Humankind gets a free 100-turn demo

We said Amplitude Studios' Civ-like strategy game Humankind is "a solid 4X that could use a bit more personality" in our 71% review earlier this year.

Humankind is "a massive, history-spanning behemoth that's kept me on its hooks until sunrise a few times," we declared. "But in trying to make its own Civilization, Amplitude may have sacrificed too much of what made its earlier games, Endless Legend in particular, such compelling weirdos."

It's "a good game that's definitely worth playing," then—but is it good enough to throw your money at, particularly if you're not necessarily a committed 4X fan?

A new demo on Steam, Epic, and the Microsoft Store means that you can now find out, or at least get a pretty good idea, without having to sink any money into the effort. The demo offers 100 turns of play and three historical eras—Neolithic, Ancient, and Classical—with 14 different cultures (out of 60 in the full game) to combine into unique civilizations. And as in the full game, demo players will be able to design their own custom maps and share them with the Humankind community.

If you dig the demo, you can also pick up Humankind on the Epic Store (but not the others, for some reason) for 20% off—that's $40 for the standard edition or $48 for the deluxe, which includes the Notre Dame DLC pack, the soundtrack, and a unit and tech tree PDF—until November 30.

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.