Humankind - a New Take on Civilization

[atomheartbevo 89625]

 

Kotaku actually has a half-decent review.   I really want to play it, but damn I do not need a time sink right now.

https://kotaku.com/humankind-the-kotaku-review-1847491705

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Where to even begin with a game that encompasses thousands of years of human history? May as well start at the start, when Humankind puts you in control of a handful of wandering Neolithic tribespeople, and gently asks that you find somewhere nice for them to live. It then suggests that you will probably want to get them to settle down and start the process of turning them into the first folks to send a mission to the surface of Mars.

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Where every other game like this would ask you to pick a single faction and stick with it to the end of the game, Humankind has a trick: it lets you play as multiple factions as you go. Recognising that peoples and cultures change over time, you can begin the game as the Romans, but in later ages move onto the Venetians and then the Italians, and every time you’ll have a different focus and different perks and bonuses available to you. I’m just using the chain of Italians as an example of the continuity available here; you can pick from any of the available factions when you progress, leaping from Asia to Africa to Europe as you go.

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This has cosmetic consequences, in that your avatar—Humankind lets you build your own ruler instead of using a stock leader—will wear a new outfit every time you change, and your city’s buildings will morph to reflect your cultural shift. But it also has real gameplay benefits, in that Humankind isn’t locking you into a single approach for your entire game. Rather than picking one particular side and being stuck with their tactics and perks all game, this culture-swapping lets you adapt your strategies on the fly, reacting to how the world and its resources and your place among them has developed.

 

 

[Dr Fear 1268]

FYI, this is on Xbox Gamepass Ultimate

[Radical Larry 28540]

1 minute ago, Dr Fear said:

FYI, this is on Xbox Gamepass Ultimate

I did not need to know this. 

[atomheartbevo 89625]

15 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

I did not need to know this. 

As long as it doesn't go on sale on the PC side, I'm safe. I can tell myself I'll just wait a while, there'll be some updates that fix or change something I didn't even know about, and it'll eventually go on sale, and then I'll grab it.  Hopefully not until December.

[MillerEP 30447]

I'm a HUUUUUGE Civilization fan, and so far I am enjoying Humankind. It borrows some of the same mechanics but adds a few other things from 4x sims. It helps to think of this as a "story" of your civ instead of being tied to a particular win strategy or civ.

[SimonBolivar 10957]

I'd recommend watching Shenryyr on Twitch for a great play though. He's also the best streamer on Twitch anyway.

 

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1125088254

Edited August 22, 2021 by SimonBolivar

[MillerEP 30447]

I'll also plug my buddy. He's been doing max difficulty runs already:

https://www.youtube.com/c/PotatoMcWhiskey/videos

 

[Fastbreak 3980]

On 8/21/2021 at 11:29 AM, Dr Fear said:

FYI, this is on Xbox Gamepass Ultimate

I was seriously just going to Steam to buy it.  I'm very glad I saw this ;).  I think I owe you a beer.

[staboner 4969]

On 8/22/2021 at 9:32 AM, MillerEP said:

I'll also plug my buddy. He's been doing max difficulty runs already:

https://www.youtube.com/c/PotatoMcWhiskey/videos

 

yeah potato does good stuff. you know the duder or just mean you following on YT?

big CIV fan here for some time. Have been at HK for some months on betas and now in the real. Fun game. Very layered and of course very new and unbalanced. I understand its a bit "if you built it they will come" in terms of the various mechanics for now. 

Saying that it does feel a bit hollow to me so far. Very easy to survive and thrive and the scale via the various cultural buffs. the early game is however pretty challenging and many of the AI guys can snowball then too. 

fun game. lots of great stuff

[MillerEP 30447]

48 minutes ago, staboner said:

yeah potato does good stuff. you know the duder or just mean you following on YT?

big CIV fan here for some time. Have been at HK for some months on betas and now in the real. Fun game. Very layered and of course very new and unbalanced. I understand its a bit "if you built it they will come" in terms of the various mechanics for now. 

Saying that it does feel a bit hollow to me so far. Very easy to survive and thrive and the scale via the various cultural buffs. the early game is however pretty challenging and many of the AI guys can snowball then too. 

fun game. lots of great stuff

I know him. We've been gaming together for almost 15 years.

[staboner 4969]

how we doing on this @atomheartbevo @MillerEP @Dr Fear

i enjoy it but its obviously unbalancd. at a top level i also feel like it just doesn't have a soul. the players/ai seem to distant to me and not really liike people I am playing against. but i do think recent changes to the UI have made this a bit better.

As per usual the first half of the game is more fun than the mid/late game. 

big update coming early Nov

[Dr Fear 1268]

how we doing on this [mention=143]atomheartbevo[/mention] [mention=390]MillerEP[/mention] [mention=1717]Dr Fear[/mention]
i enjoy it but its obviously unbalancd. at a top level i also feel like it just doesn't have a soul. the players/ai seem to distant to me and not really liike people I am playing against. but i do think recent changes to the UI have made this a bit better.
As per usual the first half of the game is more fun than the mid/late game. 
big update coming early Nov

Haven't played yet l, will probably hop in after the November update.

[MillerEP 30447]

11 hours ago, staboner said:

how we doing on this @atomheartbevo @MillerEP @Dr Fear

i enjoy it but its obviously unbalancd. at a top level i also feel like it just doesn't have a soul. the players/ai seem to distant to me and not really liike people I am playing against. but i do think recent changes to the UI have made this a bit better.

As per usual the first half of the game is more fun than the mid/late game. 

big update coming early Nov

I would agree with your assessment. It is unbalanced, especially late game and while I did enjoy the playthroughs I've done, it just doesn't have the lasting power for me that civilization does.

[atomheartbevo 89625]

On 10/26/2021 at 10:31 PM, staboner said:

how we doing on this @atomheartbevo @MillerEP @Dr Fear

i enjoy it but its obviously unbalancd. at a top level i also feel like it just doesn't have a soul. the players/ai seem to distant to me and not really liike people I am playing against. but i do think recent changes to the UI have made this a bit better.

As per usual the first half of the game is more fun than the mid/late game. 

big update coming early Nov

I agree that it's unbalanced.  I think this is one of those times where they just needed a lot more feedback than they were getting in beta testing and/or a lot of testers were not playing through the late game.  With that said, I think it's got a lot more room to grow/improve, and the devs seem pretty open to change.

I want to go play AOE IV (just dropped a few days ago) and come back later on after the November update.

The October dev's letter is worth a read - it discusses some of the balance issues and the coming updates.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1124300?updates=true&emclan=103582791465187327&emgid=5198832665400675913

I'm assuming that the Oct 28 update they mention is actually the November update.

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Finally, some news we know many of you have been waiting for: We are aiming to release the next big update on October 28th

This patch will improve your options when creating your game with new settings for resource abundance and end conditions and try to address the rapid increase in the game’s pace in the mid to late game discussed by the community as well as some of the most discussed concerns about balance between cultures, among other things. We’ll talk about this update in greater detail next week. 

 

[MillerEP 30447]

17 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I agree that it's unbalanced.  I think this is one of those times where they just needed a lot more feedback than they were getting in beta testing and/or a lot of testers were not playing through the late game.  With that said, I think it's got a lot more room to grow/improve, and the devs seem pretty open to change.

I preordered it so I got to play in the betas. The Betas were ONLY through the first 2-3 eras. They didn't let you play the endgame.

[atomheartbevo 89625]

5 hours ago, MillerEP said:

I preordered it so I got to play in the betas. The Betas were ONLY through the first 2-3 eras. They didn't let you play the endgame.

[atomheartbevo 89625]

Demo is up for those wanting to play without buying it just yet (waiting for it to go on sale).  Windows-only for now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1124300/HUMANKIND/

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/humankind