Humankind

My Civ binge didn’t last long this time. I think it’s a fun game, but it’s a little cartoonish, and that starts to wear on me after a while. Humankind didn’t pan out for me; like Endless Legend, an earlier game from Amplitude, it was pretty and complicated. It had a story that was gradually building. But it was also boring. I felt like I was playing a board game that was probably too complicated to be a board game so it has to be a computer game.

I mean, Civ gets boring, too, which is why I never finish a game. But there’s something more inherently fun to me about Civ, and since the two games are so similar, it might be worth looking at why that is. Zoom out far enough, and the games are identical. Take a small tribe from the start of history and build a civilization, with cities, units, and technologies, and compete with other civilizations as you progress through history. Both are turn-based. Both have you claim hexes on a map to gain resources, which are used to buy elements which will allow you to claim more hexes and grow. Resources are also funneled into advancing through different tiered achievements, each unlocking a new reward. The game is played on a randomly generated hex map, which while nicely decorated, is as close to the world as you can get; everything else is just menus.

The differences are really a matter of complexity. The current version of Civ is the sixth iteration of a 30 year old game; the current version itself is seven years old, while Humankind was just released this year. Humankind’s map and graphics are much better, and its internal systems are much more complex. I don’t hold the complexity against it. I like good, deep systems that can support a variety of play styles. And a lot of the ways that Humankind adds complexity to the game feel good, like a more comprehensive diplomacy program, or the way that civilizations grow organically, allowing you to adopt traits that help and not saddling you with benefits that are left unused to a random map not coughing up the required element.

I think where it goes wrong for me in Humankind is that there’s a breadth of complexity, but not a depth of complexity. All of the elements are there, but they’ve each been made more complicated, meaning that your attention has to be spread out across all aspects of the game. You start out feeling like you are exploring the world when you are just one unit on a blank map. But once you found your first city and start the ball rolling, that feeling of wonder gets buried under layers of menus.

Also, I think that maybe I’m tired of isometric 3D maps that limit my interaction with the world. Civ gets a pass since we’ve been besties for 30 years now and they’ve always been like this. If you’re going to give me a remake of Civ, allow me to walk the streets of Rome, or wander the fields and woods around my castle. I work in spreadsheets all day, and so I get irritated when I find myself playing in one on my off time.