"Humankind," Amplitude's ambitious rival to "Sid Meyers Civilization," can be played in an Open Dev demo that will be available on Google Stadia starting next week.

From the developer of "Endless Legend" and "Endless Space," "Humankind" is a more direct challenge to Firaxis' hexagonal nation-building game, intriguing in the process of building a culture rather than an end destination Amplitude is preorders this month and will make Humankind available to the public in limited quantities in a new limited demo.

Yes, it is playable only through Stadia, but there are perks to distribution through Google's infamous streaming service. For one thing, you can play it in your browser right this very second, and after setting up a free and easy Stadia profile and watching a developer video, I was in the middle of Humankind, ready to put down roots in my first city.

Unfortunately, the 1080p video stream was difficult to view on my 1440p monitor, and higher resolutions required a Stadia Pro subscription. Nevertheless, the game ran smoothly enough in my office Internet environment.

The first two eras in this Humankind trial take about 100 turns to play. In the first era you start things off as a Nubian, and in the second era you get to choose from 10 different cultures. You are free to play as long as you like until the demo ends next Wednesday, October 28.

Humankind itself will be available on Steam, Epic, and Google Stadia in April 2021 for $50.99/€50.99/£40.79.