Is Humankind A FLOP? (Together We Rule)

It is no secret that Humankind: Together We Rule has performed far worse than expected, but why is that? In this video, I break down my thoughts on Humankind's first year of development and why some fans are disappointed with Amplitude's first expansion

[joaoabegao]

I honestly don't understand why Humankind doesn't have a bigger following. Been playing the game regularly since it came out and I absolutely love it. It really must be about marketing and about being the new kids on the block.

[jamesweiksner]

I played to the modern era and experienced no bugs, because I play the Docktorkain mod! The mod is great in so many ways for example: civics, events, cultures, infrastructure buildings and wonders! Docktorkain uses spreadsheets to balance the game out. He dresses every aspect of the game tweaks it and balances it. If you tell him about a bug he addresses it. Almost 11, 000 subscribers. I played civ 6 mods which greatly improved the game, because so many aspects of the game were broken. I couldn't play it. Most 4x games are sold broken. It takes modders to make the game playable.

[therexbellator]

I think we need to temper our expectations of what constitutes a hit and/or failure for a game like Humankind entering a 4X space (a genre that's already pretty niche) that is dwarfed by a giant like Firaxis' Sid Meier's Civilization.

Humankind was never going to get a huge amount of numbers regardless of their marketing. Judging from its state at launch Humankind was very much in an experimental phase where the developers were trying to see what worked and what didn't (an unofficial Early Access phase if you will). Case in point: originally the game would just end when you reached max turns but the developer did away with that when they realized that it's not a great mechanic that leaves gamers wanting more.

Despite the meek numbers my sense of it is that Humankind was a modest success in terms of units sold, simply for the fact that Amplitude and Sega have been continuing to support the game (publishers, after all, are not wont for throwing good money after bad).

I think you do make a good point re: how they market the game. The trailers and previews were okay... but Firaxis' marketing team did a great job of hyping up Gathering Storm and especially the New Frontier Pass; the year NFP came out was so fun as each month or so brought with it news of updates big and small.

Humankind by its design where cultures are merely milestones on the way toward victory lacks the personality that Civ has for its distinct cultures and leaders, which is unfortunate.

[Lord_Funk]

From a totally personal perspective Humankind is not a failure (no, I'm not being in denial, since I realize it might not have performed as well as it could have, but I mean what it has given me personally). It has finally given me a 4X Turnbased strategy game that I enjoy immensely.

Civilization VI pretty much killed it for me for years to have a "new" 4X Turnbased strategy to play and enjoy. I even still play civ 5, but civ 6 just can't keep me engaged. Everytime I have started to play it again (after updates), I find myself being bored within 20-30 min and usually shut it off. If I manage to play longer I hit mid game and it is just boring management and I zoom out and lose interest, I shut off the game to not even start that save again ever (in so many civ 6 games I have hit that mid game and never completed the playthroughs), or not play civ 6 at all again for long periods. In civ 5 I have like over 2000 hrs playtime. Civ 6 I only have 800 hrs and that is mostly my son playing at start. I would say maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of that is my played time of civ 6. Now my son doesn't even play it anymore either, although he now has had it on his own steam account for years as well.

As for Humankind I find myself very engaged. I enjoy every minute of it. The systems are so superior to Civ 6. Like for example the "districts" formula. It is not at all as boring and punishing as in civ 6. With Humankind it's based on each city, so you don't end up with districts taking a billion turns to complete in new cities in later game, but they do still increase in cost in that city as you build more in that specific city. It is even divided into infrstastucture, units and districts you build within a city, so they work more or less independantly and increase in cost depending on which category you have already built a lot in. So even if say your districts start to raise in cost to build, you can then shift to builidng up your infrastructure and not suffer that same increase in build cost for improving your city on that area etc. That feels so much more fun than in civ 6. Still those systems in Humankind also stops you from going totally crazy and spam cities or districts all over the map. Still it gives you the opportunity to to build up vibrant cities. Also that you can make units (kind of settlers) later in game, who sets up new cities with infrastructure alreaday in place (the ones already researched up to that era) and you can focus on district buidling, is such a fun mechanic/system.

I feel that those that don't enjoy Humankind do not fully grasp all the systems that differ from Civilization.

The combat, which is amazing in Humankind once you realize how to utilize all the various systems within it. Like high ground, flanking, even to chose what direction to attack from. To watch and maximize what terrain will acctually be part of the battlefield and where your side will get a choice to deploy. Not just aimlessly rush into combat straight from the front without any thought. When you get skilled at it, you can beat a superior force even with one tech lower units. It really feels like skill matters and not just numbers and the latest tech unit. Not to mention making use of civics and religious tenets that increases units strenghts, so that units that are behind in tech can match newer units. It simulates as if your units are better motivated, have better leadership and are better trained etc. The Humankind combat system is so superior to civ 6, or any civ game really.

The diplomacy and how to manage to get war support. How influence and your culture or religion is spreads, or how to counter others from spreading to you. How to optimize attaching territories to your already built cities, rather than just set up new cities and manage your currect city cap. Humankind might look a bit simple on the surface, but it's systems works so well together if you just truly understand them.

Oh and the really fun system of the neutral or independant tribes. So much more engaging and fun than the city states in civilization. Very rewarding too, if you know how to make use of it. It can easily double your science output, if you handle it well. Maikng it less necessary to have many cities. A way to work around the city cap, as well as hire their units as mercenaries in a tight spot. So much fun.

Are there bugs? Yes. Game breaking bugs? No, not any that I have found. Yes, I run into the "turn won't end" bug sometimes. However it is easy to work around if you have auto save set to save each turn. Go back one or two turns and just move some units a bit differetly and usually that breaks the AI out of being stuck with too many or too hard decisons that might make it get stuck (does not compute). I still don't like that there is any bug and of course any bug should get fixed.

This game is easy to get into, but like poker, takes time and skill to truly understand and master. Not to mention that I prefer Humankinds art-style TONS times more than civ 6. It might not be the most important aspect of strategy games (or so many claims), but to me it makes alot in the aspect of if I feel immersed in the world and my empire building or not. If it didn't, then we might as well all just be playing games with spreadsheets with columns and rows of numbers without any graphics at all (although spreadsheets and columns on a screen is actually graphics and a graphical interface too of course, but oh so boring to look at).

I think it is a shame that not more know about Humankind, or that the ones that do (whom I watch on youtube), just hop in, scratch the surface, assume it will play like civilization, don't really understand or realize how deep the game is and end up thinking it is too simple or lack features or systems (simply due to them not truly understanding the systems in place).

As for marketing, yes, the choices made, even if a bit new thinking or progessive in their design, or even really fun things (like giving creators their own avatars that players can unlock etc) have maybe not had the effect Amplitude hoped for. Still I find them to be fun additions, but more traditional marketing is probably needed. Rather than showing off a woman in blue hair through history (even if that does not offend me personally) might be a turn off to some gamers, or just "meh", who would rather see ads showcasing the great combat system and making the game seem like you are building an empire on a grand scale, rather than making a political statement. Maybe todays internet audience has a bit of a faitigue as far as politics being integrated into every aspect of life, even hobbies. That's just my guess. Even if I personally do not mind, I can at least try to put myself into the shoes of others and what they might feel. Maybe I'm wrong of course, but clearly something has gone wrong in getting the message and marketing across and attract more players, since the game itself is truly amazing when you understand it.

I haven't enjoyed a 4X turnbased strategy game this much since the days of civ 1, civ 4 and civ 5. To me Humankind is a blast to play. It gives me almost everything that civ 6 did not manage to give me.

[terranu]

AI ugnoring reinforcement rules turning many winning battles into endless hogs with free reinforcement waves nonstop whilst my own reinforcements get stuck in turns killed it for me.

[Thakkii]

There is a bug since alpha it still happens today, is when scouts stop exploring moving in same tile on auto explore, idk how hard is to fix but is annoying, i stop playing after that bug happens on multiple matches.

[canaqua]

Played the original of this game when it came out sounded cool, but after having 3 games completely lock up after 260-280 turns and not being able to complete those, I decided to let it go when the devs on games2gether site forums stated they were aware of the bug and were working on it, I just played this expansion and it still has games that completely lock up and again on the G2Ther site forums the devs said they were aware of the bugs and were working on them....Deja-vu anyone? Probably will have to stated that "This game sucks still after all this time. Do Not Buy if reading this before purchasing it. To bad for those of us that had high hopes for the title..

[dcv]

Amplitude has had increasingly buggy releases, even before Humankind. Their last expansions for Endless Space 2 are really... not great, especially compared with initial expansions. I think your criticisms are valid; I had high hopes for this game, but it's just not there. Absolutely not a competitor with Civ 6. For that, I'm looking at Old World.

[marshallscot]

Maybe because they haven't fixed all these game breaking bugs which have been around since launch.

[kcw]

I have played every Civ game since the very first, and I also have not played any civ game since Humankind came out. I absolutely love HK in almost every way and cannot figure out where all the hate for it is coming from. It beats Civ in almost every aspect imo.

[maxmustermann-zxyq]

when it comes to endless space 2 it would be also worth pointing out that they just recently released another big patch to fix their last DLC (which was an outsourced disaster), so they do have long term support, though sometimes at strangely late times (release date of that DLC, which was the last one, was in September 2019)

[partlycloudy]

Idk don't really think it's a feature thing or anything like that I think it has more to do with it's core design and it's kind of confusing territory/settlement system. Just all around not straight forward design design

[Ramotttholl]

always had this game on my WL but never actually bought it. loved the map style of this over Civ and i just don't like the idea of the preset regions. but playing it would probably clear it up.
main isue is i havnt had a craving for this kind of game in a while.

[DmytroBogdan]

You can't compare the regular player base to an all time high. Every game has its first successful month when players are trying new game. By that metric all games should be a flop.

[hoddo]

I feel the constant switching from one civilization to another throughout the ages destroys immersion in the game and I'm sure that put off a lot of potential players. Many others would have given up in frustration at the game breaking crashes that make playing multiplayer games practically impossible.

[Nerdcrusher]

Civ 6? As I write this, there are twice as many players for Civ FOUR as for Humankind. Granted, Civ 4 is the greatest game of all time, but still...

[MsDany]

game has a lot of bugs and crashs and with the update it just got way worse. Borderline impossible to play basically

[sosvegas]

Is the game made my civ revolution? All the mechanics seem the same

[gamesmaster]

About the steam player count. Its on game pass so mabye a lot of people play it on there like I did.

[jon]

You didn't even talk about any of the actual problems. Steam reviews are bad not because of marketing but because it's bad. Read them. Then do a video.