Hello everyone, 

And welcome to our first look at the gameplay of HUMANKIND 2. 

In the coming weeks, we'll be taking closer looks at different elements of the game, but today we want to give you an overview of the experience by following one civilization through the early stages of the game. 

Check out the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4ZTZafqFOw

Or the written version below.

A key part of playing a historical strategy game is immersing yourself in it. The world and events of the game must feel authentic and believable for you to feel like you are leading an empire through all of human history. And we know you agree with us about this: We got a lot of feedback about it for Humankind, both good and critical. 

We put a strong emphasis on authenticity when working on Humankind 2. All the people, places, and events you encounter in Humankind 2 are grounded in historical research. Besides our game director Benoit being a historian himself, we have collaborated with more than 30 historians across the world. With their help and expertise, we strive to create a believable historical sandbox in which you can write your own story. 

This immersion begins with the map: If you already recognize the places you rule (or fight over), they become memorable parts of the story forming in your head.  So, for the Historical Mode of Humankind 2 (more on other game modes later), we created an earth map with roughly 20 starting locations to choose from. Each of these starting locations is associated with a First Tale, the founding myth of your people that will be used to identify your empire throughout the game. They also include some effects that will impact the beginning of the game and provide access to at least one Culture. 

Today, we're looking at the Flood Tamer First Tale, which places us in the desert along the Nile and is associated with the Ancient Egyptians. After a couple of turns establishing our first settlement in the neolithic era, the Ancient Era begins and our tribe adopts their new culture. This is not an immediate change, but a process that continues throughout the era. Each of the 70 Cultures in Humankind 2 has their own cultural progression tree of Customs that let you unlock bonuses, units, or even districts over time, culminating in a choice of Legacy Trait. 

Eventually, the Ancient Era draws to a close, and we enter the Classical Era, giving us the option to adopt a new culture any time we want once per era. But the Ancient Egyptians were an enduring culture, and span two eras in HUMANKIND 2, so we choose to keep playing as them. In fact, we could continue playing as the Ancient Egyptians for the rest of the game, but once we reach the medieval era, we are presented with new enticing options linked to our current culture through our Common History. Depending on where we settle and who we meet, we might unlock other relevant cultures as well. 

Unlocking cultures? Yes, in HUMANKIND 2's Historical Mode, you cannot freely pick cultures when changing eras anymore. Unrestricted culture change was a part of HUMANKIND we received a lot of feedback about, since players felt it diminished immersion and made it harder to remember who's who, so in HUMANKIND 2 you can only choose a Culture if you meet one of three conditions: They share Common History with your current culture, they historically Shared Land with land you control, or you have close Foreign Contact with them. However, adopting cultures you simply share land or borders with may take more investment than following the historical links. 

Adopting their culture whole cloth is not the only way we can learn from our neighbors, though. If they have any Customs we find particularly useful, we can adopt a few of them to benefit from exactly what we need. Let's say for example our mighty Egyptian empire expands far into the polar reaches of the north. This icy, hostile environment is difficult to traverse, but luckily, we meet the Thule people and learn how to use dog sleds for our continued exploration from them. 

We can’t rely only on Cultures and Customs, though. What would we have done if we had not run into the Thule people? Luckily, our people are perfectly capable of learning to thrive in different environments by themselves. If you settle in any of the eight different biomes, you can unlock Adaptations specific to that biome. These Adaptations are crucial to doing well in harsh environments like the polar regions or our desert homeland. They become even more important whenever the climate shifts, as many resources in Humankind 2 are limited and need to be managed carefully. 

We hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the early game in Humankind 2! 

If you’re eager to know more, don’t worry, we’ll be going into more depth in the coming weeks and months. And if you can’t wait, we have an opportunity for you: 

The Insiders Program 

Be among the first to play Humankind 2 and give us your feedback! Hearing from you about what you like or don’t like, what you think works or does not work, is invaluable for shaping Humankind 2 into the best game it can be, so we want to give some of you the chance to play the game before we release it. 

Sign Up Here!