A successful campaign of Humankind produces a glorious mish-mash of architecture and design across a hex-based, undulating map. Colossal Egyptian pyramids can be surrounded by streets of red-brick Victorian town houses, while industrial shipping docks dovetail with traditional Chinese temples. It looks both beautiful and insane, but as developer Amplitude points out in its Gamescom presentation demo, this isn’t any different to the real world that surrounds us. The effect may be exaggerated, but our cities and countries are often jigsaw puzzles made up of pieces from totally different eras and cultures.
That’s the underlying philosophy of Humankind, and also what makes it distinct from its most obvious progenitor, Firaxis’ Civilization. In Civ you choose a notable power from humanity’s past and follow their goals and ideals through multiple eras. Humankind, on the other hand, rejects the idea of adhering to a single path; as each of the game’s six eras progress, you pick one of the period’s ten dominant cultures and absorb them into your overall community.
Source: IGN.com Humankind Makes Multiculturalism Its Killer Feature