Old World Reviews

I would recommend this game to lovers of this genre. The graphics are good, the focus on the old world I think is good. It feels comprehensive and somewhat realistic. The developers keep supporting the game with updates. Yet, for me, as someone inexperienced with this genre, I find the learning curve and level of complexity to be requiring more time than I am willing to invest in this game. The very richness and sophistication of this game that is a gift to lovers of this genre are at the same time off-putting to me. My time is limited, so while I respect this game, it's not for me.

I was a bit dissappointed, because everybody was writing it is a new civilization. It is not. It has old times limitations with units and technologies. But it is a very good game, it is a great mix of civilization and Crusader Kings or simply what real civilization should've been origionally. I hope game develops into some big immersive world map civilization. But I wouldn't get my hopes up. It is worth every dollar, penny or whatever you are using. 12 hours in and I highly recommend it to all Civ lovers.

Great game. Much better than CIV 7. Seems a more natural successor to the CIV series - almost like CIV 6.5. Limited in time frame and overall scope, it engages and includes actual historical scenarios, bloodlines, dynasty management, etc. I wonder if the old developers who worked on the other Civilization series assisted on this project when CIV 7 hired a new team and jumped the shark? Seems to be updated regularly and has multiple DLC. Hopefully this will continue to be supported and expanded.

I'm a history buff and Viking re-enactor, and love playing Old World! However, I don't play it the way the devs intended. I sandbox it through the multiplayer menu, turning off victory conditions and playing against my chosen AI civs on epic maps. My favourite part of the game is to create large, complicated families, getting ahead through strategic marriages and diplomacy. I wish this part of the game were more developed. At some point, of course, the fun peters out, and I start over with different civs. If I knew how to mod, I would create a bunch of what if scenarios, such as: What if the Gauls, Brits and Teutones had teamed up and successfully resisted Rome? What if polytheistic pagan beliefs had outlasted monotheism? What if female leaders and warriors had made women's participation the norm? What if iron were scarce, and the trade networks necessary for bronze had persisted? Alas, I can only imagine. As it is, Old World is far more engrossing and historically interesting than the Civ games, and the families and events are much more engaging than plain city builders. I really appreciate that you can almost entirely avoid war, which is an all too rare quality in videogames.

As a long time Civ fan, i was gutted at how 7 turned out, from what i have read anyway. Old World is satisfying that Civ itch and then some. It goes about things a bit differently and is far from a Civ rip off from what i have played. Really enjoying the family dynasty aspects of it and the managing of domestic politics with the various internal factions. There are a lot of interesting systems like how culture of specific cities unlocks different improvements for that city. Gifting luxuries to heads of families improves relations, how everyone gradually ages and you have to ensure succession of the family line, it makes the random events all seem meaningful. In my current game King Philip was assassinated in a random event and the son, Prince Alexander became King, thankfully i had him marry a bride from a rival family a few turns (improving relations with them in the process!) before an heir was born a turn before. It is for sure a bit overwhelming at times though, the sheer quantity of stuff you can do is immense. I am many hours in already and i have not even finished all the various tutorials yet. - they are an invaluable feature, would have been lost without them. One thing i would have liked would be something similar to Civs Civlopedia. The tooltips tell you about the bonuses things give you, but it would be nice to read a few lines on what specific techs/concepts actual mean so i have some context about what is going on for the more obscure things. For example there is an option for a religious intercession to improve relations with other internal factions. No idea what that even meant, had to google it which wasn't ideal. I got it on sale for like 4 quid. Even if the fun nose dives later (cant imagine it will!) i have got my moneys worth of enjoyment from it already. Recommended for any Civ series fans. It goes without saying you will be doing a lot of reading, deciphering tooltip icons and just generally getting to grips with all the systems. Needs a lot of patience, but it is very rewarding.

Great game marred by constant crashes and instability even years after release on near top of the line components.

The game is amazing, have a lot of unexpected twists and real feeling that you literally sometimes rules but sometimes just lucky:) THe music, the scenary, the events, the gameplay are beautifully crafted - thank you very much for the game. One minus occured to me is that, after some time in real life, I cannot find the window where theology are managed, even after googling and trying to watch youtube - tutorials.. However I would say that the balance of the game feels much better then civ because there is no rush to fight everyone and that's the game - you have enough things to do even without it:)

One of the coolest games I've played in a long time. It has unique story plots, combat is ok (still new), and has big maps with city building. Every thing seems logical and well put together. Dev team gets 2 thumbs up !

The 4,000 hour review of Old World: In many ways, I think a number like that ultimately speaks for itself. There are few games I've played in my life that have consumed thousands and thousands of hours of my time. Becoming not just a game I play, but an entire hobby in and of itself. Whether it's something like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, the Elder Scrolls series, or many many other specific games across different genres, we've all either experienced directly, or certainly know through the zeitgeist of gaming, the types of games that devour us for hours on end, ultimately becoming part of the very fabric of our lives. For me, Old World is one such game. Like many of you, my 4x strategy game experience began with the Civilization franchise. As far back as the 90s that series engrossed me completely; it captured my imagination and inspired a love of both history and strategy that has stuck with me for my entire life. As time has gone on, I've always found myself craving the type of gaming experience that made me feel the way I felt back then - that captured my imagination; that filled me with an endless craving to keep working out the puzzle of nation building and conquest and deciding what things to produce and which techs to research, and in what order. Over the years, I've dabbled in many different types of games. Time and time again, they didn't grab me; my play time shrinking shorter and shorter with each new game. Old World is the game that came along and changed all of that. It's the type of game I've wanted to play for the past 20 years. Here is a list of things that make this game great, which to some, may also be the game's very drawbacks: - Depth of systems: Old World is crafted in a way where for the most part, many of the different layers and systems in the game overlap and interconnect. This means that to master the entirety of the game is a journey from one system to the next. One that can take time. As much as Old World may demand your time and interest into the discovery of how it works, however, it also rewards it. Early on you may find yourself at the mercy of the randomness of the apparent uncontrollable chaos of the Tech tree, only to eventually discover you can manipulate your tech path all the same as in other games of this genre, just with careful planning and precise decision-making. You may, at first, find yourself regularly succumbing to the throes of rebellion and discontent in your empire as you blindly expand and expand, assuming, as with most games in this genre, you need more and more territory - only to begin to feel the pressure of collapsing under your own weight. Yet, as you begin to understand the way the internal politics of a nation and religion can influence the ease in which that nation is governed, you can transition from a point of feeling as if a system like "discontent" is the most important concern you have in an empire, to becoming something you barely ever think about once you know how to resolve the issues it creates. - Intensity of Combat: Old World is a game that demands the player suffer discomfort. Your units are going to die; you will be surprised in battle, and the very function of learning to be successful in combat will likely require a few wars where you *think* you're in a good position only to be smacked down by the computer opponents and put in your place. This is one of the greater strengths of the game. It is very difficult to replicate what's possible in other 4x game where you can wage entire wars with minimal losses. In Old World, you essentially have to factor in loss; learning to sacrifice some units in order to gain a key position is a strong lesson. Learning to ensure you can mobilize large forces to overwhelm your opponent is another one. You can't simply build a handful of units, declare war, and expect one or two, or none of them, to die. I view this as a tremendous strength of this game that is curiously and consistently lacking in a genre about empires and conquest. - Customizable Options: Old World can be played with a tremendous level of customization. Does the event system and character system sound off-putting? You can turn them off completely. Just want to play a peaceful builder and not want to be forced into a game that is undoubtedly more military-oriented? You can literally toggle a setting that makes the Computer nations incapable of declaring war on you. Want to give the computers a lot of bonus stuff to start the game? go for it. Want them to get nothing? Fine, do it. There are Dozens and dozens of customizable tweaks to the game setup that impact the way it plays out that you can often find a way to customize the game to suit your needs. - Modding Support: When ingame options fail, you can create simple XML mods to change nearly anything in the game, and the mods are easily supported and integrated into the experience. Mohawk games has staff members who started out as modders in this genre back in their Civ days, and modding is especially important to the team. Can't figure out how to get something to work? A Mohawk dev will usually help you troubleshoot your issue if you simply ask. Which brings me to the last major highlight of this gaming experience. - Dev Support: I've had the tremendous privilege of getting to know a few members of the dev team in the years I've played this game. Outside of that, I have personally observes both on our Discord, Reddit, Civfanatics forums, as well as right here on Steam, the lengths each Dev will go to personally support and accommodate players. Whether it be trying to troubleshoot bugs or other issue as they arise, to listening to player feedback and incorporating changes into the game, Mohawk games take care of this product and it's players. The fingerprints of the community are all over this game; and I mean everywhere; U.I. changes, balance feedback, event additions, new option toggles. I have seen player suggestions in every possible arena, get included into this game. In some cases, mere days after the suggestion was made. The developers listen, and they care. They love a good idea, and they love supporting their players as long as it makes sense and is within a reasonable scope of their powers (and Soren Johnson gives the thumbs up) - in areas where they could not support a player officially, many have made mods to accommodate certain requests. They also engage directly with the community; they play games with them, host members as podcast guests, and will wade into some heavy and heated debates about game issues or changes that get made. It's a remarkable thing that they're so hands on. They love this game as much as it's players do. My only criticisms of this game largely result directly as a consequence of how much I've played. For the most part, any possible criticism I could think of, I hesitate to even mention, as it took me literally thousands of hours to begin noticing the rough edges of this game. Perhaps for others those edges may come sooner. However, if this game hooks you, I have a hard time imagining that you wouldn't get your moneys worth when it comes to this game as an entertainment product. I would think for anyone who's seriously into this genre; this game is easily worth 1,000 hours of entertainment before you hit a point of deciding it might be time to move on. Of course that won't be true for everyone, as we all treat gaming differently. This is simply to say that there is a lot to this game, and if you're looking for something to seriously sink your teeth into, Old World is meaty enough. As evidence by the sheer amount of time I've sunk into this game, I think It's entirely possible that Old World is one of the greatest games ever made. I'd recommend everyone try it. If you've tried it before, I'd recommend giving it another go. Many people bounce off this game initially, but if you stick with it a little bit, and it hooks you, you'll have a game that you can play for years.

A Mix of Genres Old World was developed by the lead designer of Civ IV (Soren Johnson), along with a whole team of designers, coders, and artists. The gameplay is a compelling mix of Civ (4X) and a light layer of Crusader Kings (grand strategy). Like Civ, you start cities with settlers, explore with scouts, exploit territorial resources with workers (making buildings and unique Wonders), and form armies and navies with military units (promoting them and assigning them generals if you wish). But like CK3, everyone has an opinion of you (individual characters, families, tribes, and nations), and you can influence all of these directly as the leader of your nation, or indirectly through people you appoint to council positions (ambassador, chancellor, spymaster). Council members can perform various tasks for you (treaties, trade, spying/disruption, assassination). You can get your heir educated or married (ready to take over when you die), and any character in the game can acquire strengths and weaknesses among several attributes. Your brother can turn out to be 'bold,' 'ruthless,' and 'insane' (my last game), making him excellent military general material. Your mother can be 'cunning,' 'debauched,' and 'drunk,' ensuring discontent in the city she governs but unlocking caravan access for you. (There are 77 of these traits, and they can appear in larger clusters.) There is an event pop-up system with richly detailed, painted scenes, depicting yet another crazy thing your nation will have to overcome, or heralding an unexpected boon. Soundtrack The soundtrack, well over 70 tracks long, is so good it was nominated for a Grammy award back in 2022. (The composer Christopher Tin already won a Grammy for Civ IV's "Baba Yetu" back in 2011.) I've never heard a soundtrack this good in a strategy game, and you can control it through an in-game player if you'd like. I played the soundtrack while writing this review, and it was glorious. The Orders System The game has a unique, nationwide 'orders' system that combines with the individual unit 'fatigue' system in a way that forces you to plan out how you will spend the current game year. If you want to use all your orders to simply move units across the map, then you may not be able to do everything you want construction-wise in your cities, or do all the diplomacy you want with other nations. It's nice having to think this out ahead of time, and it gives you real ownership over how things play out each turn, rather than a boring 'move everything once until everything possible is moved, repeat next turn.' Massive Customization Few reviews give a sense of the massive and completely well thought out set of options you get when you want to start something other than a default game. So I decided to focus on that for the rest of this review. Every one of the following options is described through a convenient tooltip, so you know exactly what you're getting. (Just page through to the end if your eyes glaze over.) Simple Setup Difficulty Levels: The New, The Able, The Just, The Good, The Strong, The Noble, The Glorious, The Magnificent, The Great. (Each fine-tunes a bunch of things within five categories - Prosperity, AI Aggression, AI Handicap, Tribe Level, and Calamities - and tells you exactly what they are so you don't have to guess.) Use Random Map or Premade Map (that you load) Map Script: Archipelago, Arid Plateau, Bay, Coastal Rain Basin, Continent, Desert, Disjunction, Donut, Ebbing Sea, Hardwood Forest, Highlands, Inland Sea, Lakes and Gulfs, Mediterranean, Multiple Continents, Northern Ocean, Player Islands, Rejuvenation, Seaside, Tumbling Mountain, Random Map Size: Duel, Small, Medium, Large, Huge Event Level: No Events, Minimal, Low, Moderate, High Advanced Setup (in addition to the above) Nation: Aksum, Assyria, Babylonia, Carthage, Egypt, Greece, Hatti, Kush, Persia, Rome, Random, Pick Later (after first city) Leader Archetype: Preset Leader, Hero, Commander, Tactician, Zealot, Schemer, Orator, Diplomat, Judge, Builder, Scholar, Random, Pick Later (after game start) Dynasty: there are 52 leaders to pick from across the 10 nations listed earlier. For example, here are Rome's leaders: Romulus, Scipio, Marius, Sulla, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Agrippina. Or you can pick 'Random' or 'Pick Later'. Prosperity: Abundant, Affluent, Thriving, Comfortable, Sufficient, Modest, Fragile AI Development: None, Fledgling, Established, Advanced, Massive AI Aggression: Passive, Peaceful, Normal, Aggressive, Competitive AI Handicap: High Penalty, Moderate Penalty, Small Penalty, None, Small Advantage, Moderate Advantage, High Advantage, Very High Advantage Tribal Strength: None, Passive, Weak, Normal, Strong, Raging Calamities: None, Very Rare, Rare, Default, Common, Very Common Mortality: Lengthy, Standard, Realistic Turn Scale: Years, Semesters, Seasons Succession Gender: Agnatic, Agnatic Cognatic, Absolute Cognatic, Enatic Cognatic, Enatic, Random Succession Order: Primogeniture, Ultimogeniture, Lateral, Dynastic, Seniority, Random Points to Win: Low, Normal, High, Very High Player Start Location: Coastal, Inland, Anywhere Tribal Lands: Five Tribes, Four Tribes, Random Extreme Terrain: None, Either, Tundra, Desert Resource Density: High, Medium, Low, Random City Site Density: High, Medium, Low, Random City Site Number: Unrestricted, Restricted, Family Seats, Capitals, Random Forced March: Unlimited, Double Fatigue, Disabled Reset Random Seed on Reload Select Mods: pick what you want Select DLC: turn any DLC on or off Turn On or Off: 21 options I don't have space to list Parameter String Here you can actually "replay an in-progress game from the start by copying its parameter string from the in-game menu." Now, that's just an insane amount of customization, so you can hand-craft whatever level and kind of challenge you want. A "No Characters" option means you can completely turn off the Crusader Kings stuff and just play a 4X game without worrying about family and opinion. Characters and Families are removed from the game, if you just want to see what that's like. And obviously, you can ignore all of this tweaking and jump right in with a default game. Or anything in between. Two Kinds of Tutorial for New Players There are "Learn to Play" (Scripted) and "Learn by Playing" (Freeform) tutorials. Five scripted tutorials cover various aspects of the game, leading you from your first settler to fielding a large army that takes on Rome, teaching you about movement, the economy, influencing characters and families, diplomacy, and warfare. Four unscripted scenarios (Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, and Rome) take you across gradually increasing difficulty levels. It's just like a regular game, in that anything can happen, but there are tutorial pop-ups along the way. You can save and resume any tutorial at any time. Miscellaneous Stuff There are 376 achievements to go for. Playing with mods doesn't affect achievements, and one of the devs all by himself has provided 20 mods for the game on the Steam Workshop. Old World's deft UI design has never left me confused or not knowing what an icon means. (It swipes CK3's tooltip system, letting you freeze nested tooltips in place with middle-mouse or shift if you want.) There is an in-game encyclopedia. There are separate editors for maps, events, and portraits, if you want to change stuff at a granular level. Conclusion Old World is a thrilling distraction from everyday life, utterly absorbing every time I play, and the soundtrack just sings. It's not just a sandbox; it's an entire beach, the whole coastline, just waiting for you to build your castles and see what you can do next. Old World is a significant achievement in blending 4X with grand strategy. Buy all the DLC in one of the frequent sales they have. How else are you going to get hurricanes, plagues, and volcanic eruptions, hand off the managing of your city to The Grand Vizier, or respond to growing religious dissent? :-)