingly slow) development of the game right here.

But, dear god, why all the cavepeople?

Game Informer attributes the popularity of these mechanics to the popularity of Minecraft, saying, “many of these games center around the hunting/gathering mechanics popularized in games like DayZ, Rust, and ARK: Survival Evolved, which in turn were all born out of a genre pioneered by Minecraft. So, it's entirely possible that this current rush of primal titles is thanks, in large part, to Mojang's uber-popular sandbox.”

And that may very well be the case; Minecraft is crazy popular and the gameplay itself is incredibly fun. Yes, building and taming play a part in several of these games, but that isn’t their unifying trait. These games seem to share a desire to examine humanity’s path across history, on the course we have charted since we first crawled down from the trees. 

Some theorize that when our world itself seems on the brink of drastic, potentially cataclysmic change, artists cushion the blow by imagining a world more hospitable than we fear (see: The Flintstones). 

With looming threats of global warming, nuclear armament, and Electronic Arts, it’s only natural to assume that the end is near and developers are projecting their imagination into that possible future.

Honestly, though, it’s probably just because the whole hunter-gatherer thing hasn’t been done a lot lately. There’s a currently under-utilized glee in stalking prey across an open world, having only your wits and the most basic of instruments, knowing that your victory in battle means the difference between life and death. Add to that the ability of the ‘roided up current-gen graphics engines to depict an immersive natural world teeming with life sounds like tons of fun. They aren’t wrong, after all.