Humankind is walking on hallowed ground. The turn-based 4X Civilization-style grand strategy genre has been dominated by Sid Meier's Civilization since, well, since I was still saving up my allowance in the early '90s. Armchair grognards can argue hexes vs. tiles and stacks vs. single armies all they want, but Civilization is the gold standard and other pretenders to the crown can only hope for the best.
Humankind means to do just that. Mostly by personalizing the classic model of through-the-ages exploring, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating. Rather than keeping a generational dynasty alive through the centuries (a la Crusader Kings) or a historical ruler immortalized across the millennia (a la Civilization), Humankind will let you customize a single avatar to take you from pre-history to future-history.
Even though your culture will evolve through eras of time, the face of your culture will be consistent. You can even customize the AI of your avatar, so that your friends can play against "you" while you're off playing something else.
The avatar creation screen is pretty in-depth. I mean, it'd be in-depth for a role-playing game, let alone a turn-based strategy game. For a strategy game, it's wildly in-depth. You just don't see this kind of thing. Tweaking your eyes, nose, and mouth. Picking hairstyles. Customizing beards. Sid Meier wouldn't dream of letting you mess with Abraham Lincoln's face. Or Cleopatra's. Or Lady Six Sky. Or Bà Tri?u. But Humankind is all about it.
Humankind launches April 22 on PC (Steam, Epic, and Stadia).
