

Overpowered builds are inevitable with this many combos, and I much prefer it to perfect balance. You've also got lots of religious tenets, available to pick whenever your religion ranks up, and culture-wide civics decisions, both of which pile on even more bonuses. There are a million possible combinations, encouraging a lot of number crunching, theorycrafting and experimentation. Individually, the faction design seems conservative, but when you start mixing them up things start to get a lot more exciting. At the start of every new era-there are six in total-you can optionally adopt a new era-appropriate culture while keeping the bonuses from your previous ones. Humankind's big trick is that you're not stuck with your chosen culture. No numerical bonuses can really compare to the unique traits of Endless Legend's Necrophage, a ravenous insectoid swarm that can't make friends and just wants to eat everything, or Endless Space 2's Horatio, a faction filled with clones of the most narcissistic person in the galaxy. These differences will determine, or at least inspire, your strategy, but mechanically they are a lot less distinct than any of the factions Amplitude has created previously. The bonuses are usually big, game-changing numbers, and there's a significant difference if you pick, say, the industrious Egyptians over the expansionist Assyrians. You also get a unique building, unit and bonus, like Egypt's ability to generate more industrial power. Each has a penchant for science, expansion, warfare and other specialities, giving you an active and passive ability shared by all the cultures with that affinity.

When it's time to hit the ancient era, it's only then that you get to pick your first culture. It's simply the best 4X starting experience.

More Fame can be earned by erecting wonders, too, or by completing competitive deeds, like discovering natural wonders or landing on a new continent. Watch out, though, because that Fame isn't going to save you if a more advanced empire decides to pick a fight.
#HUMANKIND XBOX FREE#
So you might linger in an era you're free to leave, just so you can mop up a few more stars that you're close to getting. While those stars are crucial, what you're really trying to get is the accompanying Fame payout-if you have the most when the game ends, victory is yours. Found a place with bronze and horses? Get an outpost on that as quickly as you can, and then get back to brawling with the wildlife. It's really a sprint, a particularly brutal one on the highest difficulty, where you're competing to get first dibs on the list of playable cultures and stake your claim on the most bountiful regions. I'm sure this all sounds quite relaxing-that's a trap. Picking berries and beating up mammoths-a perfect Neolithic family day out. During this phase you saunter around gathering food and other resources from nodes scattered all over the world, with breaks where you get to fight animals. Before picking a site for your first settlement, or even picking a culture, you must first explore the world as a nomadic, Neolithic tribe. Normally you'd need to pick a civ, faction or race of nerdy dragons first, and then plonk down a city, but not here. It's clear that isn't the case as soon as you hop into a campaign.

This is not to say that Humankind doesn't have any bold ideas.
