Sapiens

Very good game, u should buy

I'm writing this review after 686 hours of playing this early-access game. It is like many other "builder" games, as I call them, but also unique in other ways. It is an open world game, based on a globe, much like Earth. On this world, which you can create using several variables, are many tribes, spread out everywhere. You can navigate around your globe, picking just the right kind of terrain, with the right kind of environment to suit you. Then you look at all the tribes in that area and select one. You will now lead this tribe, and hopefully guide it to prosperity in the future.

When you take over a tribe, it will be up to you to assign tasks to your sapiens, that will allow them to survive and prosper. They will basically start off like cavemen, and will need to be guided through all the technologies, to fully bloom.

The terrain is built on hexagons, each with its own elevation and composition. As you progress into the technology, you will be able to raise or lower each tile by adding or removing some kind of material to or from that tile. This allows you to basically transform the world, as it was generated, into anything that can be imagined. So you can carve out an area on the side of a mountain, and build a home there, or build your own island in a river or lake, and live there. It's up to you. Building materials are everywhere. Just find them, and gather them up.

At this time, Sapiens is only at version .5 something or other, so it is still being developed. The developer has one helper, and development of new content takes time. Bugs are squashed quickly, and new content tested on a separate branch. The Discord forum is very active, and questions get answered quickly by players or the developer. The main branch is very stable and bug free, in my opinion. There is a multiplayer option as well, but there are some issues with it that need to be worked out later. It shows a lot of promise though.

It's a lot of fun for me. I especially enjoy the challenge of starting off new tribes in different types of terrain and different environments. You can, at any time, select another tribe on the same world, or create a new world entirely. It automatically saves everything you do, so you can return to anything you did in the past very quickly. It is super fast starting, creating, and loading. Overall, I give the game a big thumbs up. It is not finished, but has a good platform to grow on, with many new features in the wings. Of the dozens of "builder" games I own, right now, this is my favorite.

I will probably never buy another game from STEAM after this. I purchased it because the youtube videos made it look fun, however, those videos are apparently from the developer and the gameplay is not the same. There were several issues while trying to learn how to play. Alot of the shortcut keys don't work correctly and sometimes the screen goes to random parts on the map making it difficult to find where I'm actually playing. I tried to request a refund but STEAM thinks I played this game for more than 2 hours so they declined my request. Whatever duration i spent whith this game loaded was not "playing", but rather, trying to make sense of what i just paid for.

THIS GAME IS NOT LIKE THE YOUTUBE VIDEOS I saw.

This game seems like it's still in Beta and shouldn't be released as a finished product for sale,
I'm very disappointed in this game, as well as STEAM.
After looking in to this game on STEAM, it appears like the development has been abandoned with no future updates since 2024. I'm writing this in 2025 and I can say, this game is incomplete.

I really like this game, but there are some issues that cause a lot of frustration (well for me ), the game is brilliant when your population is
small but once the population starts to grow there is no stopping it! Within 5 mins i jumped from 35 Sapians to 135 sapiens, i recruited just
once in the beginning and got 1 Sapien more and didn't recruit again after that. now i got over 200 and no matter how much i grow food
supply or cook it they are constantly "very hungry" or dying from starvation, i cannot produce enough. Once i get to a point that food
balances the game seems to think i need more people again and blow me with a feather within 5 mins ive got lots of scrolling :very hungry:
or dying form starvation again. I also believe the rate of growth on the food production is very slow. Even if you have unlocked mulching, to
slightly increase your harvest, you still have to highlight each area tile to mulch each one, which is extremely annoying when you have a high
number of sapiens and you are having to micro manage EVERYTHING! its not just food production its also the hunting again it is so
convoluted that by the time you have a resemblance of a system going you have missed the harvesting of the growing produce. Then ofc
you have the rock issues that system is also very complex in its micro management. Again you spend ages looking for the "small rocks" as
you cant see them very well, that you have once again missed your harvesting and ofc you have the most jolly scroll list of " we are very
hunger" oh " i died from starvation" or i cant go mine that rock i need a pickaxe of which you need the darned rock to make that, or your
trying to find some clay in a quantity that is useful, oh yes i forgot i need a pickaxe for that too, oh wait a minute i need to find rock first ... oh
no not again i missed the harvest and we are all dying again !!

Ok .. despite all that i do really enjoy the game until i hit these issues, usually around 150 sapiens. I love the creation of the buildings and
designing the way a building can look or how you can layout the different aspects of the game, cooking areas, crafting, gardening, making
either a village of small houses or larger community buildings, (although having some larger roofs that fit (not just the thatched one) would
be a help too. I do like to manage the way my game goes but not as micro managing to impossibility. Maybe something like setting routes
and groups up, e.g allocating sapiens to do one particular thing like always going mining or gardening, or even storage because that is a
nightmare as well trying to figure out which storage has what in it if there is not anything in it for you to see! or maybe a popup to say what
is stored there when nothing is occupying it at that time. Maybe for the harvesting a small UI that actually stays on your screen telling you
when a crop is ready for harvest so you don't miss it and have a forever long scroll list saying we are dying !! But if at all possible please do
something about the population, we need something to control it especially as there is no TV in them days they seem to have nothing else
to do! Despite all this i do love the game but feel there is a lot more work needed to iron out some of these issues and i do so hope that it is
being worked on :)

To be honest, not that great. WAY too complex for even the average person. The controls are also kind of janky and awkward. This game was kind of a waste of both time and money. The tutorial is also kind of garbage as well, pretty much leaving it up to the player to find out EVERYTHING by themselves. This game is a steaming hot pile of trash, and a huge waste of $25. >:(
Majic Jungle, PLEASE fix your dumpster fire of a "game", if you can even call it that.

yes it's awesome.

I love this game. The updates just make it better and better.

*****

this is what I call a computer toy and not a computer game. there are challenges and goals aplenty, but I decide my game play. I build the civilisation I want within the game construct

Super addicted to the game, especially since it has the point and click mode. I was not able to play it in FP before due to motion sickness. Now, totally amazing. However, I felt like it is a true grind. some autonomy from the sims will be best. I have to instruct them to do everything or else they die. I would say I am doing well since my population is now at 170 people. However I am still in prehistoric age. would we progress?? not sure. it is hard to find all the resources near you to progress.

I'm leaving a positive review (for now) just to encourage the dev to finish this game that should be awesome after all bugs are fixed. I've tried the game today and still has serious bugs, like my villagers not doing any work (after many days doing work) and don't know why. Tried to cancel all tasks and just giving them to gather berry worked, but gathering sticks did not work to bring them to empty storages. Also cannot report bugs in forum, only the dev posts there.

A colony builder style game with an unique take on the tech tree mechanics. The way you discover new technology is by studying objects required to make it. This can make it quite difficult or easy depending on where you start.

You also control a tribe of primitive sapiens, however don't get attached, their lifespans don't seem too long. The building style is free form which is quite nice to let your creativity run, but also a bit harder to make sure the sapiens will move as you want them to. There is a certain grind to the game, especially when trying to gather enough resources to build bigger structures, although i didnt mind this at all.

Keeping my growing sapiens population's fed seems to be the biggest struggle i keep having, however this is more due to my horrible food management.

I highly recommend this game to people who enjoy colony builders and people who like tribal cultures over the more modern ones.

Just another colony builder but still good

This game, I buy it, I play 4 hour. start. three new games. and I finally found it's no fun. The players you play with, they're acting like child's. They don't wanna do that the task. You give them the ignore you. I don't want even guys develop this game because it's it's really annoying and steam doesn't want to even return the game back like return. Give me the money back. I don't think I'm gonna play this game ever again. It's not for my time to waste.

I've played this game for a while and even hosted a dedicated server in one of my linux servers:

The pros:
- Fun little game to play with friends
- Dedicated server support and Linux Support
- Runs well on steam linux using proton (I only play from my Linux Debian Machine and this game runs well)

The Cons:
I feel like the game falls flat once you unlock everything. There are things that are unnecessarily tedious to unlock, other things just make no sense, like stone tools wearing out so quickly.
Stone will become something hard to come by as you progress and you run out of space to mine if you want to have a decent place to live.

The game does not progress in eras as the time goes on. There should be an ability to build wheeled carts eventually, beds, doors, fortifications. You have no idea what year are you on, what age are you on, your tribe does not seem to evolve at all and that would have been a great thing to do, to have them evolve all the way to classic or medieval era.
Kind of like rise of nations that goes all the way to information age. That would be fun.

At the time of writing this there is no need for protection. Some tribes will come to raid your base for food and you cant do anything about it other than recruiting them, which depending on your situation it might not be good since more people eat more food and need more resources than you have.

To keep it fun there should be a need to protect your village, imho. And to simplify the construction and increase the reliability of tools. a quern stone cant wear out after baking 20 breads it makes no sense.

I think the game has a lot of potential and i'd say its worth it if it's on sale. The dedicated server feature makes it really good to host a game to play with friends and or friends of friends or random people.

Right now it is neither a cozy city builder, nor a colony sim, nor a bronze age simulator. It's something a bit void of form.

I understand its a work in progress and I bought the game while being aware of that. Still there should be a clearer vision of where the dev wants to go with this.

The discord community seems friendly and resourceful, I've noticed the dev interacting often with the audience and this is always a big plus.

My veredict: Recommended.

Absolutely ruined by the changes to the controls - made completely unplayable by moving away from middle mouse button to rotate and the new rotate is awful...

good game gets better each update

I love this game so far, i can't wait for whats to come. I just honestly want more AI and quality of life improvements. I feel as though i have to direct every sapien throughout my whole tribe and once im having 25+ members, it feels overwhelming. Once the sapiens can act on their own accord more (learning the world alongside you) and focus on certain tasks more, this game will flourish

I love this game so much.

I really like the art style, I cannot wait to see where this game goes.

10/10

P.S expect early access jank, for me, it just adds to the charm.

Can't help but be disappointed.

I've first stumbled upon a Sapiens devlog about procedural terrain in 2017. Ever since I've been subscribed and watched every devlog. And then, two years ago, it finally came out into early access.

And I gotta say, the game barely changed from the demo I've tried back then. The controls got better, but it is still incredibly tedious to do anything. Want your sapiens to get some protein? Hope you like manually looking for each animal you want to hunt. Need more branches to keep the fires lit? You guessed it, you gotta find a grove that hasn't been harvested yet manually. Want to make a hatchet? I hope you enjoy manually queuing up an axe head, then hatchet assembly. And don't forget to make sure you have knapping stones ready! Wait, did I say "queue up"? I meant manually wait for the job to finish, then making the next thing. Or you could pave a square mile with crafting stations for each an every product.
So if we go back to our goal of feeding our tribe meat, the full sequence of actions would be
1. Gather rocks
2. Make small rocks
3. Make spear heads
4. Gather flax
5. Make flax twine
6. Assemble spears
7. Find animals to mark for hunting
8. Set up storage for carcasses, raw meat, cooked meat, and hides
9. Set up a butchering workspace
10. Set up a cooking campfire
You gotta repeat the last three points for every type of animal you want to hunt btw, you'll even have to research cooking different meats separately.

The engine is great, the core ideas are great, but the game is practically made out of sharp corners.

And also there's simply not a lot of content at the moment. Only three kinds of animals, very limited number of build pieces.

It's all very fixable, plus the game is pretty easy to mod (although, there's very few mods available at the moment). It's just that, I think, the game is hurt by it's one-man development. All those quirky controls? Probably second nature to Dave, he doesn't even notice. Making content? That's a basic text file plus a 3D model. A second dev could've pumped put dozens of animals and hundreds of build pieces while Dave was working on the backend stuff like multiplayer.

I really want to recommend it now, and will probably gift a couple copies to friends to show my support, but I gotta be honest, don't bother playing it as of January 2025, put it on the wishlist, pick it up whenever it actually releases.

Good bones on a caveman civ / colony builder

Bought this game for multiplayer purposes - discord community is incredibly toxic and offerend no advice. Multiplayer doesn't work. Mega pass.

I hope they you keep updating the game as it has so much future potential, very good so far!

a good game but would be handy if there was some ai to the sapiens like when they need food say the farms you plant trees bushes crops have grown they automatically harvest it and place it into storage not keep needing to be told to.

i dont think the creators are going to finish this game. a few things listed as "coming soon" have been that way for 2 years. the game is fun in its own right but as some are saying, its unfinished

Sad to see performance going down the drain, FPS tanking with latest updates. Was a little gem but too few updates and poor optimization makes it not fun to play, heck if you can even get to playing.

NOT READY TO PLAY i have tried three computers and deleting everything but it will not open and when it does it crashes before it starts the world, its a good game and it worked well last year but somethings wrong with it i wouldn't buy it yet.

I like it

I enjoy the game. Only downside I am finding is it's hard to find the herbs needed for medicine.

The development of this game has progressed very nicely. Originally purchased the game a while back and spent hours in it solo since Multiplayer wasn't discussed yet. Now with the addition of multiplayer servers and regular updates the game has plenty of content to keep you and your friends busy for hours and hours. The developer seems committed from the heart to making this game the best it can be by listening to the community and constantly working on optimizations as well as bug fixes along with adding new mechanics and fine tuning existing mechanics. This is one to play not watch.

TL;DR: At this point very flat and some innovative yet clunky interaction choices. Might be cool in the future.

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This game has a nice concept but at the current point it seems a bit flat and not as I expected it from the store page's description. Especially considering the pictures, I understood it as such that I would develop through humans history from the stone age maybe to the middle ages or something. This might have been my error.

What it actually is, is that you can research/develop new knowledge by interacting with an item, not knowing what it will do. This is a very nice idea! I love it. Yet, apart from agriculture, metal tools and building with different materials, there is nothing that is really happening further. There is no big new technology that will make your live easier. In the end you can thresh wheat, grind grains, bake bread. But only in the very early iterations by hand grinding. There is no new oven or anything; everything -even in the most bustling village- is on the camp fire. You can actually at some point build brick buildings, but there are no new furniture options. The villagers still will sleep on hay mats and craft on the ground.

The implementation of agriculture is one of the biggest problems with this game. While you need to find plants/seeds to be able to plant it (very good!) there is to my knowledge no possibility to "auto-farm". I have to manually check how much wheat I have in store, then select an appropriate amount of wheat plants, then actively assign them to be harvested. Especially regarding the general possibility to "craft to maintain" in most aspects, this seems odd. Same goes for harvesting branches and logs. Check manually when I run low, find trees, select them, assign the task.

Crafting to maintain is actually very straight forward and known from other games like Rimworld or Stranded Alien Dawn. Actually, I prefer how Sapiens implements it. I don't know why, it just seems more intuitive. One big negative point here is though that one crafting station can only be assigned to create one thing. If all of that is created, it stays idle and uses space, until you need another object of it again. You can't have two work orders on one crafting spot. You also can't (to my knowledge) change the amount of something you are already crafting. You have to cancel the order and create it again. Minor grievances, but still.

Looking into houses, which is neccessary a lot due to storage, is also clunky. You can't hide the roof/walls and interact with stuff inside. You have to "walk in" through the door or zoom in through the roof, only then can you interact with what's inside. That gives a very limited field of view though and managing a complex storage or similar is very hard to do this way.

I don't see a point to play more than the currently roughly seven hours, as I think I saw and did everything; including a few restarts. That's a bit low for the 20ish € I paid for it during the sale; I would usually excpect at least one hour of fun for every € spent. This goes for Early Access as well as full release games. Due that and the points mentioned above, at this stage, I don't recommend it. I am very excited though where this journey will lead and will probably come back to it.

If you like city-builder games, this game may be for you. You're a leader of a tribe in the bronze age, and it's your job to issue and prioritize tasks to ensure both survival and happiness. You can build a majestic tribe or be nomads. And you can play with friends (although I haven't tried that yet).

The game has a lot of things to do and resources to get. But my main gripe with it, is that it does not feel like it respects me.
Say if I'm running low on wooden branches, there's no command to get more of those. You have to find the nearest tree, click its thin hitbox, click the tiny "select more" option, change the filter to "Any trees", and then scroll to a maximum radius of 50 meters, then press E or click the Select button, and then click "Gather branches". Since 50m probably only hits 3 trees, which is enough branches to keep one campfire going for a few days at best (assuming no use for tools or buildings), you'll have to repeat these steps many times, and you won't know which trees actually have branches to collect so many of the attempts will be in vain.

Another example: A virus is spreading in your tribe. The game gives you the meta knowledge that virus medicine is required to treat it. And if you've found one of the plants needed and try to investigate it, it'll tell you the name of at least one of the plants that you're missing to discover something new. So, how do you find undiscovered plants? By manually moving the camera close to the ground for several minutes, hoping you don't miss them. I learned that you can turn off the pretty grass that almost looks like the plants you're looking for, so that helps, but seems to go against the nature of what the game is really about. And it's entirely possible that the plant isn't even in the area that your camera is allowed to move in, which would mean you'd have wasted 10 minutes double-checking that the plant isn't there, and then you'd have to manage a nomad escort that ventures far away from your tribe so that you can start looking further with the camera. Again, the way I think about the game is that it should be about issuing tasks and prioritizing them, so I would have there be a scout role that is smart enough to return to their bed before nightfall, unlike normal sapiewns today.

I enjoy the concept of the game, and many of the features. It has decent graphics and atmospheric sound design. There's a lot to love, which is why I cam back to it once a year. But I still wouldn't recommend it - yet. I'm hoping that will eventually change, because I'm excited to play this with friends.

Very promising early-access title, solo dev project

i like it very new gameplay style

This is one of those gems that are still kacing in features but the core is enough to play right now and where the slow and steady development makes it worthwhile to come back every few months to continue an old settlement or start a new one.

Single developer with the care of a passion project. So if you are like me and love this type of game and don't mind the development time it's perfect. If you love this type of game but are more impacient this deserves to be added to your watchlist!

I played for 226 hours and my save game stopped loading out of nowhere. I started a new game and after about 14 hours, my Sapiens can't mine or dig. it is stuck on "Research" so I can't progress any further in the game. No stone, clay, soil or minerals. Super frustrating and I feel like a total waste of time. I wish I wasn't having issues with my game save or these bugs because otherwise I love this game. I just can't recommend playing this game with losing all of my progress and work.

I love it, it's very creative. Having to investigate to learn new things seems more realistic than the usual knowledge tree to unlock new things.

This is a fun little gem, It used to be kinda blah but they polished it pretty nice. I rather enjoy it and i love finding new things to "learn" and It's Co-op now? Heck yea!

Crafting Civilization in the Stone Age

Step back in time and guide a fledgling tribe through the Stone Age in Sapiens, a serene and creative survival sim. Unlike games heavy on combat or chaos, Sapiens emphasizes discovery, community, and ingenuity. While combat and warfare updates are planned, players can still opt for the peaceful, exploration-driven experience that defines the game today.

Gameplay Loop: A Journey of Discovery

The core of Sapiens lies in its harmonious blend of pattern recognition, collective learning, and emergent complexity. Each discovery ripples through your tribe's consciousness - from understanding wild plants to unlocking new technologies—creating layers of shared knowledge and capability. Watching a humble camp evolve into a living, breathing community network is deeply satisfying, especially as new systems like waterway navigation open pathways to unexplored horizons.

Visuals and Atmosphere: A Minimalist Haven

With its clean, earthy aesthetic and tranquil soundtrack of flutes, strings, and drums, Sapiens creates an immersive Stone Age world. Biomes like lush forests and sprawling savannas are visually simple yet teeming with life, offering plenty of space to build and explore.

Freedom and Creativity: A Sandbox to Shape Your World

From fostering connections with animals to designing intricate settlement patterns, Sapiens lets you weave your own vision of early human potential. The building system becomes an intuitive language of its own, while technological advances create branching paths of possibility, making each playthrough a unique exploration of collective consciousness development.

Community and Developer Engagement

The Sapiens community is a supportive and collaborative space, with players sharing creations and tips. Developer Dave’s active presence - listening to feedback and rolling out updates like the canoe system - cements the game's reputation as a passion project driven by its players.

Personal Anecdote: Palisades Gone Wild

In one game, I experimented by using wooden floor pieces as “palisades” around my settlement. The result? Confused sapiens wandering into corners, trapped by their primitive AI pathfinding. It was chaotic, hilarious, and a great reminder of how creativity can sometimes outpace practicality in Sapiens.

Final Thoughts

Sapiens is more than a game - it's a mirror reflecting our own journey of pattern recognition, community development, and consciousness evolution. Its ongoing transformation through both developer vision and community emergence promises ever-deepening layers of discovery.

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Don't buy this game until it's finished. Which will probably be never.

I found it so addicting I kinda had to put it down & walk away. If you're someone who likes to optimize, you can spend a heck of a lot of time doing that in this game.

I don't dislike the game, but the camera following the mouse movement sets off my motion sickness. If first person games make you motion sick, might be best to give this game a pass.

Dawn of man is way better even though its smaller maps. I was hoping this would scratch a larger scale dawn of man type itch but it so does not. This game sucks and looks like it came out with the old original zoo tycoon games. Dont waste your time with this one

fun game good game

its very cute but very boring nothing will be a threat to you beyond the environment other tribes will not attack you and the wild life is no threat but it is enjoying able watching the npcs walk around and live there lifes

Good game

Technically a good game but it get very tedious as sapiens will not do anything for themselves except eat and sleep. Solodev so I expect an excruciatingly slow pace of development. Seems like not many threats and max speed is not really that fast so everything is sloooow.
5/7

Good game, good potential.
Similar to "Banished", but the grind is significantly longer.

I'm a lover of colony sim games. I tried this one out for about an hour and a half and I just couldn't get past some issues I had with it.

First of all, the way storage, crafting, and resource gathering works don't feel great to me. You need to place far too many storage areas and crafting stations because each one can only support one resource or craft at a time,

As far as resource gathering, you need to manually order your tribe to gather everything. There is seemingly no way to automate gathering in an area or anything like that. Even when you plant your own fruit trees/bushes you need to manually order your tribe to harvest them.

The final thing I want to say is the world just looks a bit....bland? I'm not really sure how to describe it, but all the terrain sort of blends together and the objects placed on it (trees, rocks, etc) look a little out of place. I couldn't really find it visually appealing because of this.

There are some neat concepts to the game, like having to investigate every new resource at least once, but again it could do with some sort of way to automate the process. Having to investigate a chicken to learn to hunt, then investigate the carcass to learn to butcher, then investigate the raw meat to learn to cook - its a bit much. I also found that you had to investigate every new meat type as well, even though you'd think that learning that cooking meat once would be enough to know to do it in the future for all new meat.

Maybe I will try it again in a year or so after some more development and polishing has been done, but for now its a pass for me.