It's very rare that I buy games on release. After some research, I took a chance at purchasing Humankind on release, primarily for the OST. I have small regrets about it.
I initially bought this game as I am a fan of Arnaud Roy's music. I am new to the 4X genre, but the genre isn't very difficult to learn compared to other genres I enjoy.
The most immediate element to note are the visuals. The game has a visually pleasing artistic style. Humankind has beautiful presentation through its artwork and in-game world. Its visual style is as comfortable as a game like
Cities: Skylines or
Minecraft.
In terms of gameplay, Humankind has a lot of potential. Some factors such as stability require more tweaking. Penalties to stability are easily mitigated by luxury goods. The main issue I've run into is the strategy of culture picks. At a certain point, it feels as if the game is simply solved if you choose the correct cultures. In the early game, the Harappans and Egyptians are considered top tier for growing population or industry respectively. Near the endgame, science cultures such as the French, Swedes, or even the Turks are powerful for farming fame through research. Reaching the end of the research tree gives a good chunk of fame and ends the game. Whilst one could simply avoid these cultures in order to add variety, there's an active acknowledgement of hindering your progress or advantages. To paraphrase an incredibly skilled gamer, known as Alkaizer, on using any game's top strategy: there's little reason to avoid the strongest strategies, especially when it makes sense to use them. Currently, there isn't much of a reason for me to go back to this game, at least for now.
The game has a long way to go balance-wise and also in its small details, whether aesthetically representing the evolution of your culture, fixing technical issues, or in quality of life changes.
For example, the Dia de los Muertos Event has a bug with the "Civil Evolution" challenge. The meter for completion won't increase despite enacting civics in new games. This bug has been in the game for 3 weeks now, since its introduction on the 17th of November to the current time of adding this paragraph, the 11th of December. This is in contrast with
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, which has only had a single problematic temporary challenge since its release on the 14th of November, 2019.
As previously mentioned, I purchased Humankind to see how Arnaud Roy's work is conveyed within the game and I can say he delivers musically. Arnaud Roy has crafted a diverse orchestral OST with great songwriting. Hidden Soul is one of my personal songs of the year. The music is, by far, one of the greatest parts of the game. However, after my time playing Humankind, I can say it wasn't especially necessary to play the game for its OST. The gameplay itself does not add any extra weight to the message of the music, compared to a game such as
Undertale. In the case of Humankind, if you enjoy the music, I recommend simply listening to it by itself. It is not necessary to play this game to understand the context of Arnaud Roy's work.
I expect Humankind to get better over time as long as it maintains updates.