I will start the review by saying it very straightforward and plain: I love this game. I did when I played the Beta, and I still do now. Finally I find a Civ-like game where the AI is pretty damn decent. The 4X - Xplore, Xpand, Xploit, Xterminate is done great and the Ai is one of the reasons. I didn't see the AI cheating - I saw it carefully picking fights, even attacking at a disadvantage if the AI thought they can win. I loved the fact that I drew (meaning all units died) 2 vs 1 scouts (which is overwhelmingly winning for me) fight on instant resolve - meaning the AI took the high ground, defended, stayed there until it was resolved. That is a super refreshing feature of the game - we lacked this in all 4X games until now.

So let's quickly go through the good, the... gray actually. Bad will be just a matter of preference I would say.

The GOOD:

1. The civilizations as your story - I found it awesome creating and tweaking my own civilization, which in the end was an amalgamation of 7 different real-life cultures of the world. Starting as Harappans, through Teutons and finishing as the Swedes, I was thoroughly entertained and wanted to try different combos and builds to experience a different way the game is played.

2. The Wonders and the map - the map is layered out on a few levels which affect movement, attack states, and vision, which is, once again, awesome. the map is super easy to read and moving on it is very intuitive. The features on it, and especially, the WONDERS YOU BUILD are super well laid out and visible from afar. Even if the wonder you build was 200 turns ago, moving around the map will make you focus on it due to its sheer size and remember the time you actually struggled to get it done. I miss games that really make me think about the earlier turns - especially since the wonders in Civilization 6 are relatively unimpressive on the map.

3. The fights and the AI - I will praise this game for the fighting system and its AI to oblivion. While good players will still find ways to exploit the AI, I loved how the AI masterfully used the systems to win battles. While I can clearly see that the AI is sometimes destroying itself in your units when you are at a clear advantage, I also saw sparks of genius - the AI staying on tiles on the map which would make it very hard to attack them, and to boot, defending on those tiles instead of making random moves - opting to rather leave the fight to the next turn of the game (if the battle is not resolved within 3 battle turns, it rolls over to the next game turn). Now add to this the ability to add multiple units to the fight, providing they are close by?! This is exactly what I want from a game to feel sufficiently entertained.

The gray areas of the game - these can be good or bad, depending on your preference

1. The MAPS - The random map generator may put you in a great spot or a bad spot. This can be both good or bad and while it presents a different challenge, if one or more of the AIs are running away with the game, and you are struggling to settle, it is never a fun time. Equally, if you have a good start and they have a bad start, it is you who will be running away with the game - which is pleasant, but may feel too easy.

2. The map display - the map is displayed on the screen in a way that will either make you love it or hate it. The gray areas or colored areas to display various statistics are good, but some will find them super annoying. Potato McWhiskey comes to mind.

3. Map awareness - it is super frustrating how the pathfinding is tied to map awareness. If you want to move to a tile in the fog, the game will base it on map awareness and how much of the map have you explored. This means it will take the best way based on pure map knowledge, which could be the worst one possible. Is it realistic? Yes. Is it irritating? Yes, again.

4. Religion is an add-on to help your overall plan for the game - while this can be a negative, it is realistic. Religion is all about bringing people together and serving the state... The first one is awesome, and the second is... sad.

5. YOU CAN LOCK IN WONDERS! - while it is an awesome thing, as it allows you to build that wonder at your own pace... it can also be a negative. Fighting for wonders has been a mainstay of the Civilization games and if you are used to it... you may dislike this feature.

Conclusion:

This game is an easy buy. If you want a game that is different enough from Civilization, but has a similar feel, it is for you. Mixing and matching cultures is super fun and adapting to the world you live in is very satisfying. Unlike Civilization, the AI is actually a challenge and does not seem to cheat units and resources mid-game just to keep you occupied, which is awesome. Is the game worth the full price? I would say yes if you can spend the cash, but at the same time no, if the current world situation affected you negatively. At 25% or more off, I will 100% recommend it.

As such, I am very, very happy to give Humankind the score of


for the amusement it gave me and the refreshing AI improvements which in the end, is all you want is a single player 4X game. Civilization, beware!

Follow Masafors Group of Friends, if you want to read more reviews like this one in English, German, French or Belgian Dutch.

I will start the review by saying it very straightforward and plain: I love this game. I did when I played the Beta, and I still do now. Finally I find a Civ-like game where the AI is pretty damn decent. The 4X - Xplore, Xpand, Xploit, Xterminate is done great and the Ai is one of the reasons. I didn't see the AI cheating - I saw it carefully picking fights, even attacking at a disadvantage if the AI thought they can win. I loved the fact that I drew (meaning all units died) 2 vs 1 scouts (which is overwhelmingly winning for me) fight on instant resolve - meaning the AI took the high ground, defended, stayed there until it was resolved. That is a super refreshing feature of the game - we lacked this in all 4X games until now. So let's quickly go through the good, the... gray actually. Bad will be just a matter of preference I would say. The GOOD: 1. The civilizations as your story - I found it awesome creating and tweaking my own civilization, which in the end was an amalgamation of 7 different real-life cultures of the world. Starting as Harappans, through Teutons and finishing as the Swedes, I was thoroughly entertained and wanted to try different combos and builds to experience a different way the game is played. 2. The Wonders and the map - the map is layered out on a few levels which affect movement, attack states, and vision, which is, once again, awesome. the map is super easy to read and moving on it is very intuitive. The features on it, and especially, the WONDERS YOU BUILD are super well laid out and visible from afar. Even if the wonder you build was 200 turns ago, moving around the map will make you focus on it due to its sheer size and remember the time you actually struggled to get it done. I miss games that really make me think about the earlier turns - especially since the wonders in Civilization 6 are relatively unimpressive on the map. 3. The fights and the AI - I will praise this game for the fighting system and its AI to oblivion. While good players will still find ways to exploit the AI, I loved how the AI masterfully used the systems to win battles. While I can clearly see that the AI is sometimes destroying itself in your units when you are at a clear advantage, I also saw sparks of genius - the AI staying on tiles on the map which would make it very hard to attack them, and to boot, defending on those tiles instead of making random moves - opting to rather leave the fight to the next turn of the game (if the battle is not resolved within 3 battle turns, it rolls over to the next game turn). Now add to this the ability to add multiple units to the fight, providing they are close by?! This is exactly what I want from a game to feel sufficiently entertained. The gray areas of the game - these can be good or bad, depending on your preference 1. The MAPS - The random map generator may put you in a great spot or a bad spot. This can be both good or bad and while it presents a different challenge, if one or more of the AIs are running away with the game, and you are struggling to settle, it is never a fun time. Equally, if you have a good start and they have a bad start, it is you who will be running away with the game - which is pleasant, but may feel too easy. 2. The map display - the map is displayed on the screen in a way that will either make you love it or hate it. The gray areas or colored areas to display various statistics are good, but some will find them super annoying. Potato McWhiskey comes to mind. 3. Map awareness - it is super frustrating how the pathfinding is tied to map awareness. If you want to move to a tile in the fog, the game will base it on map awareness and how much of the map have you explored. This means it will take the best way based on pure map knowledge, which could be the worst one possible. Is it realistic? Yes. Is it irritating? Yes, again. 4. Religion is an add-on to help your overall plan for the game - while this can be a negative, it is realistic. Religion is all about bringing people together and serving the state... The first one is awesome, and the second is... sad. 5. YOU CAN LOCK IN WONDERS! - while it is an awesome thing, as it allows you to build that wonder at your own pace... it can also be a negative. Fighting for wonders has been a mainstay of the Civilization games and if you are used to it... you may dislike this feature. Conclusion: This game is an easy buy. If you want a game that is different enough from Civilization, but has a similar feel, it is for you. Mixing and matching cultures is super fun and adapting to the world you live in is very satisfying. Unlike Civilization, the AI is actually a challenge and does not seem to cheat units and resources mid-game just to keep you occupied, which is awesome. Is the game worth the full price? I would say yes if you can spend the cash, but at the same time no, if the current world situation affected you negatively. At 25% or more off, I will 100% recommend it. As such, I am very, very happy to give Humankind the score of [h1]10/10[/h1] for the amusement it gave me and the refreshing AI improvements which in the end, is all you want is a single player 4X game. Civilization, beware! [quote][url=https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/curator/30583719-Masafors-Group-of-Friends/]Follow [b] Masafors Group of Friends[/b], if you want to read more reviews like this one in English, German, French or Belgian Dutch.[/url][/quote]