"Humankind is a solid attempt to challenge Civilization, but like every contender in the last 30+ years, it ultimately falls short."
While the developers of Humankind had some measure of success with Endless Legends, a title that surprised many with its exceptional quality and replayability, there was still never a moment when it could be classified as a real competitor to Civilization 5 or 6.
It was a very well made game, but due to its fantasy setting, it could not be directly compared to the more grounded Civilization franchise, which meant that no one really knew how well a title made by Aptitude Studios would do when going head to head with Civilization in the same market.
That was until the release of Humankind, which proved two things in equal measure.
Despite Humankind’s failure to establish itself as the new standard in 4X gaming, it succeeded in doing something no other 4X game had done, bringing the Civilization franchise to its knees, but not in the way the developers had intended.
When Humankind was announced, it promised the inclusion of mechanics, which for the 4X genre, were ground breaking concepts, chiefly the ability to rewrite history while swapping cultures at key moments of cultural and technological human innovation.
On paper it is very intriguing, in practice it is a hot mess, and I have yet to find anyone who actually thinks hopping between unrelated civilizations is a good idea.
While I could understand beginning as, say, ancient Britons and then having the choice to continue as either Norman or Anglo-Saxon cultures, being able to swap your culture from something like Ancient Egypt to Celts is very jarring, especially when AI characters do the same.
In Civilization I have enjoyed many long term friendships and rivalries with other countries, however due to the way Humankind works, I find myself being allied with or against different nations at the start of each new era.
I want to go to war with nuclear Gandhi, not Brazil led by Queen Elizabeth the First, whose country is comprised mostly of cities with Japanese and Greek names.
It is confusing, immersion breaking, and a real mess, which is why what Firaxis did next is all the more confusing.
By the time Humankind released, Civilization 6 was already long in the tooth, and due to Covid-19 delays mixed with Firaxis’ confidence in being untouchable at the top, Civilization 7 had still not been announced. Instead, the studio pushed out a string of season passes that added new leaders to Civilization 6.
While I personally did not mind this, many players despised it, leading the developers to make major changes.
Unfortunately, those changes were not made to Civilization 6 but to Civilization 7, altering their flagship series to more closely resemble Humankind, a competitor that had already been thoroughly beaten by Civilization 6, a seven year old game that had itself been one of the most controversial entries in the franchise’s history.
As a result, Civilization 7 is now one of the worst rated titles in the series. And while a redemption arc is possible, based on current development speed and community reception, it will be a long and arduous journey to regain the trust and goodwill of veteran players who feel they have been cast aside in favour of attracting a new, more casual demographic.
While Humankind still has its issues, it is in a much better place now than it was at launch, especially when it comes to making sure that the ability to choose a custom culture is actually possible, which at launch was incredibly broken, with players rarely being able to choose their culture before the AI cheated its way to the next era, claiming the best civilizations for itself.
In my previous coverage of Humankind, I detailed how it was essentially impossible to beat the AI to the first era on all but the easiest difficulty setting, and even then, it was highly dependent on RNG and spawn location.
Thankfully the developers have worked around this by drastically lowering the requirements for human players to choose their founding culture, and I have been able to do so as soon as turn two or three multiple times when playing Humankind in preparation for this review.
While this has taken the challenge out of it, at least it feels a little more balanced, and less like shooting the odds at a crooked casino (where as you know, the house always wins).
Combat is the one area that I wish the developers had promoted as the one thing that differentiated them from Civilization games, as it is without question the greatest innovation on the Civilization formula I have seen in any game.
With dynamic multi turn battles that support both manual and automatic resolution, reinforcements, and long range artillery support, it manages to distil a traditionally more complex battle system into one that fits perfectly inside a title with a more imperial scope.
I honestly only have one complaint, and that is occasionally the AI will forget to move on its own turn, requiring players to reload their most recent save, and either force an instant resolution or resort to more destructive options such as nuclear weaponry to level the frozen army and everything else in the surrounding area.
While I would like to imagine this will eventually be fixed, as of December 2025 this issue has existed for four years, leading me to believe that the developers are either unable or unwilling to dedicate the time and resources required to fix the issue.
One of the best things about Humankind is the way it improves on the Civilization formula in almost every other area than its disastrous and poorly received culture hopping mechanic.
I honestly feel that if they relaunched Humankind without that feature, and instead allowed players to choose from any of the cultures right from the start, Humankind would easily outperform Civilization 7, which is still struggling and is likely to continue to do so until at least late 2026, and depending on how long Firaxis intends to support it, possibly even longer.
From diplomacy and trade, to exploration and city planning, Humankind improves upon Civilization in almost every way. Because of this, Humankind feels like a game that was made by people who both play and love Civilization, and wanted to improve upon it in an effort to make the 4X game of their dreams.
Humankind is a 4x strategy game developed by Amplitude Studios and published by Amplitude Studios (originally Sega), it released on 17 August 2021, and is available on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Humankind supports the following peripherals:
Humankind is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:
There is a lot to like about Humankind, it is a very fun game and especially late game and the endless endgame is very enjoyable, however choosing a faction and sticking with it through good and bad is a huge part of what makes 4X games so enjoyable, which is why I cannot give it the score it otherwise deserves.
We found Humankind to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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