Name: Ancestors Legacy
Developer: Destructive Games
Publisher: 1C Company
Released: 22.05.2018
Platforms: PC, Xbox One (Q1 2019)
Reviewed on: PC
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided from publisher for review purpose
Ancestors Legacy deliver a historically correct real-time strategy game inspired by historical events set in the Middle Ages. I’ve always had a love for RTS games for many years, from Starcraft, Command & Conquer, Company of Heroes and Age of Empires. So the main question will be will Ancestors Legacy live up to the expectations I have when it comes to this genre, and if they have improved the various little things I picked up at the first impression.
Story
The campaign we will experience here are spread over smaller stories from the different nations available in the game. Not only do we experience something that is very historically correct or historically inspired, as we can say, but we also get some insight into both strong and weak sides of all nations.
Although the stories are very similar to the real story, I don’t really want to explain anything more about what the stories are about in Ancestors Legacy, yes, the quests may seem a bit short at times, but there were many of them. Destructive Games takes a small story in a good way and should be experienced, especially for those who are interested in this era. Now, the story is performed well during gameplay, but I would think the story could have been much better if the cinematics had been done differently than still images. Personally, I think the artwork was fun, but boring and easy to convey a story. One thing they surely have, dry humor. There are a bunch of bad dad jokes in the game, and who doesn’t love bad dad jokes?
7/10
Graphics
There are some things I’m wondering about the choices Destructive Games has chosen to do when it comes to the game itself. Now it’s going being said what I’ve reacted to are minor issues, things like fences breaks as soon as you just walk near those with a troop, civilians run right into my “killzone” or flames. And I can also say that character design might not be something they have prioritized, but still good enough to be an RTS game. On the other hand, what’s very good is all the other visual you can see, buildings, scenery and a very detailed lighting with a good use of day/night cycle. I must also mention the soundtrack and the music of Ancestors Legacy are very well composed. The sound effects are good, the music is catchy and heroic that fits the era very well. In summary, Ancestors Legacy is a visually beautiful game to look at, and that you can get a little adrenaline kick of the music and sound effects.
9/10
Gameplay
Now we have come to that bit, which I think is the most important piece of a videogame, gameplay. In my first impression, I mentioned two things that I didn’t like so very well, and that was the lack of a tutorial/tooltips and camera position. I can now confirm after countless many hours in the game say that tutorial/tooltips are in place (should also be said that about the entire campaign is a huge tutorial), the other problem I had regarding camera position is not much changed. I still feel I’m too close to the ground to have a full overview of my troops, but as I got used to it, this wasn’t a big problem.
Just to keep up with what I think is a bit negative is matchmaking, matchmaking in general and the waiting time for a match. Now this is very early stages in Ancestors Legacy servers to play online, but at worst I had to wait 20 minutes on a match (4v4 match, waited max 15 min on 2v2 match, 1v1 match took me max 7 min) . And very often, I met people 10 times as higher level as me, so won’t to say that the teams are well balanced right yet.
But enough about the bad let’s now focus on what I think is very good in this RTS game.
Not only that I enjoyed the good performance of the story in the gameplay and all the bad dad jokes, I also enjoyed many little details and little things you can do with the troops. For example, to hide in high grass for the enemy to not see you, choose if you want to use torches in the evening to improve your vision or do not use it to reduce the chance of being seen. There are many small choices you can choose, and much of this affects the strategy you go out with when you’re going to battle. Now it’s very important to remember this is not an ordinary RTS game that many people are familiar with, so there is much more focus on squad tactics and not base construction, and no it does not help just rushing with the troops. Here you have to think about which angle to attack, attack from a high grass, or wait until it gets dark to sneak into the base. Resources are something to think about, because the resources can go empty and food must be kept to keep morale up. If you lose morale, you will see your troops do not fully work to do what you are asking for. But another cool feature that I like to call the “cinematics button” is that you can zoom in on a squad and watch the games as if it were a movie, this is something I thought was very cool.
As long as you know what you’re looking for and do not expect a completely standard RTS game, I’d definitely recommend Ancestors Legacy, of course I will recommend this to others too, but don’t think this will fall into taste for everyone. I who love the RTS genre love this game. And best of all, something that not exactly the developers can anticipate or do so very much about is the community itself, the community is friendly and I have not met people who get quickly annoyed and hanging people right yet.
9/10
Controls
The controls here are very standard and familiar to those who play many RTS games or PC in general. Of course, it’s a bit messy “hotkeys” setup at first, but this is something you can change. Aside from the fact that the camera’s position is too close, I do not have much more to say about this.
9/10
Replay Value
There isn’t much replay value in the actual campaign, but I would say most will return to play more online against or with other players. An average match takes about 20 minutes, so the thinking is very often; “Just one more match before bedtime.”
8/10
You can check out our review policy right here, if you wonder how we set our scores.
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Story 7
7/10
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Graphics 9
9/10
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Gameplay 9
9/10
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Controls 9
9/10
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Replay Value 8
8/10
Verdict
Ancestors Legacy embodied much of my expectations when it comes to the RTS genre, much of what I responded to during the first impression has either been changed or fixed. I want to believe that many people will be able to spend up to tens of hours in this game for those who like this genre, even at the time of writing, I have 40 hours invested so far into this game. Highly recommended, especially for those who like the genre and this type of era.
Overall
8.4/10
User Review
( votes)Pros
- Small gameplay features
(such as stealth, and torches) - Music/Soundtrack
- Friendly community
- Addictive tactics/gameplay
- Environmental graphics
Cons
- Camera position to close to “ground”
- Need more balanced teams
in multiplayer - Matchmaking
(regular launch issues)
