If you’re in the mood for a new 4X world strategy game, Humankind might be what you’re looking for. Like Civilization and Crusader Kings before it, Sega and Amplitude’s Humankind is attempting to turn the historical strategy genre on its head with new mechanics, new gameplay and endless customisation in a shiny, beautiful world.
Lead humanity to war! Develop your nation’s arts and culture! Explore and conquer in the Neolithic Age!
Whatever your desire, Humankind has you covered. Here’s everything we know about the game so far, including when you can get your hands on it.
Humankind: Release Date
Humankind is currently set for physical and digital release on August 18, 2021 for PC. It’ll also be coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC on day one.
There is also a Mac release planned, but development issues have pushed this version back to an unknown date.
There’s no word on a console release just yet.
Humankind: Australian Price
You can purchase Humankind physically or digitally in Australia, but the best price is $62.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition via Fanatical. You can also grab it for $74.69 directly from Epic Games or Steam.
If you’re in the market for a physical copy, you can grab that for $79 from Amazon or JB Hi-Fi or $79.95 from EB Games.
What is Humankind?
Humankind is a new turn-based historical strategy game which puts you in the driver’s seat of the evolution of humanity. In the game, you’ll be able to play through multiple eras starting from the neolithic, and guide your personalised civilisation on a quest to glory.
Your first decisions will start when you open your game. You’ll be able to choose from 60 different cultures throughout each era (and yes, Australia is included) and make important choices for your people along the way.
Do you place your first settlement near mountains, on grassland or nearby lakes for a running water supply? Do you focus on building arts, or weaponry? As you play, you’ll be able to decide your people’s future and build out their capacity on a global stage.
You’ll also be able to customise your humans, how they spread across the land, and what kind of skills they focus on in each era.
Humankind: Trailer
Humankind has received several unique trailers since the game was first announced, but the one that shows off the most detail about how gameplay actually works is The Scale of Humankind showcase.
Here, you can really get a feel for the game’s vast map and how you can work on customising your cultures and lands in different ways.
You can also check out a few earlier trailers to see snippets of the game in action and decide if it’s for you.
Humankind: Gameplay
If you’ve played Civilization before, you’ll likely be familiar with how Humankind plays. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing — more competition in the 4X historical strategy genre is always great.
And while Humankind does appear to play similarly to Civilization, there are a few key mechanics which mark it out as different. For one, there’s a focus on building out the culture and arts of your people, and a very different victory goal.
Rather than focussing on conquering other nations, you’ll be building out your ‘fame’ in Humankind, a measure which highlights your achievements and how you’ve overcome nation-wide challenges. Some of these involve conquering other lands, but fame points can also be gathered by building out your civilisation or your cultural skills.
You’ll also be able to claim landmarks for fame and yes, send your people to war. It’ll all play out via the game’s turn-based system where you make choices as other cultures flourish around you.
How you play is up to you, but you’ll want to focus on both inner development and outer conquering to survive in Humankind.
Do you need to play other games before Humankind?
Humankind is a standalone game. Familiarity with other 4X games like Civilization (or board game equivalents like Tapestry) may help you master its systems, but you don’t need to play them beforehand. You’ll learn everything you need to know when you boot up the game, and from there you can start exploring the map and building out your lands.
Does Humankind have multiplayer?
Humankind was initially announced to have multiplayer in February 2020, but there’s no current details around this mechanic or how it’ll work in the game’s official Steam listing.
That said, a recent update from the dev team highlighted the team was hard at work on fixing issues with multiplayer in the Mac version of the game — so naturally, we can assume Humankind will have multiplayer.
The assumption is you’ll be able to pit your people against others while playing online, but exact details and how this will work are currently unknown.
We’ll know more when Humankind releases for PC on August 18.
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