Humankind, the Civ-like strategy game where you can change culture each time you move into a new era, has had a few add-ons since it released in 2021. DLC packs have added Cultures of Africa and Cultures of Latin America, and the Together We Rule expansion was all about winning friends and influencing people, bringing a "leverage" currency, an inter-empire forum to facilitate global democracy, agents, and six more cultures and wonders. The latest DLC, the Para Bellum Wonders pack, throws in another six wonders, and you can download it for free until May 10 on Steam and Epic.
Wonders are one way of earning fame, which determines who wins at the end of a campaign of Humankind, so they're a bit important. The six historical wonders added in Para Bellum are:
- The Stables of Pi-Ramesses
- The Colosseum
- The Citadel of Alamut
- The Hôtel des Invalides
- The Kaiserliche Werft
- The Pentagon
A solid variety of architectural accomplishments there, ranging from the 14th century BCE, when Pi-Ramesses was the capital of Egypt, to 1943, when the Pentagon was opened.
In his review of Humankind, Fraser Brown singled out the way cultures can be combined by switching to a new one in each era as an interesting design idea. "Individually, the faction design seems conservative," he wrote, "but when you start mixing them up things start to get a lot more exciting. There are a million possible combinations, encouraging a lot of number crunching, theorycrafting and experimentation. You've also got lots of religious tenets, available to pick whenever your religion ranks up, and culture-wide civics decisions, both of which pile on even more bonuses. Overpowered builds are inevitable with this many combos, and I much prefer it to perfect balance."
Alongside the release of the Para Bellum Wonders DLC comes the Vauban update, which adds beta Steam Workshop support to Humankind's existing support for mods via mod.io, as well as "Renounce All" and "Demand All" buttons for impatient diplomats, adjacency bonuses for some wonders, tweaks to the auto-resolve formula and a preview of how much damage units will take, AI improvements, and another wonder—the Brussels Town Hall. Here are the full patch notes.
