Humankind Critic Reviews

Humankind may not have invented hot water, but it is sufficiently different from Civilization. And that results in a rock-solid game, not least because of its scale. In the game, you lead your people through the different eras of our civilization. At six different times you are presented with ten cultures that you can take over from then on. In addition, the characteristics of your previous choices are preserved, resulting in a unique melting pot of influences from a million (!) possible combinations. Each game is different, and you will spend many hours exploring only a fraction of the possibilities. That replayability alone makes Humankind more than worth its money.

Humankind is nothing short of incredible. It has truly set a new bar for 4X games, and Firaxis is going to have its work cut out for it to make Civilization 7 visible beside the bright shining star that is Humankind.

HUMANKIND is as deep as you could possibly want from a 4X strategy game, but the constant addition of new things to think about never feels overwhelming because everything's explained so well, and often with a good bit of humour too. It's an excellent game, and if you've never delved into the 4X genre before, this might be your best chance to do so.

Humankind is the best 4X game I've played in a long time, only improving on everything that's come before it.

HUMANKIND is a true masterpiece and the best 4X of the decade. The game has brilliant gameplay mechanics and offers us an experience of great depth, with some incredible art style. May its reign be long.

Humankind is a Civilization for those who want to try something different in the 4X genre, without giving up a certain vision.

Humankind, in short, raises the quality standards of 4X games, placing itself as the perfect "rival" of Civilization. This net of some gleanings that could be filed through future updates and secure expansions. If you are a lover of this genre, you can't really skip the appointment with the work of Amplitude. The future, full support for mods and the world editor will contribute to enrich the title seamlessly.

Embracing player motivations from start to finish, Humankind refreshes the 4X genre – even with a couple of technical kinks.

A 4X game like no other. Unique and innovative, full with interesting mechanics - and some weird ones. Humankind has some clear flaws, indeed, but kudos to Amplitude for pushing the genre forward.

Put simply, Humankind took everything that Civilization 6 got wrong, fixed it, added some new ideas to the genre, and ended up producing the best 4X game I've played since Civilization 5 way back in 2011 — which, according to Steam, is the ninth-most-played game in my entire library at over 400 hours. This is the new standard for 4X historical games. It is an absolute must-play for fans of the genre and has finally knocked Firaxis off its throne as the king of the hill.

Humankind is a solid strategy game, which doesn’t change the underlying formula of building and management games. The visuals are pretty and the systems deep enough to sink some time into it. Where it shines is the possibilities to design your own culture, society and religion - with all the implications this has for diplomacy, trade and war. Genre fans should have a look at this interpretation, but if you don’t like these kind of games, there won’t be anything for you here regardless.

I can easily see myself spending hundreds of hours playing Humankind but not before it gets at least a round of updates to deal with crashes and some performance issues. The core of the 4X gameplay is easy to understand but hard to master, with a very big possibility space. The main selling point, moving through civilizations as history progresses, creates plenty of potential for cool stories, overpowered empires, and surprising twists. But the overall experience sometimes feels like less than the sum of its parts. Amplitude has such a reputation for creating unique civilizations and mechanics that I expected more.

Humankind features some revolutionary mechanics, but fails to use their potential to the fullest. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the game is simply very enjoyable and Sid Meier’s Civilization now has a major rival.

If you have ever enjoyed Civilization, I can confidently say that Humankind is going to be right up your alley, bringing enough differences to step out of the shadow of its inspiration and stand on its own as a must buy strategy title.

There are some cracks in the shiny veneer, for sure, but on the whole Humankind is a great experience with almost endless replayability.

Humankind was an opportunity to do things differently in the 4X genre. As it is, it has some fantastic ideas – city changes, the cultures and the narrative elements all impress – but it falls into the same problem as each of its competitors. The end is too stodgy and too much busywork to make finishing a game worthwhile. Still, until that point you’ll have a blast.

The most direct challenger to Civilization yet is full of brilliant ideas which could yet change the genre, although bugs and underdeveloped features occasionally get in the way of the fun.

Humankind offers a fresh formula to the genre by taking the best of Civilization and Endless Legends, before adding its own personal touch. Technically, the game is robust, with nice graphics and music, and above all, it has the advantage of being relatively accessible to new players with its tutorials, its clear and accessible mechanics, as well as a limited micromanagement requirement. It should also appeal to veterans of the genre looking for a more tactical management of conflicts. With a bit of content and some additional polish, it has great potential in the long run.

Quotation forthcoming.

Like actual Humankind, the game, Humankind is an ambitious, large, complex and sometimes difficult to understand experience that gets better with time and only expands the possibilities of what comes next.