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.