Humankind closed beta coming, lets you play through most of a game

Humankind, Amplitude's upcoming, history-spanning 4X game, gets a new closed beta soon, and it'll let you play through five of the game's six eras. There's also a snazzy new trailer to come with the announcement, which you can watch here:

Amplitude's done plenty of other betas like this in the past - which the studio refers to as OpenDevs - but this is the furthest into a game of Humankind you'll have been able to get, by some way.

You can play either 200 turns or up to the end of the Industrial Era, whichever comes first. Industrial era features include resources like coal and oil, railways, and artillery and air battles - we actually had a chance to explore some more of this ourselves during our latest preview but barely got halfway there, despite playing a good 10 to 15-odd hours, which should give you an idea of just how long you get with this beta.

To access it, you'll need to pre-order the game on Steam or the Epic Games Store, or you can alternatively try your luck at getting a key via Twitch drops from certain influencers as they stream the game during the beta period. Amplitude listed some of those - AmplitudeStudios, Burke Black, GamerZakh, Jouer du Grenier, Lewis, Lomadiah, Marbozir, Quill18, ZeratoR, and Shurjoka - although that's a "non-exhaustive" list.

When the beta's actually happening hasn't been announced yet, though. That'll be revealed during Sunday's PC Gaming Show, so be sure to check back then. In the meantime, you can look at some pretty screenshots and read what I thought of Humankind in our recent preview and interview (I liked it very much).

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