I've had the privilege of playing Humankind four times now. The first press demo was almost a year ago, and was followed by the Lucy and then Victor OpenDev sessions. On this latest occasion, the game build includes the Industrial Era for the first time, and I'm very excited to try it out.
As I embark upon another journey through history, I notice that the Neolithic Era feels much better. There are far more 'curiosities' - Humankind's collectible resource caches, equivalent to Civ VI's tribal villages - to chase, which lends a greater sense of purpose and attainment to this phase of the game. The bounty of resources also means it's easier to multiply my tribe, and I soon have a horde of little people wandering around.
Your tribe grows like this until you settle and found your first city, thereupon beginning the Ancient Era and the no-really-it's-been-brilliant concept of civilisation. It's possible to delay this, swarm all over the map, and overwhelm early rivals in a carpet of tribes - I rebuff the green AI as it tries to expand, boxing it into a peninsula - but presumably there will also come a point where it's in your interest to settle before those rivals build a lead in technology that you can't catch.
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