Old World

I cannot describe just how much this game has come to dominate my life in the last two years. I've racked up over 1200 hours and I'm only jut starting to ease up.

Old World looks, feels and plays like it was made by 4X fans for 4X fans. It remedies so many of the genre's pitfalls, and the replay value is through the roof. The mix of nations, families, events and characters give each and every game a different flavour. The developers have also kept it consistently patched and tweaked. Cannot recommend it enough, this game beats any other in the genre.

Old World (OW) is brilliant in its design and the experience it creates. OW is the most interesting, if not the best, 4x, tactical, turn based strategy currently! Complex, challenging and fun!

(MANY) POSITIVES
1 AN AMAZING PACE: OW has a brilliant mechanic of Orders that limits how much you can do in a turn. Everything, but production in cities, costs Orders: moving and using workers, scouts, army, attacking, council tasks, interactions with courtiers and nations. Each turn you think, prioritize and make choices.
This way everything in OW feels earned! Because of the Orders limitation even in the late game a war can be exhausting for your empire. Moving many army units can deplete your Orders pool, not leaving any for workers, heir education, or scouts. Of course things get easier in the late game, but still you can find yourself vulnerable. One of the rare strategy games where the late game is cool!

2 CLEVER SYNERGY OF THE GAME'S SYSTEMS
In OW everything relates in a deep, satisfying way. Opinions of you impact how well armies fight, productivity of your cities, courtiers interactions with you. Resources and Buildings have efficiency combinations. All systems of OW interact.

3 TACTICAL WARS WITH PROPER AI
OW has competent AI that plays the game properly. It's perhaps a 4x game with one of the better AIs I've played against. In a war it tries to flank you for max damage, shoot from hills for maximum range, use forests to minimize ranged damage etc. War in OW is tactical. Flanking, units adjacency, terrain, and preparation (you can't heal in a neutral land, unless you have certain skills) - it all matters.

4 DIPLOMACY IS COMPLEX AND CRUCIAL
Diplomacy in OW has two levels: internal and international with Opinions mechanic that synergizes with other systems.

In OW you don't just establish cities of your civilization. With each new city you choose a renown family to run it (3 families each game out of 4 options; each nation has a different set). They have different bonuses, interactions with terrain, demands and limits to what character can govern their city. The Families opinion matters. Low Family opinion affects the productivity of their cities. Armies you produce belong to the families and their combat effectiveness synergizes with your internal diplomacy as well (including General's opinion of you if one is added to an army).
On top of that you also have individual characters (courtiers) with friendships, love affairs, rivalry, assassinations, ambitions (craving power), or significant public popularity (Rising Stars that can overthrow you). You also have civil wars where you may end up destroying your own city.
Wars in OW can be intense and can significantly compromise what you can do in a turn. It really pays off to prevent war with a political marriage, even with a tribal leader against the public opinion, than risk invasions on multiple fronts. Besides, happiness in attacked cities tanks down and this can trigger further problems (unhappiness raises city's maintenance and a chance of rebellion). War in OW is a big deal: victories can boost your Legitimacy, but also break it. You need alliances and proper diplomacy to secure survival. You invest in building trust (Opinion) for more diplomatic options.

5 The BARBARIANS, TRIBES AND FIXED CITY SPOTS
Besides different nations OW has Barbarians and 6 different tribes. Tribes may occupy vast or smaller map space with their camps. And the tribes in OW can be devastating. Each camp spawns units every few years and if too many they become raiders, even if you're at peace with them. You can get unexpected mini invasions where they pillage, attack cities and wound/kill workers. So your city placement, armies stationing and natural barriers like mountains play a role.

There are benefits to defeating tribes and to alliances with them. In OW you have fixed city settlement locations. A few guaranteed ones at the start; more you get from warfare or diplomacy. I think the fixed City Spots improves the game significantly. There's no dumb AI settling a city on your border for irrational tensions. And a wide expansion makes you think and plan how you can secure distant, new cities.
Overall, the tribes in OW add a lot of tension, threat and historical sensitivity that I really like.

6 ECONOMY WITH THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF RESOURCE TYPES
All resources matter and you can run short of something even in the late game. Access to the best units is not just a matter of tech, but also depends on the level of your culture, a chain of buildings and multiple resources to maintain them.

7 DYNAMIC, MORTAL CHARACTERS
Playing as a mortal ruler, that you develop in stats and traits, is more fun than having one fixed option throughout eras.
I love the Archetypes for Characters, with different layers of bonuses when acting as the Leader, Governor or army Commander. For Instance a Builder Leader can assign multiple workers to a project and they have -1 turn to build improvements and more.
It's also brilliant that courtiers' stats contribute to the resources pool of your empire. Giving them a job provides a yearly experience, thus upgrades. Using courtiers missions gives them even more experience. This way even having spy agents in foreign empires benefit your resources pool. Its a dynamic system where you want to use courtiers, they change and play an important role.

8 EVENTS THAT BRING FLAVOR AND VARIETY
OW claims to have over 3 thousand events!!! Some go in chains and develop over time. Some involve historic characters and situations. I love that the OW events pop up with jingle sounds! Big, immersive windows with beautiful art! Love all the art of Wonders especially – they represent so well the grand scale of these projects! My favorite events are when a courtier becomes inspired by my empire's wonder (that they aren't just buildings with buffs) and when a battles winning general becomes a Rising Star and creates political threat for you.

9 there is DEPTH, NUANCES, AND HISTORIC SENSITIVITY
So many things in OW make it's "world" alive and interesting beyond the clickfest of building or attacking.
When your worker is wounded it builds a turn longer.
When you're allied with a tribe you control their units. And when ravaged by war a Tribe can ask you for refuge, creating slums in your city.
Scouts in OW can do many things and remain useful. From providing Legitimacy for discovered landmarks, to harvesting resources and spying. With proper tech, a Scout can establish spy network in foreign city. Then your spies can provide you with vision and destabilization options; for instance you can try to trigger rebellions in several cities at once right before you attack. All these in a Civilization like game!!!

I also like that the Tech options are semi-random.

10 ART STYLE, (fantastic) MUSIC, and ATMOSPHERE
Music in the OW is just AWESOME! Sometimes I just keep playing OW because I enjoy its soundtrack so much.
It's a good looking game that sticks to one period of history but with depth and atmosphere. This way playtime isn't that long, but isn't short either. Due to the Orders mechanic limitations other players turns go fast, so less waiting time.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST
The game has never crashed for me.
I haven't found OW to be overwhelming to learn. It took me around 10 hours to become familiar with all the basics.
OW has an excellent in-game encyclopedia.
The base game of OW has the full, good experience and not hiding crucial features behind paid DLCs.
OW is first and foremost a great strategy game (with RPG flavor). It has a healthy complexity, depth, historic references, and fulfilling struggle.

NEGATIVES
I've got an impression some nations are better than others. I'm still figuring out if it's inflexibility of my playstyle or design's imbalance.

One of the better strategy games that I have ever played. I love the well-crafted, narratively-driven event system. I love that having more children, and investing more into them, consistently produces a more robust nation in spite of the possibility of negative random events. I love that world wonders get locked in once you start to build them. Most of all, I love the realism and atmosphere of the game. There is so much that I want to say about this game, which is overwhelmingly positive in nature. Unfortunately, I can only issue a very cautious recommendation here, because of what I consider to be two major issues with the game... Or, perhaps just one.

I am not very happy with the current settlement system, which causes the game to feel overly restrictive, and I am truly unhappy with the current orders system, which greatly exacerbates that problem to an unfun degree. As to the former problem, I feel the settlement system is bad because of how small and constrained each game map tends to feel, even on huge map settings. "Huge" maps are many, many tiles smaller than in comparable games, such as Civilization, and they feel outright cramped with the intended number of players (7.) On the highest difficulty settings, if you're lucky, you'll have maybe three or four settlements by turn 50 or 60. Maybe five, if you're really lucky. The AI moves too quickly, has too many orders, and gets too many other advantages, so you'll be boxed-in in no time. This causes the game to feel extremely restrictive, to the point where there is almost no reason to build settlers, or to continue to care about tribal relations whatsoever, after turn 60 or 70 on the highest difficulty setting.

Enough said on this subject, because I'm a big believer in making due with what you're given, and I like that the current system requires such an advanced level of planning to make things work. I also think some minor balance fixes could solve these problems. For example, the developer could slightly increase the amount of available, unoccupied settlement sites, and/ or give the player two scouts in the beginning of the game. I actually think the latter option is so important as to be outright essential, and that the developer should implement this change right away, regardless of whatever other changes they choose to make down the line. Starting with two scouts should be a given because, on the highest difficulty level, the player has absolutely no freedom to waste 5-7 years building a single extra scout in the early game. But you need the intelligence they provide, or else you can't make good decisions. Psychic (or near-psychic) AI with a huge bounty of starting advantages don't benefit from them as much, so it would really make the game a lot more enjoyable if the developer could quickly implement this change.

The orders system, however, is extremely bad, and I'm not sure how to fix it because it seems like the entire game was designed around this concept. To make a long story short: Every action in the game, sans choosing city production, costs an in-game currency called "orders." Your possibilities for movement, attacking, diplomacy, trade, etc... are therefore artificially limited by how many orders you can produce per turn. Everything costs orders. Story-wise, I feel this was a poor decision; it doesn't make any sense that you can't move your troops two orders' worth of spaces because you chose to arrange a marriage between your son and a nearby tribal leader that year (this game's turn-history is measured in single years.) That being said, the narrative implications of the orders system are far from the worst thing about it.

Gameplay-wise, the orders system problem is far worse. Because every unit or diplomatic action in the game costs orders, it is by far and above the most important currency in the entire game, bar none. Naturally, there is an extreme amount of demand that needs to be satisfied as it pertains to orders per turn, or else you won't be able to accomplish enough each year to remain competitive against the AI on the highest difficulty levels. This wouldn't be quite so bad if the available supply of orders was greater, but it isn't... And not only that but, IMHO, there is actually a serious supply shortage at said difficulty levels. This is a problem made worse by the fact that building an improvement or wonder does not cost just one single order... It costs an order every single turn that you spend building the improvement, with wonders often taking a decade to build! Because of all this, you will often find yourself running short on orders... And oftentimes, not until many turns after you originally developed the problem (Meaning: That the past 20 or so turns were a huge waste of time.) Even if you consistently choose a leader background that decreases improvement building times, it won't help much.

It is no exaggeration to say that this problem is so bad, that nearly every choice you make in this game needs to be decided by the sole question of, "Does it increase or decrease how many orders I get per turn?" For many, this will trivialize the game's brilliantly constructed narrative elements, and for many others turn the game into a brutal slog. Even if you spend all game making every choice possible to farm up your legitimacy (the currency which increases orders per turn,) you will still very often not be able to mount enough orders to move every one of your units every turn. This is bad, because your units have an upkeep cost every turn, whether you move them or not. You need to spend your orders so wisely, but this is difficult to do without perfect information (which is, again, very difficult to obtain because you can't afford to build scouts in the early game.) You can get some decent orders per turn from map resources, but this is contingent upon whether or not you have a hunting family, whether or not you spawned nearby to a settlement location that spawned many camel and elephant camps, whether or not you correctly scouted the location on time and got to it before an AI, etc... In other words, it is not at all reliable.

A final problem: There are mechanics which exist that completely break the game if you have an abundance of orders per turn. If you have a ton of orders and military currency, you can force march your units past their normal limits to take someone off guard, without enduring any other consequences. I oftentimes get completely bamboozled by the AI, which gets a huge amount of orders per turn. You can move your units two cities away, and still get hit. This is very frustrating, and very, very hard to protect against (because building a ton of tile fortifications costs a ton of orders, orders per turn, and opportunity cost.)

Where does this all get me? By turn 50, I oftentimes decide that I no longer have anymore interest in playing this game. By this point, either I do not have enough orders per turn and I'm getting choked out by the AI, or I'm in good shape but simply have no more interest in playing the game because I no longer wish to spend my life minmaxing orders per turn. I would rather play a fun game like Battle Brothers, XCOM: Long War, or Civilization, where I can choose things other than whatever provides me the highest amount of orders per turn. I think that's such a damning indictment of the current state of the game that it makes it difficult for me to recommend it, even though it's an amazing game with so many positive qualities. I love the mature feel of this game, and it really is one of a kind. But it's just... In a very strange place, needless to say.

How to fix this issue: I don't know, but I would start by completely decoupling diplomatic choices, the implementation of laws, etc... from orders. They never should have cost orders, and decoupling them will help. This needs to be done before I will have any interest in playing a full game, and I want to play the game now, so it should be done IMMEDIATELY.

This game has its own charm, but also plenty of flaws. How to play learning scenarios are of various quality, with scenario 4 being pretty awful.

Game itself is similar to Civ series, with some cross from Crusader Kings series. It has clearly more micromanagement required than Civ series, but less than Paradox games. A lot of deeper mechanics are not explained in details, so a lot of things have to be learned via trial and error.
Also get more workers, there are never enough workers.
Decision on city sites is... debatable but I guess okay.
AI presents good challenge and almost does not cheat.

Try it out on deep discount, game will be fun for some 20-30 hours.
Or try demo first and see if you like what you see.
Solid 7/10, playable with limited amount of fun.

Steep learning curve but so much more intriguing than civ 6 once you understand all the mechanics and how they interact. Continuous developer support and updates is really appreciated

There were random "great persons " In Civ4, Civ5 and Civ6 that appeared from time to time. In Civ6 (with the latest expansion pack) there were governours you could assign to the city. Also civ leaders had fixed "special abilities", sometimes unrealistic ones. Old World takes HR management it to the entire new level and gives you a bunch of persons that could be your great persons, governours, heads of chuchs and etc. In addition to plain "civ management" of classical Civ games it presents the entire structure of team (court) management. At first glance this can seem as"micro management", but it gives indeed a feeling of decisions that every empiror (a team manager) needs to take, both on strategical and tactical levels, including managing own network but raising and taking care for education of new generation. I would very much love to see this game to go beyond classical era, but also realize that scaling many concepts maybe not so easy. Orders concept is also interesting, but there could be more advanced ways of using orders for just moving the units. If the game goes to eras beyond classical ones(and allows story brunching with different kinds of eras as Milennia game does), it will be very challenging for classical Civ series to compete with it.

Love the dynasty system! The random events are varied and entertaining. Play it with the role-play setting on and victory conditions off to sit back and enjoy the drama.

The game I always wished Civilization would be. So much more depth and immersiveness.
If you like CIV you need to try Old World.

Worst combat system in all of Turn-based-strategy games... Holy shit is it bad. Let me explain:

You have "orders" as a resource and every movement and action of a unit costs orders. And the units have no real upper limit to their movement so if you have enough orders your units can move through an entire continent in a single turn. Doens't this sound fun? And the units get boni through leveling up. So sometimes your unit of Archers is stronger in melee than your swordsman.
And when you need all your "orders" for your units in times of war, then your whole infrastructure comes to an stop. Because almost every action need orders.

This stupid "orders" resource makes no sense and is only there to punish the player and restrict him. In theory this system sounds neat, but in reality is sucks. Hard.

And some units are so strong, that you don't need any other units. The Onager for example. Stronger than every missile unit in this range and he hits not only 1 hex field, no he hits 7!!! So spam the onager and no army can stop you. On top of that the onager does high damage to city tiles. And melee units do little damage against them. Do the devs play their own game?

Oh and the AI doesn't play by the same rules. I am fine with an AI that gets economic advantages, but when an AI drowns you in units despite him losing 5-6 EVERY ROUND while he has fewer cities than yourself, than the game is broken. I am sorry, but this is bullshit.

The rest of the game is good, but the whole combat system makes this game only frustrating to play.

Really fun. Lots of unique mechanics and feels like a narrative game in some ways. I just wish it took less time to finish a multiplayer game of this.

Only a little way in now, Shocked at how large the discount was on such a good game.
The tutorials work, the game play is good.

Think paradox produced Civilisation and sold the full game for less that one DLC.

Loving it so far.

Its worth playing. Old Wourld is an enjoyable mix between Civ and Crusader Kings.

Wonderful game. If you play civ and are looking for a break from civ, then this is the game of choice. Instead of progressing with a historical timeline like civ, here in old world, the progress is mainly focused on your dynasty and maximizing the yields from your cities. The more cultured the city, the more buildings are available to build and eventually win the game.

I like this game and it has it's niche on the 4X genre but it has to improve it's naval mechanics. Currently, building a navy isn't all that important and the anchor mechanic is cumbersome at best. Considering that Carthage was a naval superpower and that the premise of this is mostly around the Mediterranean during antiquity, the naval mechanics need a lot of polishing.

Amazing game, more complex than Civilization but with much better QoL where every time you don't know what does that think do you can check it.
It is not as stale as Civilisation, you can change your tactics in the middle of the game, even sometimes have to, but also can develop your empire as you want it to be.
Great game, recommend not only for 4X fans but strategic players.

It's like civ, but better. But not really because it's stuck on classical era even though they put longbowman on a Greek unit. I guess what im trying to say here is that i want the tech tree to advance into a musket era so that i can do pike and shot :(

Enjoyed it much more than Civ 6, which is probably the closest comparable game I've played.

Pretty good game, very similar to Civ5 and Total War: ROME II.

A little difficult to get into but its been fun to figure out so far

I really recommend this game, however I think is a little bit more complicated that civilization.
The events are really interesting, it's a good mix between crusaders kings and civ

Great 4X game that combines many aspects skilfully!

This game is good; scratched an itch. It's like a combo of Civ, it's turn based, and Crusader Kings, family lineage and maintaining the ruling family.

A different twist on civilization building games. Events bring flavor but quite a daunting learning curve

Best 4X game since Civilization IV. No great 3D cutscenes, but innovating machanics, amazing care for the game by the developers, even years after its release.

Fantastic game. The best I've played in years, and my favorite 4X by far.
I have no interest in playing a game that goes to a modern era, so this is perfect, and the amount of management is the perfect balance between too complex, and too simplistic.
Highly recommended.

Short:
A neat concept of melding family dynasties into a Civ-style 4x game. Unfortunately, some game design mechanics make the game feel off. Despite my issues, I can type with confidence Old World is a good game for most players.

Thoughts:
The user interface and menus need reworked or revamped. When playing I struggle to find some stuff I'm supposed to be monitoring. Seems there are even hidden stats: you gained [X], but I can't easily find the data/graph to show me [X]. What did the game just tell me..?
The micromanagement of my heirs and assorted 'inner' circle are cumbersome. I would prefer that I could have portions of that streamlined, mildly automated, and its own window to interact.

Then, I find myself thinking it is unfair to Old World. I have had decades to play Civ games but games like Endless Space pop into my mind. Jump and play. Sure I am no master but easy to get into and navigate. Old World is slower and deserves kudos for trying to meld good concepts. My hope is future usage of family dynasty style design gets integrated into Civ-like games into future 4x turned based games.

Despite my negatives, I still think this game is worth a look and a Yes vote.

This game is Like Civilization except more of a learning curve and more in depth. But it is time consuming and thats great for a building sim.

Game is similar to civ, but has some fascinating additions. I've only played it as multiplayer random map with 2 humans and 4 computer players. The orders system limits your moves somewhat and is a fascinating addition. The number of orders you get per turn can be increased by buildings and actions you take, so it becomes another resource to manage in addition to rock, ore, civics, culture, science, and food. The tech tree is limited to about the first third of a civ tech tree because the game doesn't cover gunpowder and beyond. The game also adds an extensive character system with a lot of possible interactions there assigning governors, generals, ambassadors, diplomats, and many other positions. The scripts for random events between nations and characters is quite well developed and well done. Victory can be achieved with completing 10 "ambitions" (i.e. quests) that get randomly assigned, though you usually can pick between 2 or 3. The 10th one will be big like eliminate another player. I think ambitions is easiest way to win, but you can also win by victory points (wonders, city count, culture development). The combat system is I would say a little more fun than civ combats with generals, troop upgrades, and terrain playing a larger role. The computer players are also much better at fighting wars (managing orders, terrain, etc.) than they are in civ or most other 4X games.
I strongly recommend this game if you are a 4X fan.

pro- there are a lot of legitimately interesting ideas in the game.

con- there are too many ideas cluttering up this game.

every unique and interesting mechanic has some rough edges, this is to be expected and is not bad by itself.
however unfortunately for old world, its ALL unique and interesting mechanics and the rough edges have a critical mass.

steak, ice cream, curry, and cheese might all be good foods, but you dont serve them all on the same plate at once.

I found it clumsy and I do not like the pre-set sites for founding cities. I wanted to like this, but I am disappointed and a bit bored already

The game play was difficult to grasp at first but it is rewarding in the end.

Fantastic game with tons of depth and realistic decisions, consequences and events.

Just a fantastic turn-based 4X game. It’s easy to get into, but then you can discover interesting ways to use characters and bonuses together for greater efficiency.

Feel of Civ, but then including heritage lines and more challenging warfare. At start a bit hard to understand and controls are not very intuitive, but once you get used to that it is a great game for lovers of grand strategy (read game of thrones conspiracy and ruthlessness)

I really enjoy this game as an alternative to Civ 5. The city planning is much more intense but way more rewarding, and i also enjoy the city sprawl that comes with it. The combat is very immersive and incentives more strategy. It is also nice that you actually are making use of each unique combat unit you research. The family lineage gives you the feeling that you are ruling the empire, not just a blank entity. I definitely recommend this game, the amount of updates and DLC they are releasing is constantly improving the game.

I hate to leave a negative review for a game that clearly represents an incredible effort by its developers. The concept was ambitious (maybe too ambitious...?) and the developers crafted an impressively deep strategy game, which basically combines two massive titles like Civilization and Crusader Kings.

So, why the negative review? Despite the admirable intentions, the execution is simply overwhelming. The UI is messy and far from intuitive, creating a significant barrier for new players. Also, in their attempt to merge two complex games, we’re left with an insane number of resources, stats and multipliers. As someone familiar with Paradox games, I’m no stranger to complexity, but this crosses a line.

The learning curve is exceptionally steep, requiring an enormous time investment just to grasp the basics. And the learning process isn’t particularly enjoyable, as the game feels dramatically slow.

If you’re seeking depth and are willing to invest hundreds of hours just to master the fundamentals, you might find this game rewarding in the (very) long run. However, if you prefer a game with some level of intuitiveness that doesn’t require a degree to start enjoying, you might want to steer clear. Yes, strategy games often involve complexity and delayed gratification, but the levels required here are simply unreasonable.

Definitely not for everyone.

A brilliant mix of CIV & CK3, the best of the both world.

I'm a fan of CIVs CK3 and enthusiast about strategy games.

Since the time I played CIV 5, no other strategy game had this much impact on me, not even HOI4, or CK3 (damn CK3, so beautifully unique)

Old World is a very beautiful mix between the best of CIV and CK3 improving on both, although lacking in complexity of personal characters builds available on CK3, it gives just enough to be interested in the stories of characters without being the main thing, whilst focusing on classic roles of a Strategy games, it improves upon everything CIV did bad.

Spent around 400H so far on this game (not all on steam), love every aspect of it, and Ooh the music <3

Slow. That is how I would describe this game. Everyone was saying it's the best game since blah blah blah. I found it a good concept, but didn't like it. Way too slow. Guess it's not for everyone.

A solid rival to Civilization. I like how things are spread out and some of the restrictions it imposes, but I would kind of like the civs to be a bit more different in this game. I'm not a fan of how it approaches religion, with monotheistic religions being the only real endgame options. I'm still enjoying it, but I'm also curious how much lasting replayability it will have.

Love the changing leaders and events, and the more focused time window, which add more complexity to this game than other historical 4X games.

A long time ago I played the Hannibal campaign in Civilization II. I managed to conquer Rome in the end. With heavy artillery.

It's nice to be playing a 4X game that starts in an age and stays there.

Civ-style strategy game for people that prefer paradox-style games.

You've got a hex-grid map that you move your little dudes around on, but oh no your king has been gifted a monkey's paw! Start making wishes what could go wrong??

(everything)

Old World is a fantastic strategy game that truly captures the essence of historical empire-building. The game's deep, intricate systems and stunning visuals bring history to life in a way that's both immersive and intellectually stimulating. It's a must-play for anyone who loves history, strategy, and challenging themselves

I rarely write game reviews but Old World is deserving of one. Never have I seen a 4x team love their game as much as this team. I literally can't pick up Civilization games again after experiencing the immersive story driven never the same experience that is Old World. Old World games start exciting, get more exciting, and you either win early if you're playing on too low of a difficulty to spare you from the typical late game drudgery of 4x games, or you experience truly epic finales that test your strategy - both macro and micro - in ways that should be setting the industry standard for this genre.

The DLCs are fantastic and affordable and flesh out the storytelling and meaningful decision making while not ruining the pacing. Politics and Diplomacy can matter and reverse a losing game (I was willingly became a vassal of another state in turn 75 and utilized my sovereign's power as a tool to rebuild, turn my vassalage into a permanent equal alliance, and win out the game in the end). Military units are expensive and feel meaningful to lose, and movement is balanced to keep players guessing and keep AI dangerous throughout.

Nothing you do in this game feels wasteful or meaningless. Every decision has weight and you'll feel attachment to your leaders and their families, learn to hate internal and external rivals, and get extreme "one more turn" syndrome as constant story events can turn your entire plans on their head in an instant. Bravo Hooded Horse and Mohawk Games on restoring the reasons I fell in love with the 4x genre as a kid in the modern age of gaming.

Overall I recommend the game. It has the satisfying city building/exploring I like from Civ. And the lineage/politics that makes Crusader Kings different every time. The events help break up the eras and give a feeling of story. It's fun to think about whether I care pissing off a ruler when they are probably going to die soon. To help understand the mechanics, I highly recommend watching a video explaining how to grow your city. Once I understood Growth, Military, and Civics work in a city things clicked together.

The game is often compared to Civilization and Crusader Kings, and that comparison does give a rough idea what the game is about. But it's definitely more on the Civilization side, so if you see Crusader Kings and that doesn't exactly thrill you because you're not really into the whole aspect of social simulation, don't let that turn you off.

The game is highly configurable, more than most games, and you can disable pretty much all of the CK-like features and play the game much like a Civ-like 4X strategy game. The major difference is that Old World doesn't span multiple eras, but for me this is actually a big plus. I find it much more immersive to play for that reason.

The game's AI is spectacular. It is perhaps the 4X game with the best, most interesting, non-cheating AI. It plays by the same rules as the player, has the same information as the player, and understands the game really well. That makes it highly effective at playing the game. Like everything else in Old World, the AI is customizable and there are many different difficulty levels for the AI, so if it's just too good (genuinely good), you can tone it down to a level where it gives you an enjoyable experience.

Old World also comes with a ton of content, numerous scenarios (and the developers keep adding more!), and extensive tutorials that actually work and teach you the game. These tutorials are among the best I've seen in strategy games. Really well done. There is also an actual manual, too!

The developers are active in the community, maintain and update the game even years after release (there are frequent patches), and they really listen to feedback too. You can tell that many of them have worked on Civilization and other games, really understand the genre, and they always seem happy to explain and reason their design decisions.

For me, Old World is basically a better, more complex, smarter Civilization made by more accessible developers that care about their game.

Fun 4x game in similar vein to Civ. 5 with a good soundtrack and art style/design. Fun family/character dynamics as well adding a little extra depth about having to raise heirs to keep the family line going while picking up traits (stat boosts) for characters somewhat similar to CK3. Also nice that it still regularly receives updates and occasionally extra content.

I have spent hours on this game, fun times! I appreciate the social aspect of the game because it allows for a different play through each game.

This game is awesome in so many ways. As many other people have said, it’s a sort of mashup between Crusader Kings and Civilization. That oversimplifies what this is quite a bit. In this game, you manage an empire that consists of numerous cities, armies, and resources. You also take care of your family, ensuring that you retain legitimacy and have solid people in line for the throne. The death of a legendary king can lead to instability and collapse; this simulates that exceptionally well.

Additionally, this game serves up mechanics not seen in other games. The order system is amazing and forces you to carefully consider each move. I also love the random events, which make every game different in some way. This is worth checking out and I look forward to playing it a lot more.

I bought this half off and am asking for a refund.

I like strategy and turn-based games and I wanted to like this one. I knew going in that it would be dense so I started with the tutorial. The game doesn't introduce complexity as you progress forward intuitively, so by the third tutorial chapter it was basically unplayable. It's frustrating when you actually want to learn the game but it expects you to survive endless text boxes chock full of important key words that are just never explained to you. I'm sure its cool if you can suffer through teaching yourself, but I'd rather just play a higher quality game.