Old World

Old World is trying really hard to be a mix between Civilization in the ancient era and Crusader Kings. While it has some interesting mechanics, it fails in the most important part of every game — it’s not fun. At the first glance Old World looks like a child of two beloved franchises, and it makes it very appealing at the beginning. However, the more you play, the more it's evident that it's trying too hard not to be like its parents, and by doing so it ruins player's experience. Let’s talk about the Civ-like part first. The first major innovation OW has is "orders" — a currency-like resource you spend on everything. Want to move your scout? Use orders. Want to build a farm? Use orders. If you mismanage it somehow — explored a bit too much or fought barbarians too often — no more farm for you this turn. It feels okay until you realize that some other mechanics use orders too, and that means you, the player, are constantly under duress, unable to do everything you want, no matter how big your empire is or how many units you have. That’s the first limiter on the player’s agency. Next come resources. Instead of a single currency that "rules them all" — gold — and multiple resource pools like production, food, culture, etc., that you use indirectly, Old World has multiples of everything. In order to build something, you need not just production, but also iron, stone, and wood — and you need them stockpiled. It doesn’t look bad until you realize that the majority of your gameplay is building quarries, because you’ll always be short on stone. Want to build a segment of road? Need stone. Want to build an improvement? Need stone. World wonder? Heck-ton of stone. Oh, and by the way, every improvement that produces one type of currency has upkeep in others, so you have to build them all, all the time — and you’ll never have enough. Your theater? It requires stone every turn too. On paper, the idea of multiple currencies instead of one looks interesting. In reality, it’s just tedious. As if two limiters — orders and currencies — weren’t enough, there are also “shields” (aka military currency) and civics, which work just like orders, but slightly differently. You need them for RP stuff (send a mission to Cleopatra), but also for some buildings and for managing laws. In the end, the Civ-like part of the game is a palaver of picking between essential actions, building a gazillion quarries, and manually chopping wood (lumbermills are, apparently, too complicated a technology, and for the first half of the game you have no wood income). That alone makes me want to drop OW and never come back — but there’s more. “RP stuff,” aka Crusader Kings-like interactions with your family and other factions. This layer is mostly paper-thin, and in the areas where you can actually feel it, you wish you didn’t. First of all, most RP interactions require some currency — usually civics, but occasionally orders too — which is bad design in general. The player should not have to choose between enacting a new law or converting their youngest son to state paganism. Secondly, the benefits of doing RP are mostly percentages — slightly better governors' bonuses, a tiny bit happier nation — but the negative impacts are usually severe. An unloyal character can outright kill your ruler in an event. So the balance is skewed toward bad consequences, interactions are limited by important resources, and it all makes the entire feature rather frustrating. And finally, there are mechanics that could probably work by themselves, but in combination with other agency-limiting rules OW has, they become unpleasant. For example, the way technologies are discovered — you can’t select any tech you want; your choice is limited by randomly picked options. So if you’re unlucky, you can wait forever for the tech you really need. All in all, OW makes you fight not with your enemies, but with multiple agency bottlenecks; it makes you dream not about world domination, but about having a strong supply of freaking stone; and it never allows you to feel a blast — even on the lowest difficulty settings. It’s not a bad game. It’s not a complicated game either — it’s just exhausting, overbearing, and not fun.

Gameplay Mechanics: 8/10 Narrative: 7/10 Graphics: 7/10 Sound and Music: 8/10 Replayability: 8/10 Innovation: 9/10 Old World is what happens when you blend the structure of a 4X game with the personality and storytelling of a dynasty simulator. It’s not just about building cities and marching armies—it’s about raising heirs, managing court intrigue, and making decisions that echo through generations. And it nails that blend surprisingly well. Gameplay mechanics are solid and distinctive. The order system limits how many actions you can take per turn, which forces real prioritization. You’ll constantly juggle expansion, politics, diplomacy, and war within tight constraints. It’s strategic, but occasionally the pacing can feel a bit restricted. Score: 8/10. Narrative is a standout for the genre. Your leaders and family members have personalities, ambitions, and storylines that evolve through scripted events and random occurrences. It adds richness that most historical strategy games lack. Score: 7/10. Graphics are clean and effective. The map has a grounded, earthy aesthetic that fits the ancient setting well, and the UI is intuitive once you get used to it. It’s not flashy, but it works. Score: 7/10. Sound and music complement the tone perfectly. The soundtrack is atmospheric without being intrusive, and event narration gives character to your decisions. Score: 8/10. Replayability is strong thanks to the dynastic elements and branching events. You’ll want to try out different nations, traits, and strategies, though it doesn’t quite hit the infinite-loop addictiveness of some other 4X giants. Score: 8/10. Innovation is where Old World really excels. The combination of a limited action economy with dynasty mechanics and narrative-driven events makes it feel fresh and unique in a crowded genre. Score: 9/10. Bottom line: Old World is a smart, engaging twist on historical strategy. If you like the idea of Civ with more character-driven drama, this game delivers.

I like the game so far. It's basically a mixture of Civilization and Crusader Kings. As somebody who grew up with the civ games it is easy to get into the basics of the game but hard to master the depths of the game. There are choices and decisions at any corner and it takes some time to get used to certain features: limited orders per turn, several families inside your civilization. I think the game does a good job of reminding you in case you forget some important stuff. I have only some minor critisism so far. As I said the game has a lot of micromanagement of your civilization, cities and units. However, I think it lacks some macromanagement decisions or epic things that can happen. Once you have settled all cities spots and all minor tribes are dealt with, there really isn't that much to do other than fighting wars against other civilizations and collecting victory points. Comparing with the big sister game Civilization, in the latter you have the UN, global warming. several unique victory conditions or might even ruin the planet with nukes. I am not saying there should be exactly the same features but I wish there were some more unique paths to victory. In the end it all comes down to collecting points. But these are minor things. If you like deep turn-based strategy like Civ and CK, you are in the right place.

There are several things I like about this game, including: (a) its strong historical foundations, (b) its nice blend of complexity and challenge, (c) its blend of Crusader Kings and Civilization, but with a shorter time frame, and (d) the overall quality of the game, including the sound track. Kudos to the developers; it is a gift to players.

This is by far my favorite 4X. The AI is smart. Exploration is fun. There are always choices to make that matter (do I build a specialist to increase my culture or another military unit because my aggressive AI neighbor can invade). The soundtrack is legitimately so good I stream it. The devs are constantly looking at it and improving it.

15 hours in two days. I missed a good Civ-like game. Just-one-more-turn magic is definitely here. I especially appreciate more serious tone of the game with great art style (I'm looking at you Civ 6)

I think it's great. Certainly like it better than Civ but then again I don't like all the modern time period stuff and do enjoy the RP esque stuff in old world.

Played this game through unofficial means and enjoyed it so muuch, I felt like I was ripping of the devs. They 100% deserve every penny for this amazing game. 10/10

Why yes, I would most certainly recommend this. I've played quite a lot of 4X turn based strategy games, and I just keep coming back to this one over and over again. I think Civ 3 and a couple of the Age of Wonders series has this one beat in terms of number of hours logged, but I'm catching up to those and have long beaten pretty much all the others. So yeah, it's worth every penny I paid.

Wow ,loads in it definately not a game to be rushed, very smooth, easy to learn with scripted play takes you through all the game mechanics, good graphics and it kinda along the lines of the civ games, enjoy.

Flat out better than Civ 7, and a great hybrid of Civ-type and Paradox-type games, with great roleplaying mechanics as you guide your dynasty forward. I bought this for its blend of Civ-style turn-based mechanics and grand-strategy-style empire/resource management and dynasty-building, and it doesn't disappoint.

First impression? Oh wow, it's civilization with extra steps! Final thought. It's civilization with too many steps. Old world crosses over from depth to tediousness. It's fatigue-inducing, not rage-inducing. Some of the mechanics are really interesting, but taken as a whole the game become not-worth-playing for me by my third attempt. Too much RNG, too much clicking, not enough fun.

Good game and felt fairly balanced for my playthrough, had interesting mechanics as well. But personally I didn't had the fun I felt playing civilization. The wars felt like endless grind of armies for the most part. Order mechanics made wars and peacetime building annoying sometimes because some turns I didn't had anything to do actually, others I had to do so much but I was always limited by order numbers, as I didn't want to waste my orders I just did something every turn just for doing it. I liked dynasties, families, religions tho they all felt like good improvements.

This is the best historical 4X ever. Shame it is overlooked. I love the game but my only issue is lack of choices for civs. You can only pick a handful of them. I hope there will be more civ updates or DLCs in the future.

Everything I loved about Civilisation without the stuff I didn't. Create and ancient empire and not have to deal with rock bands and golf courses. the character arcs attach a narrative to your empire, and you feel like you are creating or watching history

It has a nice manner of keeping the dialogue interesting; something that is quite hard to do in games of this style. It has most of the standard civilisation building game things, but connects them together in a smooth way, which makes for an enjoyable game. As with most civilisation building games, a single games can sometimes take a considerable amount of time to complete, but we all know that going in anyway.

Have been playing this obsessively for the last few weeks. Big learning curve, with many systems (food v growth, unit movement, etc.) seeming obtuse at first, largely because of me trying to play it like Civilisation. It has so many layers and an intricate yet cohesive design, and 'solves' many of the common problems I'd thought of as inherent in 4x design, including * Orders system limits late game tedium when you have a lot of units/workers * Diplomacy is thematic and makes sense, not just a 'bartering table' * AI that can play the game and challenge you * Turn limit and victory point / ambition win conditions reduce the drawn out 'mopping up' stage in the end game * Takes its subject matter seriously: no jokey meme events, cartoon characters, or pop culture references A+ (and I look forward to any future DLC plans & updates!)

This is a great game for fans of "civ" type games, lots of deep strategy and decision making. Running a dynastic family is a great game mechanic, as is orders and undo for minor mouse errors. Looking forward to their next Old World title.

I love the game, the immersion, the story that unfolds, the gameplay. The only thing that i like better in Civ 5 or 6 are the units and the battle animations. I don't like giants units....besides that i think is a great game!

Very replayable. Sufficiently complex yet understandable to present a decent challenge consistently.

Interesting blend of traditional 4X elements like Civ with RPG games like Crusader Kings. Nationbuilding, warfare, and diplomacy are all affected by character traits and opinions, creating a simple sort of politics.

Love this game! What sets Old World apart from other strategy games is how they weave story and strategy together. I've never played a game where every decision echoes across generations, and being able to control that your lineage holds power. Old World brings a new style of game play to strategy games that cannot be overlooked, it's not just about expanding territory, but also about securing your family's legacy. That long game of succession and stability is what makes this game so satisfying and irresistible.

Solid game, good premise and theme. Love the constant updates.

I love the idea of the game but it's painfully slow. They're trying to drag what should be a 5 to 8 hour campaign across three or four days. Technologies/Units take an unnecessary amount of turns and the game just feels like it drags. That being said it is graphically great and runs smooth. I just wish it was paced in a way that was fun instead of tedious and boring. Also randomising the tech tree is ridiculously annoying . I've played premade maps with literal hours before discovering other Civilisations because the tech for ocean travel was untouchable.

I found this game recently and it really is fantastic! I hope that its further developed and new features are added. Its a game worth picking up if you like turn based games with a sense of history. I would like to see combat further developed. The game is awesome.

I'm pleasantly surprised by Old World. I'm not particularly a fan of the time period, so I waffled on purchasing it until a sale. I've really been enjoying it. It has much greater depth than I thought and the game mechanics, music, sound, graphics, and character portraits are top notch. It also has a good tutorial. A very nice 4X strategy game worth a purchase... especially on sale.

I love how this game has RP elements and that playing on pre-made old world maps feels like you are in a world. I've had wins that were not all conquer the map, so there is variety in endgames. Games do however take a long time.

So Far, So Good. I'd Love to see more societies represented, and have more liberty as to where I can settle my cities, but overall this game is decent. Since the developers of the Civilization games have turned toxic against their customers, Old World is a great option if you're looking for a Civilization type of game.

This is a fresh 4X game with strong wargaming and a bit of roleplaying.

Played every civ games since civ 3. I was looking for a new game since civ 7 is so bad. Old world is a better civ game than civ. LOVE IT.

If you like Civ games this needs to be your first priority. Be warned it's highly addictive..

Most underrated 4X, a 10/10 must have game.

Forget Civ and its clones this is the one you've been looking for.

If you wished the new Civ games had the event system of Civ IV, this game's for you!

awesome game, if you like 4x you will have fun with it.

Much much Better than Civ, thats for sure

Probably the best 4X on the market today

All just clicked with the latest update.

One of my favorite games ever

Like Civ, but better.

It's great. Egyptian dommy mommy ftw.

Great game!

The best 4x game out there right now.

good

Fun game!

good

so so so good

great civ alt!

not worth buying

boring