User Summary
"100 000 years ago, the sun rises". Sapiens puts the player in control of a young hunter from the "Pieds Agiles" (Swift Feet) tribe. The first mission, as given by the leader Hognor is to feed the hungry tribe. Armed with a flint axe and a pair of javelins, the player sets off to the wilderness...
Sapiens is a simulation game with a few roleplaying and trading elements. The player explores the wilderness (using one of the two display modes, a scrolling side view, a 3d view or a map) and interacts with the environment, collecting useful items along the way. The game tracks the physical condition of the character, so an important element of the game is learning how to survive, for example by learning what plants are edible, how to find water and how to avoid dangerous hunting grounds. The player has a lot of actions available, including drinking, sleeping, treating injuries, making weapons with flint stones (the game includes a "carving" minigame), hunt, fight (another minigame)...
As advertised on the cover, there are more than three million different locations to visit. The game features wildlife (rabbits, wolves, bears...) and other tribes, some of them hostile and some of them open to trading. The ultimate goal of the player is to complete the five missions given to him by Hognor, and how the player approaches each mission is completely open.
The game was developed by Didier and Olivier Guillion, the music was composed by Gilles Soulet.