I also find this very uninspired. It could convince me to take the plunge eventually, but it will take good word from trusted reviewers to do so. It doesn’t help that Shadow Empire destroyed every other turn based 4X last year, so anything that is simply Civ derivative will feel like a chore to play (as Civ 6 was last month…).
It actually was when I gave it a go. I think my sister will try it regardless, so at least she can tell me if the end result improved.
I honestly believe Amplitude wanted to take on the granddaddy of the genre. They’ve said all along they were working up to making Humankind throughout the company’s existence.
From Wikipedia:
Development[edit]
Amplitude Studios has had a history of prior 4X games based on its Endless science fiction setting, including Endless Space and Endless Legend . The studio considers Humankind to be their magnum opus of their previous titles,[2] and something that they have wanted to produce from the start, with their recent acquisition by Sega helping to make Humankind possible.[3]
I ALREADY PREORDERED, FULLY HYPED, LET’S GOOOOOOOO!
Indeed, hence “civ killer.”
Hello Amplitude.
It’d be great if it was a Civ killer, but I’ve seen nothing to demonstrate that thus far (and I have no love for Civ 6).
Yeah, I really liked Endless Legend, so I’m hoping this ends up being interesting. I watched this video at the end of December which made me really concerned, though it was pretty funny how out-of-control things could get by abusing the systems
I’ve found all the Amplitude games to be that in practice. They all have some unique designs with regards to the factions/races in particular and I enjoy checking them out for that as a tourist, but I find them to be pretty bland games that don’t have any staying power for me.
I’m expecting something similar with Humankind. I picked it up because I’m a sucker for this sort of game and the last Civ game I thought was any good was Civ4, so it’s been a while. I’m not expecting anything beyond exploring a few interesting designs before shelving the game, though.
I’ve had this experience as well. I own all the Endless games (except for Dungeon) and… I want to love them. They’re beautiful, mechanically interesting, with deep lore, but there’s a weird sterility to them that means they just never grab me at much as they should based on the individual parts.
I’m sure I’ll still get this as long as the initial reviews don’t make it sound like it’s an ungodly mess.
Endless Dungeon is probably the best in terms of gameplay!
Well maybe they can surprise us all, but based on the abysmal AI of all their past games, I hold out little hope.
You mean Dungeon of the Endless. And yes, you’re right. It’s a great game and the only one of theirs with a good difficulty curve. Their games suffer very much from difficulty not being balanced. As in Endless Space 2 highest difficulty AI gets bonuses where they don’t need it and they lose to any player who has learned the rules, not even mastered them. And people talk about how great Amplitude UI is but it really isn’t, and a lot of issues in EL are quite obvious and were not fixed after years of supposed development.
So I’m not that hyped about this game. I’m hyped about the OST.
Wow you guys, I thought I was alone in my apathy towards EL!
You are correct but apparently they are developing Endless Dungeon, a “Rogue-lite tactical action game”.
EL is a good game. It also gets a very uneven amount of thought put into it.
In the very first expansion they’ve added great deeds, kind of achievements. One of those gives you something like 200 amount of luxury resources. Luxury resources are used to give a temporary bonus to your empire, the more you use the longer the bonus is. The amount you spend grows the larger your empire is. So the best thing you can do is to use it all at once. In the beginning you click on that resource in the UI, and the game asks “Are you sure you want to spend 10 of this resource for 5 turns of bonus?”. You confirm. Now you have 190 of this resource. The right way to play is to make 18 more clicks.
That’s the kind of things I’m talking about when I say that UI is bad even if it looks good. Maybe they have good artists but it’s like no player testing at all was done.
I’d describe it by saying there’s a very good UI team, and a so-so design team, and there’s a lot of instances where the two have not coordinated.
i genuinely think that Amplitude has made a significant contribution to digital game design. regardless of potential irritations. 2 bobs etc
I enjoyed the system and the game, but hated the winter part of the game. I wanted something open-ended and the snow turned me off. Or maybe I’m just tired of living in the northern USA during the same type of weather?
Turning the Debbie Downer dial down to mute and turning the HYPE dial up to 11.
LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO
Oddly enough I want this game to do well.