Humankind 2 Revisits One of Its Most Divisive Earlier Ideas

Humankind 2 takes a new approach to integrated cultures in the debate over cultural change, and it may offer an elegant solution.

Culture change is no longer mandatory.

Your society is built from building blocks picked up from several different cultures along the way.

Nature plays a much bigger role than early humans.

Historical 4X games focus on a group of people that you might call a nation, an empire, or indeed a civilization. The Humankind Amplitude series is no different, but its second installment looks at these concepts from a slightly different angle. After all, the idea of ​​a shared identity comes from the stories we tell ourselves and each other about who we are. And this is the starting point for charting a path through the ages in Humankind 2.

While the original Humankind and other staples of the genre usually start by choosing a specific historical culture like the Greeks or Egyptians, Humankind 2 is a little different. The first choice you'll make is between one of 19 different founding myths based on real-world oral traditions, each corresponding to at least one historical culture. This is the story of how your people came to be in their own minds.

We got a glimpse of the origins of the Wild Twins, which reward housing near wild animals and are associated with the Etruscans, and the Flood Tamers, which are suited to fertile river valleys and are associated with the ancient Egyptians. The demo we saw used Humankind 2's new Historical Mode, which takes a non-randomized map of Earth and places each of these early cultures in the region they belong to in real life. Of course, this won't be the only way to play, as random worlds are also an option.

While the first Humankind shook up the genre by forcing you to choose a new culture in each of its six periods, a choice made even more controversial by its appearance in Civilization 7, Humankind 2 doesn't force this. It will have over 70 cultures at launch, spread across different eras, but you can pick one at the dawn of history and stick with it until the end. Every culture has an era or set of eras that can be chosen for the first time. For example, Ancient Egypt can be chosen in the first or second period. But if you already have that culture, you'll never have to give it up.

It may ultimately make sense for us to do this for you. The mentioned domain you may have the choice to select "Different culture related to Egypt" in later courses. But even keeping the "ancient" Egyptians alive in modern times doesn't mean that your culture remains completely static because of how you assemble a society from various advantages.

Each of the more than 70 cultures has its own customs tree to draw from. In the case of ancient Egypt, this includes major pieces such as embalming, hieroglyphs, and the pharaoh's office. These are at least initially placed in 10 traditional slots that can be active at any time. These can be pulled from any of the cultures you've played as during the run. So even if you become a Carthaginian in the second period, you can keep the pharaoh's tradition active for as long as you want.

There are even two special slots called Legacies that reward completing a culture's tree. Each culture allows you to choose one of two possible legacies to carry forward, which are more powerful than normal traditions. For Ancient Egypt, these are the Scale of Eternity, which establishes your people's heritage of historical architecture, and the Dynasty of Conquest, which sets you on a path to military expansion known as the God-King.

So what does this mean for rulers who want to maintain the same culture? Well, historical cultures are not the only way to acquire new traditions. Another major resource is Adaptations, which are earned based on where your civilization is located. An Egyptian player who settles in the desert has access to different adaptations than one who settles in the Arctic, even though they share the traditional Ancient Egyptian tree. In addition, you can also adopt a limited number of traditions from the cultures you come into contact with through acculturation, allowing your society to evolve with the times based on what your neighbors are doing.

If you want to choose a new culture at the start of a new era, there are now a few more restrictions than the original game for everyone. You will initially have a choice of cultures that you have a common history with in the real world. For Ancient Egypt, their natural progression for Age 2 is the Persians. Second, you can choose a culture with a shared geography. If you are playing Ancient Egypt in your historical starting position, this includes either the Barbarians (also available as a turn 1 choice) or the Carthaginians. And finally, you can adopt the culture of another group that you have been in contact with in the present age. We were shown that Egypt can become Goth.

While you strive to create a culture that can withstand the ages, Mother Earth herself will not be idle. Nature's role in history is re-emphasized in Humankind 2, including mechanics for both natural and human-induced climate change. For example, we were shown that changes in global climate such as the Medieval Warming Period or the Little Ice Age may change the character of entire biomes. Plains that started out wet may suddenly dry out, changing their resource potential and potentially leading to instability. Technology can affect the following periods in both directions.

All that fresh flash aside, Humankind 2 feels like a fairly recognizable historical 4X game. We didn't get too deep into the exact details of the mechanics, but the familiar sources of money, food, production, knowledge, faith, and authority were all visible in the interface. The stylized 3D map looks great, if a little cramped in the Historical Earth version. Cities will be mastered as in many other Amplitude games, rather than being acquired as individual tiles. And the height is still clearly visible.

Notably, in the play we saw from the historical state, there were no empty zones at the end of period 1. I'm told that the Neolithic phase is still part of the journey, but areas of the map that you don't immediately settle into will eventually fill up quickly with their own historical cultures, forcing you to expand by conquest or diplomacy rather than settling in virgin plains.

Some of the other cultures we saw included the Romans and the Tul people in the prehistoric Arctic. Other Period 1 start locations visible on the historical mode map, although we were unable to see their names, include the Yucatan Peninsula, northern Mexico, the American Great Lakes, Great Britain, Scandinavia, southern France, Greece, the Carpathian Basin, West Africa, Central Africa, the Mesopotamia, the Altai Mountains, the Caspian and East Caspian Sea coasts, and the Caspian Sea.

Cities seem to follow the "unpacked" model of the latest 4X games, scattered across many tiles. A glimpse of modern Paris reveals an urban footprint that covers most of the region. I raised concerns about this because I don't particularly like it when the entire map is covered in buildings by the endgame. I prefer that some areas remain wild or rural in appearance to contrast with urban centers. And Amplitude assured me that there would be incentives not to cover everything in concrete.

It's very hard to tell you about Humankind 2 without experiencing it myself. But given the little we've been shown, I feel positive about the direction it's taking. Gathering a unique legacy of many cultural influences over the course of a campaign while still having the option of keeping the original identity you started with seems like a clever solution to the debate between integrated cultures and changing cultures. I hope we give a bigger role to nature which leads to more dynamic and memorable scenarios. And everything from historical wonders to simple stone quarries looks smooth and tasty.

Humankind 2 is scheduled to release for PC in 2027.

Leana Hafer is a freelance contributor for IGN specializing in RPG, strategy, horror, and survival games. He has been reviewing video games professionally since 2010 and is one of IGN's most prolific contributors, with over 100 reviews published. You can also find his work on sites like PC Gamer and PCGamesN.