Finally a Civ killer hits the market. Amplitude has been refining their 4x games since 2012, grabbing things from others in the genre as well as trying new things to shake up the boring or too RNG focused aspects of these games.
Let's start with the biggest gripe that complete and utter morons have about this game: changing cultures. If you want to play the Americans from the Bronze Age through the Space Age, well just
off back Civ and stop reading. This is the big differentiator between Humankind and Civ. The cultures available are based on when they existed in history, and as you move through the game you'll change cultures. You're not stuck with future cultures based on your starting culture, so say if you pick a culture that originated in ancient China, you don't have to pick regional cultures as you advance. Pick whatever the
you want, Anicent Babylon to Aztecs to the Soviet Union? Go for it. Oh, and instead of having 1 boring ass unit and 1 boring ass building per civ like in Civilization, in HK each culture has its own building and its own unit, plus it has an overarching mechanic tied to science, industry, culture, etc.This allows you to tailor your empire to changing needs, or be ultra focused on one aspect if you want.
The next big change is how war works. You know how in Civ if you were the first to certain key techs like Axemen, Cavalry or Tanks that it was an automatic win? You could just pay to upgrade your whole army, bum rush a neighbor and double the size of your empire. HK now has war support, which has
all to do with how big your army is, and everything to do with how eager your population is for war. The more effective your army combined with war support back homes means wars last longer and you get to keep more territory. Take a lot of territory, but have zero war support? Your people wont want you expanding the empire endlessly. Its a method of keeping warmongering from being the most effective way to win, while still allowing you win via war over time.
Another big change is the early game. In Civ you basically regenerate your map til you get a decent starting location cause if you dont plop down your first city on Turn 1 you're
ed. HK tosses that nonsense out and gives you a scout and lets you loose. Hunt animals, discover landmarks and food sources. The early game is about exploring the region to find that ideal starting point for the initial culture you pick. And its a bit of a gamble, do you stay in this exploratory phase a little extra to gather more, risking that another player picks your preferred culture? There is still an RNG aspect, but its greatly blunted compared to Civ.
Stacks of doom from Civ4 died with Civ 5/6 to be replaced with the
ing horrible One Unit Per Tile. That idiocy gets tossed aside in HK. Instead you have armies similar to what Age of Wonders and Endless Legend utilized. Army size is limited by tech, and combat can be automated or you can fight it out in a tactical battle that takes place on the world map. No more playing the One Unit Per Tile shuffle and trying to get units to the right spot, the tactical combat is a happy medium away from the stacks of doom. Oh, and the unique units, aren't just vanilla unit +1 str and other nonsense from Civ. The special units in HK generally have unique combat mechanics, making them situationally more powerful and requiring additional consideration in tactical combat.
Graphics have great attention to detail, for example a unique building that has trees around it, will have terrain appropriate trees depending on where it is placed. Evergreens in the tundra, palms in the desert. Zooming in and exploring the map as you move through the ages provides a real treat. The music is top notch and themed both on the era and your culture. Starting a new game provides tons of gameplay and map creation options with devs stating even more in development. Modding tools have already been released to the community, and more powerful modding tools forthcoming. The devs have been quick to patch the game since release and refine the balance of the cultures and game mechanics. And given how long Endless Legend has been supported and how much as been added since release, I feel that trend will continue with Humankind. The in-game encyclopedia and tutorial system help a ton in learning the new mechanics, and since its tied into the game, no need to alt-tab out.
Humankind is up on Gamepass and worth a play even for the casual Civ fan just to see what creativity other studios bring to the genre.If you're a big Civ fan and looking for something that really shakes things up, Humankind is a strong buy recommendation from me.
