The Ancients: a new society | Review

Talking about The Ancients may not be such an easy task, in this material, you will be able to witness that. This happens because the game has many nuances that not all players can understand at first, however, it is very clear after some gameplay time that the real intention of the developers was to invest in key points of gameplay, ignoring other technical details.

This fact is confirmed by the fact that The Ancients was developed by Gorilla Softworks, a company that in its own description claims not to want to produce 'Ordinary Games' but rather those that will be remembered in history. Certainly, The Ancients was a new experience for me, being a turn-based strategy game.

In this context, due to the fact that this class of games has gone through a severe phase of stagnation in the gaming universe and still being the company's first game, this can be a big positive point. Furthermore, the combination with an indie studio, Camlann Games, aligned very well with the intentions.

Going back a bit in history, The Ancients is set in prehistory where hunters and gatherers bravely fight to survive daily, while facing the elements of nature, with an approaching ice age, hunting fierce animals, fleeing predators, migrating between continents and creating their own society, with unique characteristics of technology and culture.

No easy story

Here, the gameplay can make you suffer, especially if you are not used to handling your actions per turn. Living in this era was terribly difficult, in the campaign provided by The Ancients, this thought is strictly followed, SURVIVING IS HARD.

If not used intelligently, it can end up frustrating and irritating less enthusiastic and brave players. For me, it worked as a kind of mini addiction, and therefore, I have a strong recommendation: do the tutorial. There is currently a certain prejudice against tutorials in the gaming community, especially from older players wanting to learn everything on their own, but there is no need to suffer, the game will indeed offer some mechanics that are more complicated to understand at first, so going through this part is not a reason to be ashamed, but a great time saver.

Following the campaign

The exploration of the land begins here, we leave a cave to migrate across continents and discover fierce and completely historical species. This is still added with other important points, such as climate change, in the cold, we need shelter, in the heat, food spoils faster. Taking care of a group of people is not easy, some of your members will die, it is normal, and sometimes you will find yourself managing, at the same time, two different tribes.

This, in fact, is one of the most complicated mechanics to control, it happens because each member of the group has unique characteristics, some are better at hunting, others at gathering, crafting, cooking, and others. It can happen, for example, that you seek shelter in a cave in the cold and come across a predator that will eliminate half of your group... Including that good gatherer that you so needed.

So, managing members is not easy in such a inhospitable world. I say world, not location, because another sensational way to see the game is with the constant migrations, following the campaign missions, we will pass through various locations, building our society little by little.

The culture

Talking about culture is never simple, much less building one. The Ancients has a skill tree in which the player chooses the characteristics of their tribe in exchange for attributes. Learning to speak, for example, offers an extra action per turn, which is very useful, but if that point were given in a skill to create better weapons, wouldn't it be better?

These and others will be frequent questions that every player will go through, in fact it is interesting to follow a balanced line, but it is common to want to create a society in your image, religion, leadership style, and others, following the individual characteristics of the player and seeing how these attributes will survive prehistory.

I mean, crafting is one of the main mechanics of the game, of course no one wants to be left behind, but cooking to bring more food, contributing to a larger population... Such mechanisms were very well placed by the developers and I haven't even mentioned all of them, this mix, in my opinion, was the peak of The Ancients experience.

An indie game

It is no secret and certainly not a negative point to be an indie game, personally, I love to be surprised by this style of gameplay, however, to analyze technical issues coldly, such as the audiovisual feedback given by the company in the same way that one evaluates games from established franchises in the market is acting in bad faith.

Therefore, considering the graphics of The Ancients, it is clear that not much effort was put into conveying visual beauty, in terms of art, landscape, character reproduction, and especially the lack of dynamism in actions (what we will see in motion here is only men and animals walking during turns). The same, however, does not happen with the sound production, as the game conveys a pretty decent soundtrack, with ambient and tense sounds during gameplay, which this turn-based style of game demands, in addition to animal noises and others.

I mean, it seems very harsh to criticize like this especially related to the graphics, but to be honest, when playing, despite this deficiency, it is noticeable that the developers' main concern was achieved, a smooth gameplay that interests and encourages the player to continue and explore all the nuances offered.

The Ancients was released on June 5, 2024, and is available for Microsoft Windows.

We thank the team of Gorilla Softworks and Camlann Games for providing the key for The Ancients and enabling the creation of this content.