Humankind is a strategy that is expected to be released in 2021. Little is known about the game, but it is already called the “killer of Civilization”. Why did she receive this formidable title?
Little is known about Humankind. The only source of reliable information is a small group of bloggers, who were invited by the developers to alpha testing, were shown a gameplay video and even allowed to try new game mechanics themselves. Moreover, they were it is forbidden to shoot videos, and taking screenshots was allowed only in some places…
Alexey Khaletsky, a blogger from the YouTube channel Lesha Plays, who specializes in strategies, shared his experience of playing Humankind. Let’s compare his experience with the gameplay of the cult Civilization 6 and find out which of these games is better.
Beginning of the game
The first thing the player sees is the endless fields of the freshly generated continent and his own game unit. And here comes the first difference from “Civilization”. You can’t just found your city. This right will have to be earned. There are several options to choose from:
- Collect 25 Culture Points.
- Unite 3 units under your banner.
In Civilization, everything was much simpler – you could establish a settlement at the same point at which the squad appeared, without any restrictions.
From this difference follows the following – the mechanics of “Ruins”. If in Civilization they were rather a pleasant bonus that could give a good boost at the start, then in Humankind, these “places of interest” became the basis of survival… It is with their help that you can collect culture points. Thus, the tribe loses the status of the tribe and gains access to the choice of the vector of cultural development.
From the first minutes of the game the dynamics of the gameplay are changing… If in Civilization 6 it was necessary to place the first city as quickly as possible in order to start producing gold, culture and science, then in Humankind, you first have to reconnoiter the map… In the future, this will help to choose the most advantageous location for the capital.
Empire development
When the capital is established soon there will be a need to create new cities next to it… And here the player will stumble upon another mechanics different from Civilization… If in the game from Sid Meier only a special unit – a settler can found a city, then any squad can create an outpost here… This will take several turns. After that, this very outpost can be “upset” to the state of a real city. You will have to pay for construction and reconstruction. Therefore, playing through more cities may not be as profitable as in Civilization 6.
However, this does not mean that you cannot expand the borders of your state. An outpost is a territory control point that does not need to be converted into a city. You can simply attach territoriescaptured by this building to their nearest settlement. Thus, the developers have retained the ability to play through the expansion strategy, while it is not necessary to produce many cities.
Improving cities
The easiest way to develop cities is by building new districts, just like in Civilization 6. They occupy a whole cell on the map and there are several types: production (trade), grocery, commercial, scientific, cultural.
For cities to grow, they need resources:
- Food. Shows how many people can be fed.
- Production. The higher this indicator, the faster new objects will be built.
- Money. They give the opportunity to buy buildings, recruit units and much more.
- The science. This indicator affects the speed of scientific research.
- Culture. It makes it possible to acquire political regimes.
These basic mechanics are also as similar as possible to the gameplay of the sixth part of Civilization. If you’ve played Qiwa before, you won’t have any difficulties with cities in Humankind.
However, unlike Civilization, in this new strategy, money is not everything. You can’t buy wonders and complex tech buildings just like that. In order to be able to speed up construction with the help of your finances, you must fulfill a number of conditions, for example, achieve the specified indicator of the number of residents in the city.
Another difference from Civilization is the speed of settlement development at the start. It is much higher, because the city immediately begins to process all adjacent cells around it. Thereby at the start, the settlement receives a certain amount of basic resources without having to spend money and time on workers.
You can change the priorities of mining by processing additional cells that are not adjacent to the city, as well as by placing residents in different jobs in the city itself. This mechanic is similar to Civilization 6, but there is one “but” – you cannot send all the workforce to one object. There is a limit for each type of resource, which can be increased with the help of new buildings.
Era change
The change of eras is one of the most controversial moments in most modern strategies, including in Civilization. Most often, the emphasis is on one key characteristic (science or culture), without which it will not be possible to develop your Empire. As a result, this significantly limits the players, narrows the variability of the gameplay.
It’s different at Humankind. Each civilization has its own specialization with an extensive quest tree. To move from era to era, you need to complete these internal quests and gain stars… All nations have their own personal tasks, which are created taking into account the gameplay features of a particular civilization.
Also in the new strategy, the balance of the development of countries on the map has been reworked. The more powers have moved to a new cultural level, the easier it is for their rivals to “catch up”. There was no such feature in Civilization, therefore, with due luck, it was possible to quickly develop to powder and roll out cannons against their neighbors with axes and catapults.
Battles
The main feature of Humankind is combat mechanics. Unlike Civilization 6, where everything took place on a large map and the battles were not beautiful or cinematic, this new strategy is different. When two units converge on the battlefield, they are transported to a separate battle screen. The relief generated for the battle will correspond to the part of the map where the units have met.
Battles take place in turn-based mode. There are only 3 phases in a battle. An army is a few units, no more than four, but this indicator can be increased.
Purpose of the game
How to get the coveted victory in Humankind is not yet clear. According to the developers, the goal of the game is to collect the most Fame Points. You can get them for various actions, for example, for completing special tasks. An example of such a task is to be the first to build a wonder of the world.
What will be similar?
Some of the mechanics of the new strategy are very similar to the gameplay of the game from Sid Meier:
- Changed the happiness mechanic from Civilization 6 to stability indicator… The indicators are similar, but the number of cities affects the stability more strongly.
- The game will have religion… However, at the moment there are very few details about her. It is known that it will develop at the expense of faith points, just like in Civilization.
- Technology development follows the same path as in Civilization 6 – science points are spent to acquire them.
- Wonders of nature are present. At the moment, they do not provide serious gameplay advantages, however, the player who finds the miracle first will receive fame points.
- Starting naval unit can go out into the open sea, but there he begins to sink. The same mechanic was implemented in the first installments of the Civilization series.
What else is different?
We managed to find out many interesting details from the press release. Here are some other interesting differences:
- Humankind developers have done a detailed, quality teaching… Civilization 6 had serious problems with this.
- There are no barbarians at the beginning of the game… This allows you to explore the continent faster. However, players who are going to win by military means will have something to pump their units on. To do this, wild animals are scattered all over the map, with which you can fight.
- Unlike Civilization here you cannot “buy” any desired political regime for culture points… Only those that match the player’s policy will be open for purchase. If a gamer fought aggressively all the time, it will not work to become a great culturologist.
- You won’t have to fight for the wonders of the world with your neighbors… In Tsiva it was difficult to understand what the neighbor is building now. Sometimes it happened that a few moves before the completion of the construction, someone took the wonder of the world right from under his nose. In Humankind, it’s different. Here, the wonder of the world is first reserved and blocked for other players, and only then construction begins.
- Governors can be populated in cities… This gives him “controlled” status and removes a number of gameplay restrictions and penalties. There are a limited number of governors and generals in the game.
If there are many game aspects left behind the scenes, for example, the details of the war or the features of diplomacy. Fans can only wait for the news and guess which will be better in the end – Civilization 6 or Humankind.