Amplitude Studios’ strategy game Humankind is offering a playable peek at their vision for the next era of civilisation ’em ups. The strategy romp has a new trailer out along with a free demo that you can play in your browser so you can decide for yourself if it’ll take the strategy crown. Sega announced today that they’re planning Humankind’s launch for sometime in April 2021.

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After a year of speculation, I’ve finally had a chance to play Humankind, Amplitude Studios’ much-anticipated competitor to the Civilization series, and while I only got to play through the very first era of the game on a single map, I can say for sure we’ve definitely got a contender here. I’m hesitant to say how strong a contender until I’ve seen more of the game, since I think Humankind’s brand of satisfaction is going to lean heavily on the way the outcomes of your decisions stack across thousands of simulated years. But the fact that I could see, even in the early game, how the calls I made might have ramifications for centuries to come, was a promising sign.

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Civilization

can take a moment to catch its breath, as the developers of upcoming lowercase-c civilisation 4X strategy game Humankind have quietly pushed its expected launch back to next year. It was previously due this year, but a new trailer today says 2021.

Amplitude also put out a call to fans and prospective players to help them fine tune it, offering access to limited preview builds in return for active playtesting feedback with their Open Dev scheme. There’s even a trailer for that.

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A new video developer diary for Humankind explains more about its single victory condition, the pursuit of Fame points. It’s a system building victories from all facets of your cultural legacy, with points coming in everywhere from military victories to building wonders. Humankind is coming from the makers of Endless Space and Endless Legends, two cracking and fascinating 4X strategy games, so I’m mighty curious about their take on the big daddy of 4X: Civilization. Come watch the video to learn more about Fame and about switching cultures across eras.

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Civ-like strategy game Humankind has been big on its tagline of wanting players to create “a civilization that is as unique as you are.” That will extend to your cities too, Amplitude say during a new developer video. As do real modern metropolises, Humankind’s cities will evolve but carry with them the evidence of what they once were in the form of old architecture and oddly-shaped territories.

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The prospect of the studio behind Endless Space and Endless Legend trying their hands at a Civilization-style 4X strategy game is an enticing one, enough for us to declare Humankind one of 2020’s most exciting new games. Amplitude Studios aren’t yet ready to tell us when exactly we’ll get to play Humankind, but they are ready to starting telling us more about it. The first of a new series of video dev diary doodads hit today, with Amplidudes explaining their background and why they’re now shouting “COME ON THEN!” while tearing up Sid Meier’s geraniums and kicking over his bins.

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Over the break we had a chance to do some serious scientific study of this business we call games, and it turns out that games are actually good. 2020 in particular has a healthy mix of big budget bonanzas and smaller indie plates to suit everyone’s discerning tastes. And, as you know, the RPS treehouse is the most discerning, so to make it easier for you we’ve got a big ol’ list of the games we’re most looking forwards to this year. It’s traditional.

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Like a heavily-sponsored Santa Claus, the Game Awards swept in last night and left us a pile of presents to unwrap. If you did the smart thing and slept through the event, you’ll have missed a bunch of new announcements. Alice O and Graham did some amazing work in writing up as much as they could as it happened, but a few sly games snuck past ’em. Plus, sometimes it’s just nice to have everything all in once place. Here’s everything that was announced.

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What if the studio behind Endless Space and Endless Legend took a crack at Civilization? It’s an exciting thought and looking to be an exciting game: Humankind, due to launch next year. Following the announcement in August, Amplitude Studios showed more of the historical 4X strategy game in motion with its first “gameplay trailer” tonight at The Game Awards. The video is mostly shots panning over cities but coo, those are some big cities. The video also shows some of the leaders we play as, though you’ll not recognise them from history books.

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To the untrained eye (eyes that haven’t spent many an hour trained on an exquisitely detailed topographical map, checking on all corners of your immense empire), Humankind probably looks like any other 4X game where you shuffle units around and micromanage different settlements. But according to the hands-off demonstration shown at Gamescom this year, it ain’t.

4X stands for explore, expand, exploit and exterminate, the four key things you have to do to run a successful and burgeoning empire (and in the game?>), and Humankind is Amplitude’s take on a big sprawling historical strategy game. Amplitude’s previous games, Endless Space and Endless Legend, were apparently practise for this, their magnum opus.

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