The Ancients

Developer: Gorilla Softworks

Publisher: Camlann Games

Release: June 5th, 2024

Playtime as of writing: 6.2 hours (Code provided)

The Ancients is a turn based survival strategy game that is out in early access and is currently version 0.9.11b. Why do I bring up the version number and that it is in early access? Because it shows.

You play as a clan of Ancient people just trying to survive and climb the societal and technological ladders. Learning grants you research points that can be used in one of three upgrade tracks: Crafting, Survival, and Society. On paper this seems like it would add variety to your play style but all the paths feed in to each other so upgrading one will involve upgrading them all. The game plays on a grid with you getting 2 actions per turn which can be increased to 3 early on in the society tree and 4 way later in the society tree. Each turn counts as a day, and as enough days end the seasons will change. You can also increase the number of tribes in your clan with each tribe getting their own action points. Using research points on the crafting tree unlocks crafting recipes so you can use gathered materials to craft weapons and tools while sitting around a camp fire.

After increasing your society you can be approached by other clans and you can choose to have a positive or negative interaction with them. On a positive interaction you can have them join you, trade supplies, or just talk. Talking nets you research points to further climb the upgrade trees. Possibly a glitch in the game but if you just talk to the other clan you’ll get approached by other clans (or maybe just the same one?) more often than if you accepted them into your tribe getting you more research points.

The visuals of the game are rather bare bones, which I will chalk that up to it still being in early access. All the animals have separate models so it’s nice to see a difference and not just some place holder herbivore and carnivore. All the people of a gender share the same character model with the only difference really being a strap of cloth around the chest.

The main campaign follows your clan as they seek revenge on a Sabre-Tooth Tiger. I don’t know what the rest of the game involves because whenever I killed a Sabre-Tooth Tiger my game would crash. It doesn’t even have to be the main quest tiger, I got spears and killed a random one early and my game crashed.

There is a culture menu that allows you to see your tribe policies and what kind of leader you are but that comes into play after the tiger so I never got a chance to see what it’s about.

At the current state of the game, it is not worth the price. Save’s do not work, there’s no diversity in play style, and at least for me I couldn’t progress the main quest because doing it caused the game to crash. I will revisit the game after the full release of 1.0 but until then I can’t recommend it. I don’t like being down on a game. I started doing reviews because I enjoy writing about the things I love but if I only write about the games I love then it is no longer a review and it’s just PR.

Anthony

Anthony spends most of his time thinking about games. When not playing games, writing about games, or thinking about games he can be found hunting pokemon in the wilds of downtown Clermont.If you like the words I write, maybe consider supporting me on Patreon?