Hang on, the features are not necessarily locked behind the paywall, however the screenshots I found were certainly behind the paywall. I don’t think you gave this a fair look at all, and I’m encouraging to give it a second pass before you write it off entirely.

Try this instead. it’s how I found them initially and this was all free. Start out in Peru in the year 200ad.

I started there myself to learn about the Chavin civilization and what they were doing around that time. And when I was done reading, I noticed in the top right corner I could zoom out from Peru and look at all of the Americas. And further, I could zoom out to look at the world. That’s still all on 200ad, and it’s still all gratis. But wait, go back to the Peru page you started on and now click the arrow to go back in time a few times and check out the green area that the early people were inhabiting as it shrinks. Still free. And still, you can zoom out from Peru and look at the continental or global views, and move around to different parts of the world.

Go to their Atlas page. Literally the entire left side of that page is free content.