The number and range of games that could be considered strategy games is absolutely mind boggling and they cover a wide range of genres. They span from simple like Tetris that you played on an old Nokia phone to sprawling games like the Total War franchise that let you conquer the world and just about everything in between. Many of the most popular strategy games involve conquering the world and commanding huge armies that we can barely even imagine beyond numbers on a screen. Ancestors Legacy, by developer Destructive Creations and publisher 1C Entertainment, takes some of the concepts from those sprawling strategy games and distills them down to something unique that undoubtedly brings the conflict of the middle ages to the Xbox One.
The time period of the game spans from the 8th to the 13th century AD with a high degree of historical accuracy. The single player campaign starts with a military campaign through Britain where you are pillaging as the Vikings, but you eventually progress to leading German knights into battle during the dark ages. The 4 playable nations are the Anglo-Saxons, the Slavs, the Germans, and my personal favorite – the Vikings. Each of the nations feature unique soldier classes, buildings, and technology, which requires you to learn different attack strategies to be successful with your chosen faction. In addition to the differences in the stats and how you use the nations, a tremendous amount of attention was paid to making sure each nation felt unique in how they looked and in the dialogue of the leaders in the game. If there was an area to expand Ancestors Legacy, I would love to see more nations added. Ancestors Legacy did such a great job distinguishing the battle tactics, look, and feel of the nations they featured in this game that I would love to see what they did with other iconic warring nations.
Ancestors Legacy operates through squad-based combat where you command both individual characters with heightened skills and squads of warriors with different specialties. This serves as the core of the game’s fighting mechanics and the strategies you adopt to make it through the campaign and conquer your enemies in multiplayer. Like all war-based strategy games, there are the core actions like attacking, retreating, scavenging for supplies, and making camps but there are a number of unique components to this gameplay. My favorite was the execution of “covert” operations during the campaign where you would lead a small group of squads to gather supplies or free your captured allies. Usually games like this focus only on conquering nations, but the added challenge of these smaller missions really set Ancestors Legacy apart from its peers.
The biggest issue I had was that you are unable to move multiple units at once with a single command. I had to select my units one by one to order the retreat to my nearest camp to replenish my army, and this led to some serious losses at times for my units and quite a bit of frustration. This issue also invaded the controls for attacking the enemy. I would send units to attack enemy teams or structures, but I couldn’t assign multiple units to attack with the same command. Also, the tutorial at the beginning of the game missed the mark on explaining the attribute system and how it can help you in battle. Ancestors Legacy has a robust system of attributes that show the strengths and weaknesses of different classes of soldiers, but the tutorial doesn’t do a very good job of showing just how much of an advantage it can be for the player.
Overall, Ancestors Legacy was an interesting game that is just a few minor tweaks away from being really good. With a host of interesting characters and environments that put some emotional drive behind the battle mechanics along with high degree of historical accuracy that really immerses you in the strategy of battle. Despite some of the frustrations I had with the mechanics of the game, it was a fun play through that really challenged my ability to be strategic.
7.5/10
Check Out the Ancestors Legacy Trailer:
Ancestors Legacy will release for Xbox One on August 13, 2020. The game is already available for PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.
For more information, please visit: https://destructivecreations.pl/ancestors-legacy/
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Xbox One Review
My first console was the original Playstation and I would play Twisted Metal every now and then but games didn't hook me until I played the original Halo at my friend's house. As soon as I picked up that controller, I knew I needed an Xbox and I had to have that game. Since those early Halo days, I've branched out and played any game I could find with a great story and memorable characters but Master Chief is still my favorite. @thenotoriousTGT on Twitter
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