I have been idling along some time doing a NewGame+ run through on Horizon Zero Dawn. Interesting to see how the pacing feels when you know all the story beats in advance. Still think some of those audio and written data-points have some great emotional gut punches in them.
Out of curiosity, I picked up Humankind in the sale the other week and gave it a poke. Very much that Civilisation lite type of game, just with the gimmick that every age you can reset your culture to have different goals, bonuses, and specialty building / unit. I think it would flow better if you had a generic name, and then just adopted those bits as part of your culture. As it is you can start Babylonian, turn Greek, then Persian, then French, then Swedish. Just feels a little jarring.
It's nice enough as is, and you can spend a weekend filling your hours up growing a civilisation up and such like, but there's nothing gameplay wise that jumps out as that new or fresh. Luxury and Strategic resources discovered as you go up the tech tree, some glitchy diplomacy routines, military units to roam after bandits/barbarians/mercenary units, or engage in warfare with other (AI or not) players. Wonders to build. Influence to spread.
Nice enough, but if you've already got a couple of these types of games in your library, there's not much point to adding it in.