Humankind review - a complex, but perhaps the most accessible 4X strategy game

HUMANKIND is a new global historical strategy. To be honest, if you are even a little into the historical strategy genre, this statement will be enough to put off reading the review and go shopping.

If you're still here, let me tell you a little more about the game. HUMANKIND is the latest game from Amplitude, best known for its Endless series (Endless Space, Endless Dungeon, etc.), spanning multiple genres but generally focused on a strategic approach. The difference is that many previous games had a fantasy element, but Humankind has taken a more realistic approach that can be compared to the same Civilization 6.

And it's not just about the setting. Currently, most strategies have a similar gameplay pattern of population building, research, and learning how to interact with others, but HUMANKIND looks to be more detailed than Civ 6, while the developers somehow manage to make the game more accessible.

Everything depends on you

At first, a small tribe of people passes under your control. The first task is to move around the world, explore the landscapes, collect food and curiosities, increase the population so that you can distribute tasks among the population, and then go on a unique journey. With all this, you will be able to conduct faster research and, most importantly, ultimately create a suitable living environment for everyone.

At this stage, Humankind takes on its true form - the desire for development. In any case, this will be a common, overarching goal for each player, but it is not so easy to achieve it. While your main goal is to move on to the next age and keep moving forward, the ways to accomplish it are varied, and there are many random events that you can encounter along the way.

Along with choosing which civilization you will lead, you will also have to manage how you interact with your people. It will be necessary to make a decision what to do if fights become more frequent, and someone begins to collect mushrooms and hide their knowledge from the tribe. You will also need to decide which technologies to explore and how to expand, keeping in mind that every decision has consequences, positive and negative, short-term and long-term.

Everything is much more affordable than you think.

You need to set the direction of development, choose what kind of civilization you would like to become, whether you should be at war with your neighbors or want to maintain trade relations with them. The game is really massive, but one of the most important elements of HUMANKIND is an exceptional learning system. When you first load the game, you will be asked about the level of knowledge of the genre, and I ask everyone, regardless of your real experience, to read the tutorial. They really hold you by the hand to talk about all the main and additional aspects.

There are other additional little things that simplify the gameplay. For example, by clicking on the "End Turn" button, the game will definitely tell you that there are units that can be moved, diplomatic actions that need to be performed, or some special event that requires close attention. HUMANKIND seems to understand that it's not an easy game, and that the 4X strategy genre is quite difficult to understand, so it's doing its best to be much more accessible. And these efforts are working 100%. Also, if you're playing as a civilization that doesn't suit you, you can change it when you move to the next era.

Conclusion

HUMANKIND is as deep as you could want from a 4X strategy game, but the constant expansion of aspects and game elements is never overwhelming as the game explains everything in the most accessible way for every gamer, not without a bit of good humor. A great strategy, and if you are not familiar with the 4X genre, then now is probably the best chance to join it.

• Author : Nikita Fedorov