In last year’s Humankind review, I said it didn’t feel like it had reached its final form yet. It’s a pretty typical sentiment in the age of digital games – even the latest Call of Duty is a bit skeletal, according to our review – and the good news is that after our Humankind Together We Rule review, Amplitude’s Civilization-baiting 4X game feels reassuringly hefty. And yet, though I missed the new mechanics when they were absent, their presence hasn’t made all that much difference to my games.

Apart from a cheeky Classical-era flirtation with the Achaemenid Persians, I played one of the new diplomatic cultures in every era. I kept a beady eye on the map for any caches of leverage, the new currency for diplomatic schemes. I tried to use the Congress of Humankind to do interesting things. It all basically works and lends the comforting sense of a more rounded humanity simulator – though religion mechanics remain woefully underdeveloped – but every way you can play other than diplomatically is more consistent, controllable, and satisfying.

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