By humankind review series#

30 research quarters is not that much if you’re trying to win a science victory… Sometimes they might have bold colours, sometimes they’ll have some other distinguishing feature such as feather plumes, the designs did a good job at making different units look distinct. Units are somewhat stylized as well, and with a few exceptions it’s not particularly hard to tell even similar units apart from each other at a glance. And you will end up seeing these things up close at times, as every time you change era the game will zoom in and show how your cities change to reflect the new era Units and buildings have a low polygon count, which is good for performance, but it does not look so great up close. Zooming in reveals some rough edges though. When things are viewed from a distance, this is an attractive looking game. Colours are often warm, which gives the game an inviting and slightly stylized look. Cities sprawl out over the maps and change the terrain with them, and great wonders act as massive landmarks.

The overland map looks pretty good, with varying terrain that often has a distinct look. Humankind is a decently good looking game, though it’s not up there with the very best of them. The game does not take itself too seriously with its writing Presentation The narrator is used sparingly enough that he does not get annoying, though he could really have used a few more voice clips for when you reach the end of an ideology. There’s also a somewhat sarcastic narrator who will comment on big events, like when you change to a new era or do something else for the first time. Each new piece of technology has a short description for an example, and the writing is overall pretty good with these. The game is not devoid of any kind of writing though, and while the story is one that’s created when playing there are snippets of text here and there. Your civilization might go from a group who values science and progress highly to a warlike people as the world changes around you. This system creates its own weird things, like the Greeks suddenly turning to Aztecs or Khmer, but it does show how a culture changes over time in a way that few other games do. In ancient times you might play as the Babylonians or the Hittites, and as you move into the classical era you can choose to play as say the Achaemenid Persians, the Greeks or the Romans, or you might choose to doggedly stick to your old ways and not evolve with the time. Each era has its own “cultures” as the game calls them, and when you advance to a new era your culture will change. Humankind on the other hand does not let you pick a civilization when you start the game, instead as time passes your civilziation will evolve and change, and as you enter a new time period your civilization will at the same time also change with it.

By humankind review series#

In Sid Meier’s series you start the game by picking a civilization that you’ll lead through the millennia, which creates some wonderfully anachronistic situations, like ancient Babylonians existing together with nearly current day Australians. Humankind makes a few different assumptions than most other civilization building games about what a civilization is though. It is a game where you make your own story, as your civilization expands, clashes with its neighbours and tries to prosper. There’s no pre-written narrative running through the game, no quests that adds story flavour or anything of that nature. The city interface is one that you’ll spend a lot of time with StorytellingĪ game like Humankind is not particularly story focused.