In the lefthand corner, we have the challenger Humankind while on the righthand side, we have the current champion Civilization VI. Will Civilization still be the champion at the end of this article?
In this article, I will be summarising Humankind and Civilization VI before I compare the two games and announce which game at the time of writing I consider to be the better game. You can read my Humankind review for full details on Humankind.
Humankind the Challenger to the throne
In Humankind, you start a new game in the neolithic period. As you explore the map with your tribe, you gain resources that will allow you to build your first Outpost. Once your tribe has claimed enough resources, it can advance to the ancient era turning one of your outposts into a city.
As you play the game, your tribe advances through the different historical eras. Each time you enter a new era, you adopt a historic civilisation as the culture for your people. Each culture has its distinct strengths.
As you work through the game, you will receive fame, and the winner of a game is the leader with the most fame.
Civilization VI the defending champion
Civilisation VI is not unsurprisingly the sixth game in the series Civilisation. The first Civilisation game was published in 1991, and I can remember spending many hours playing the original game in my early 20’s
The general concept of the game hasn’t changed since the original game in the series. You select one Civilisation and lead them throughout the entire game. Each game starts in 4000 BC, with you hoping to build your first city on that turn.
Just like Humankind, Civilization VI passes through different eras. At the start of a new era, your Civilisation can enter a golden age, a neutral age, or a dark age depending on how many points you have achieved in the previous era. I have just realised while writing this that the concept is similar to fame in Humankind, but it only determines what age your Civilisation will experience in that era.
Victory in Civilisation can be determined by being the first Civilisation to be the first to meet one of the win requirements. The win requirements in Civilisation VI are.
- Science
- Cultural
- Domination / Conquest
- Religion
- Diplomacy (Added in the Gathering storm DLC)
If no Civilisation can meet one of the victory conditions before the end of the game. In a standard speed, the game the final turn is the year 2050. The winner is the player with the highest score.
The winner is Civilization VI
I was disappointed with Humankind when I wrote my original review, and I haven’t played it much since I finished writing my review. In contrast. I still play Civilization VI from time to time. For this reason alone, Civilisation VI is the winner.
The reason for my disappointment with Humankind is that it has some good ideas that could move this genre of turn-based history games forward. Hopefully, this will lead to an improved Civilisation VII as and when it is released.
The last couple of Civilisation games have lost the just one more turn than the first few games in the series. This is partly due to the game being dumbed down.