Humankind - a Historical 4X by Amplitude (Endless Space, Legend, etc.)

Games
#1

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Following the sci-fi 4X strategy of Endless Space and fantasy 4X of Endless Legend, the next strategy game from Amplitude Studios has an even stranger setting: human history. They’ve just announced Humankind, a 4X strategy game which I will crudely describe as “sounding like Amplitude’s take on Civilization.” By which I mean it’s a turn-based 4X strategy game where galleons can be sailing around at the same time as submarines and all that. I’ve long wished for a contender to strut menacingly around Civ’s turf and I’m doubly keen to see what Amplitude will do there.

I like the Endless Space and Endless Legend games, but they aren’t my favorite in the genre. They do some fun things, though, so I’ll happily keep an eye out on this guy.

Update 8/20/19: @abrandt posted a new article with lots more details:

Old World (pka Ten Crowns) from Soren Johnson
#2

Your post is prettier, so I’ll delete mine :). It will be interesting to see their take on the historical 4x. Between this and 10 Crowns we could have some good stuff coming.

#3

LOL thanks. :)

#4

The announce trailer with the neanderthal dude mixing and playing music is great.

#5

Awesome, looking forward to this. Love me some Amplitude.

#6

It always seemed stupid to me that in the last 25 years, there has been only a single attempt of doing a competitor to Civilization series (I’m referring to Call to Power). I’m hopeful it’s good.

#7

Agreed. I always found that to be very perplexing. At first I thought the Europa Universalis series was going to be an attempt, and then it came out and read reviews of it, and it sounded very very different and not trying to be Civ at all.

#8

I would love for the Civ 4X subgenre to become as crowded as the space 4X one. I’d especially like to see a Paradox or Distant Worlds real time treatment.

Amplitude are not my favorite 4X mechanics wise, but they are fine and always so damn stylish that I can’t help but get sucked in for a good number of games. Looking forward to this.

#9

Steam Page is up along with a bunch of screenshots:

#10

Hmm, I dunno. Amplitude’s strength has always been how they push the boundaries of asymmetry with their wacky faction designs. I’m not sure human history will allow them to really flex that strength. I mean, yeah, Aztecs are different from Greeks who are different from China, but how different? If you’ve played one ancient human civilization, you’ve played 'em all. At least that’s my feeling after playing stuff like Gladius, Planetfall, and Glorantha lately.

But still, another 4X from the folks who made Endless Space 2? Sign me up!

-Tom

#11

They should have leveraged the “Endless” name.

Maybe Endless Elephants.

#12

Those are some pretty screens. Have to agree though, just how different can another humankind experience in a 4x game be?

#13

Spot on. The atmosphere, environment, storytelling, and flavor are all so good in Amplitude games. I just wished I liked the games more, they always feel so much less than the sum of their parts.

#14

I wish they’d have gone with a different art style. It looks like Civ VI but with worse graphics.

One thing that jumps out to me from those screens: It looks like there are different ages, presumably each with different civilizations. Are they doing a History of the World (the board game) thing, where you switch Civs in each age, or at least have the option to in the event that one is still thriving and you’d rather not give it up? If so, that’s great and will help differentiate it from Civ. I remember one of the old Civ IV mods tried something like that to mixed results. The whole system sort of falls apart at a certain point in history though, so hopefully they find a way to manage it.

#15

How do you think that looks worse than Civ 6? Those screenshots look to me like the concept art for a civ game, I’m really blown away by them.

I’ll add to that, I really like how they are willing to have such drastically different sized buildings. I assume the big buildings are things that actually matter and the little ones are just for flavor, but I don’t recall Civ doing anything close to that on the map itself(they used to when they still had city screens).

#16

Different opinions and all that. If I had saw them at a glance with no further context, I’d assume it was Civ VI with the graphics quality turned down a bit. I regret saying that as I don’t want to get hung up on whether it looks better or worse than Civ VI; my main point is I’d rather it look more unique.

#17

As burnt out as I am on the genre, this will be a Day 1 purchase for me. I loves me some Amplitude.

#18

just what the world needs…another 4x game…omfg

can someone THINK of something freakin new??!!

#19

#20

Have they said how combat will work? This has always been the biggest weak spot of their games for me.