For a long time, Sid Meier’s Civilization reigned as the king of the turn-based, society-building genre. Civilization’s take on 4X strategy games, with its focus on empires, cities, and territorial control, remained the space of a single studio: Firaxis Games. Now other developers have entered the fray, with games like Old World—from Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson—and the $59.99 Humankind from Amplitude Studios. If you squint, the PC game closely mirrors Civilization, but its fresh user interface and mechanics offer greater world-building flexibility and a faster pace.
A Civilization Isn’t One Thing
Like Civilization, Humankind tasks you with driving your empire forward through seven different historical eras: Neolithic, Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Early Modern, Industrial, and Contemporary. Unlike Civilization, Humankind doesn’t limit you to a single civilization, such as American, Aztec, or Japanese. Instead, each era offers 10 key cultures from a region’s real-world history. You pick a new culture as you progress through each era, so your final society is a mix of people and technology.
Each culture has traits that carry forward, as well as a signature district and unit. For example, you can start the game as a Nomadic tribe in the Neolithic era, but later select the Egyptians as your culture in the Ancient era to boost your Industry rank. Alternately, you can select the Celts in the Classical era to receive Food bonuses. This flexibility lets you respond to other civilizations as you play, rather than being trapped within a single playstyle for the entire game. Plus, it more aptly reflects the real world; civilizations aren’t entirely one thing throughout their histories. Evolution is the key in this strategy game.
This Land Is My Land
Establishing a Civilization city meant that you couldn’t create another one within a certain range. Humankind, like Amplitude’s Endless Legend, lets you claim an entire region with an outpost. You can see the dotted outline around each region as you scout the map. Optionally, you can convert that region’s outpost into a city.
City placement is still important, as you can build specialized city improvements (Quarters) that exploit certain tiles. You can only build Quarters next to the city center or other Quarters, so planning is essential. Alternatively, you can stick with outposts. They hold the region and exploit resources, but they’re harder to defend and lack Quarters’ bonuses.
The focus on territorial expansion means larger mid-game swings, especially when it comes to attacking other empires. In Civilization, taking a city means taking the city, but in Humankind, doing so gives you the entire territory’s resources. It’s like taking huge bites out of a rival civilization, because you gain a whole region each time you claim a city or outpost.
That’s Emblematic of the Culture
Overall, Humankind’s pace moves too quickly; it feels like you’re rushing through the eras when playing on the standard difficulty. On one hand, the AI blitzes through its moves, so you need to keep pace. On the other hand, once a culture is integrated into a civilization, it’s off the table for anyone else to use. So if you want to roll with the Norsemen in the Medieval era, you need to claim the culture before the AI does. I understand the need for this; it forces you to be flexible and think nimbly. Still, I’d like a toggle that lets multiple civilizations select the same culture.
The speedy pace also means that certain emblematic units aren’t fully utilized. It’s frustrating when you research the technology to get a desired unit, only to find out you’re in the next era and that unit isn’t as useful anymore.
In addition, the mid-to-late game drags a bit. The territory system means fewer cities, which also means less upkeep. This leads to many turns where you simply scan everything in a few seconds and then hit “End Turn.” I didn’t make interesting decisions in these moments; I just waited for certain items to get built. I’m not entirely sure how to fix this problem, as the tedium of micromanaging multiple, smaller cities isn’t all that great, either.
Can Your PC Run Humankind?
To run Humankind, you need a PC that houses an AMD FX-8300 or Intel i5 (4th generation) CPU, 8GB of RAM, an AMD R9 290 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 GPU, and the Windows 7 operating system. As with many Sega-published games, Humankind will launch with the infamous Denuvo Anti-tamper software.
Humankind ran well in our short time with its demo build, but we’re looking forward to diving deeper into its performance and graphics options closer to the game’s release date.
For All Humanity
Despite its issues, Humankind has lots of potential. Amplitude Studios not only has a strong track record of listening to the community (Humankind has been the subject of a long early access-style OpenDev period), but the company supports its games for a long time. For example, Endless Legend currently has eight expansions, while Endless Space 2 has four expansions and a host of other DLC.
Humankind is just the kind of competition and spin that the genre needs. If you want to take a shot at Humankind, the closed beta is available for everyone who pre-orders the game on Steam or Epic Games Store until June 21. You won’t have to wait long for the official release, as it’s currently scheduled to hit stores on August 17. It’s time to take history into your hands, and crush the competition, without you know…crushing real-world people.
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