A new Humankind video demonstrates how your cities and empire will grow

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Humankind is an upcoming strategy game from Endless Legend developer Amplitude Studios that bears more than a passing resemblance to the strategy mega-series Civilization. Like the Civ games, players in Humankind must establish cities and expand them outward, claiming territory in order to amass resources and power. But the process of pushing outward in Humankind will be a little different than it is in Civilization.

In Endless Legend, the map is divided into distinct regions that are claimed when players build cities within them. Humankind will expand upon that concept with "dynamic" territories, some of which will be on the map from the beginning, and others that players will assemble over the course of the game.

Another new addition in Humankind are "outposts" that enable players to claim regions, but unlike cities cannot be expanded or developed. Outposts will not be particularly durable, which will likely make them points of heavy conflict, but if they can be maintained they can eventually be converted into cities, or assimilated into an adjacent city.

"The idea of the dynamic territories is to lead the player to build fewer cities, but bigger and bigger, and to reflect the big megalopolises that exist nowadays. We wanted to keep within the city a trace of history, a trace of the player's journey and an echo of the different cultures he chooses and plays in his session," lead game designer Maxence Voleau explains in the video. To help foster that feeling, "Emblematic Quarters" in cities will maintain their original visual appearance, even as the city as a whole grows and modernizes.

The more unified approach to growth isn't the only way that Humankind aims to be different from Civilization: It's also taking a different approach to leaders by enabling customized rather than historical leaders, and putting a priority on their fame, rather than the dominance of their people.

Humankind is expected to be out later this year. You can find out more about what's in store in our October preview.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.