Developer Amplitude Studios

Publisher Sega

Format PC

Release Out now

Think of Humankind as Civilization on shuffle. Amplitude Studios takes Sid Meier’s epochal strategy game about guiding hairless apes from hitting rocks with bones to hitting Mars with rockets, and lets you remix the tunes of history like a cultural DJ. Want to play as the French, but build Big Ben as a wonder? No problem. Fancy finding out what the Temple Of Artemis would look like if it were erected beside Egyptian pyramids? The answer is ‘really weird’, but go for it. How about swapping the ancient Greeks for medieval England when you enter a new era? We’re not entirely sure why you’d want to, since medieval England was awful, but you can.

It’s a tantalising prospect – the ability to create not only your own timeline, but your own culture. Yet while civilisational mixology may seem a grand idea, the results aren’t as exciting as they sound. What remains is a pleasant historical strategy that nonetheless struggles to step out of Civilization’s shadow.

In contrast to humanity’s actual evolution, Humankind is at its most divergent at the outset. You don’t choose a faction to play as; all in-game factions (known as ‘empires’) emerge from prehistory as nomadic tribespeople. The Neolithic is an era of exploration as your tribe scrambles across the map, battling wild animals and discovering natural wonders, all in a quest to earn five ‘era stars’ and found your first settlement.