HUMANKIND Review

On the surface level, HUMANKIND is a civilisation/city management game without Sid Meier’s name plastered on the front — like he’s single-handedly programming Civilization VII. Beginning the game in the Neolithic Era, you compete with AI (or friends) to be the most significant nation, winning via domination, wealth, science, or culture; this only changes around to avoid getting sued. However, the special modes are non-existent, replaced with a single "Blitz" (75 turns) game, The Hundred Years War, where you compete against the English to have the most fame by the end.

Instead of playing as a nation (with permanent buffs) and their historical leaders, HUMANKIND focuses on human development through six eras: Neolithic, Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Early Modern, Industrial, and Contemporary.  In each stage, you choose from a range of cultures throughout history that have their own buffs, special construction, and troop personnel. For example, you begin the Ancient Era as the Assyrians to capitalise on their military buff, then end the game in the Contemporary as the Australians to be the coolest empire on the map. And instead of historical leaders, you face figures of pop culture like Edgar Allen Poe and Gilgamesh. You, on the other hand, create a personal avatar that will change clothing with each selected culture.

But deep down in the creases between the hexagonal tiles, HUMANKIND is the best videogame to play for people wanting to get a handle on the genre as (from personal experience) it can be a little hard to play for newcomers. Setting up a game, you can choose how many AI/players are on the map, ranging in their personal difficulty level (which don’t really matter), the size of the map, what era to start on, and how long you want the game to last. If you want to get meticulous, curate your perfect world using advanced settings that specifically target various aspects that will make your gameplay calm or chaotic.

Most players will get a hang of the gameplay as it doesn’t stray too far from the generic formula. Build settlements, expand them with constructible districts, meet fellow nations that will be either friends or foes throughout the game, strategically set your attention on the type of winning goal you wish to accomplish, and reap the rewards of another first-place win. After a few games, I began to get bored of dominating the competition, even when I was playing against the highest-level AI. Ironically, they were the first to become the vassals of me and the lower levels.

There is a unique quality to the game, whether it’s its charm or that I was happy to finally play it on Xbox, up against being called a carbon copy. Only from listening to the soundtrack, art style, and smooth voice-over that plays when you do something important, a layman wouldn’t be able to tell HUMANKIND apart from Civilization VI. And from the number of times I’ve seen the latter on sale (and the former wasn’t on Xbox Game Pass), the amount of content you get would dissuade people from playing HUMANKIND.

So, what’s the point of playing it if it doesn’t bring anything to the table? Is there anything to set it apart from its obvious contender? Well, that’s not the point of playing the game in the first place. The camera and selector (for lack of better words) sometimes loses control when entering the next turns, you cannot click on pop-ups when you’re controlling troop movement, and it gets too easy after learning exploits that destroy balance. Besides those issues, it’s still an enjoyable game. And to just compare HUMANKIND against Civilization (no matter how much it borrows) is almost unfair for any game developer (Amplitude Studios) or publisher (SEGA) to even attempt to enter the market.

HUMANKIND is worth playing. It just happens not to be worth playing for hours and hours due to the lack of new material, even if you play online with friends. Therefore, to properly experience the title as its own civilisation/city management videogame is to take it as it is and not compare it to other games — like I’ve just done. After all, there have been several Civilization games throughout history, but there has only ever been one HUMANKIND.