Old World

Angry Civ player perspective. I had this game sitting in my library for 2 years. After dedicating around 10 hours to learn all the game systems I can never go back to Civ 6 again (no I wont even try Civ 7). Old World is the best historical 4x (Civ-like) game on the market. I think only a few games qualify as a 4x Civ-like. I played Humankind. It is a great game imho but Old Wolrd is superior. No wonder. The guy who made it is the former lead designer of Civ 4. I will list my favorite features below: Order system > you cant move one time with every unit/turn like in Civ. Instead you have a set number of orders every turn. Order represents the legitimacy of your ruler. You start the game with around 10 orders but you can increase it by events/exploring the map/building improvements etc. In the mid late game you can easily have 30 - 50 orders per turn. Now the fun part. If you want to move a unit or do any action with a unit you need to spend orders. At the beginning of the game if you build too many military units this can mean you don't have enough orders to use all of them within the same turn. Or sometimes when you start a war you will be forced to decide if you spend your orders on fighting/moving military units or to build improvements with your workers at home etc. This system is so good. Workers > you have workers which dont disappear after 3 uses. OMG I forgt how much I miss this feature from earlier Civ games. You use them to build improvements, roads, etc. Undo button > great quality of life feature. Civ games should have it. Story events > at the beginning of each turn you get a couple of (3 to 5) story events. I am not a story gamer. This is why I play sandbox games like Civ. I hate to read/watch long stories. Here however each event is only a couple of lines long (10 to 30 sec read duration) and gives you a very nice flavor what is happening in your kingdom/palace. Gives your game such a nice depth. After each story event you have to chose an answer/action what you want to do. A lot of decisions have future consequences. I like it very much. Families > each nation have 4 families. Think of them as a "set of different perks/buffs". when you settle a city you need to decide which family you dedicate it to. You can have a maximum of 3 different families among your cities. You need to carefully manage relation with all said 3 families in order to not get into trouble/problems. Again just such an intuitive, nice, in-depth system. Resources > you have freaking resources like wood. stone, iron, food etc. Not just stupid "production". You have even special resources like "civics" and "training" and "research". Civics is used for assigning governors, changing laws, engaging in diplomacy etc. Training is used for military purposes. Leveling up soldiers, force march etc. Exploration > In Old World scouts are viable and important even in the late game. The more of the map they reveal the more legitimacy (multiplier to calculate the orders you have each turn) you get. They can also harvest resources. Which means they can get a once per 10 turns small bonus from each resource. The action does not remove the resource. For example horses when harvested provide 50 gold. Map settings when starting a game > very in depth settings. You can pretty much set everything the way you want. Super good. Combat > terrain plays a very important role in combat. Ranged units get +1 range on hills. Forest provide defense from ranged fire. Mounted units get a bonus on flat land etc. TLDR.: if you are a 4x or Civ fan I highly encourage you to give Old World a try. After a couple of hours of time investment I guarantee you you will never go back to Civ 6/7 again.

Игра заинтересовала меня довольно давно, но реально затянула только сейчас, после нескольких попыток. Во многом из-за пугающего поначалу интерфейса и механик, которые кажутся избыточными и непонятными. Впоследствии понимаешь, что всё не так сложно, как кажется. Главное — не задерживаться в учебных миссиях долго, так как они скучные и не передают того, что происходит в настоящих играх. Ниже я перечислю всё, что меня впечатлило. [h2]Строительство[/h2] Игрок сам решает, где будет стоять каждое здание. В Old World город буквально разрастается клетка за клеткой. Вы можете превратить один берег в сплошную промзону с шахтами и кузнями, а другой — в культурный центр с храмами. В этой игре дороги строятся рабочими вручную (или автоматически через амбиции). [h2]Кампании[/h2] Исторические кампании или сценарии. Это именно то, что выделяет Old World на фоне конкурентов. В то время как другие аналогичные игры — это «цифровые настолки» про всё и сразу, игра Сорена Джонсона — это как исторический роман, в котором вы сами принимаете участие. Сценарии здесь сделаны с огромным вниманием к деталям. События в игре часто основаны на реальных летописях, что создает эффект «погружения». [h2]Античность[/h2] Большинство 4X-стратегий (та же Civilization) пробегают античность за первые 30–50 ходов, и даже не успеваешь «распробовать» эпоху: только построил фалангу, а у тебя уже мушкетёры… Old World же делает на античности основной фокус. Тут глубина против скорости. Здесь античность — это не короткий этап, а целая вселенная. [h2]Персонажи и взаимоотношения[/h2] Вы видите, как ваш правитель стареет, покрывается шрамами и передает правление наследнику. Рождаются и взрослеют дети правящих династий. Заключаются брачные связи между государствами. Эта механика — сердце и хаос Old World одновременно. Именно она превращает игру из «сухой» стратегии в живую историю, которую невозможно полностью просчитать. В этом и заключается главный плюс — вы не «всемогущий бог», а человек на троне, который пытается удержать штурвал, пока вокруг бушуют амбиции родственников и козни соседей. [h2]События[/h2] События — это именно то, что делает каждую партию индивидуальной. В отличие от многих стратегий, где события — это просто скучные окна с текстом «+10 к золоту», в Old World это полноценные мини-истории с вариантами выбора. События часто переплетаются. Если вы в начале игры приняли изгнанника, через 20 ходов он может всплыть как ваш лучший генерал или, наоборот, как шпион врага. Игра помнит ваши решения, создавая сюжетные повороты.

Old World is probably the closest I've ever played to my platonic ideal of a historical 4X. There's a bunch of things this game gets right that basically every other 4X I've played and loved gets wrong. Civilization, Stellaris, Endless Legend, whatever — they all eventually run into the same problem: late-game slog. You get to the point where you're running an actual empire with dozens of cities and a stupid number of units, and suddenly the game stops being strategy and starts being a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spreadsheet. Every turn you're individually telling 40 different units where to go, clicking through cities, managing workers, etc. And even if you automate some of it, the underlying problem never really goes away: more empire = more ♥♥♥♥ to manage = longer and longer turns. Old World has a brilliant solution to this with the ORDERS system. You only get a limited number of actions per turn. That number increases as the game goes on, but you're always constrained by it. And this completely changes how a huge empire feels. When I have 30 armies in the late game, the problem isn't "oh god, I have to manually move all 30 of these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ armies and workers." The problem is: I can only move 10 of them this turn. There's a war happening in the north. Barbarians are causing problems in the east. There's a rebellion brewing in the south. And flooding destroyed half the farms on my most productive city to the west. Which one gets my attention? That's an actual strategic decision. It turns running a massive empire from a tedious exercise in clicking into a constant game of prioritization. I'm basically standing in the middle of an empire with 8 fires burning, holding 4 buckets of water, trying to figure out which fires I can afford to ignore this turn. And THAT is exactly what I want from a grand strategy game. The game doesn't solve the late-game problem by making the player do less. It solves it by making your ability to do things itself a strategic resource. Genuinely one of the smartest systems I've seen in a 4X, and it's a huge reason why Old World remains my favorite historical 4X. If you've bounced off Civ or other 4X games because the late game turns eventually become an administrative nightmare, please give this game a shot. Old World ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rules. And gameplay aside, the characters, histories, stories, etc built by the NPCs and Events system are endlessly fun and Modders have added thousands more. (Edit, also plays great on steam deck!, tho it guzzles battery life)

Wrote a more lengthy review before, but I don't think it worked for some reason? anyway this is the best 4x game I've ever played

TLDR: Buy this. Play it more than a few hours to let it settle into your soul. Love and grow together. LOTSA EXTRA WORDS: I’ve been a huge 4x fan for most of my gaming life (which has been most of my life). From the original Civ up through Master of Orion, Age of Wonders, Endless Legend, even stuff hiding in the corners like Stars in Shadow or Gladius. However, sometime after the release of Civilization VI my interest began to wane. One more turn became a bridge too far. Other than my love for the occasional Gladius game, and the brief flare-up that was Zephon, I moved on to other strategy games. I played Old World during the “EA” period on Epic just a bit and bounced off. Pretty hard, tbh. I think it let me keep it on Steam when it dropped there too? I’m not even sure. It’s been sitting there like a gem in my backlog for years now, waiting for me to pick it from the grass. A friend recently asked me about the quality of Old World when he saw it was on sale for four bucks during a Steam sale. I told him Soren Johnson is a bit of a genius and you can’t go wrong for four bucks. But this comment really wasn’t based on the quality of Old World - what did I know? - but rather Soren’s past content like Offworld Trading Company and Civilization IV. So, a day later, to prove myself correct, I loaded up Old World and finally took the time let it sink in. Old World is Civ on a smaller scale, covering only the ancient world with civilizations like Rome, Hittites, Egypt and others; Old World is the distillation of one man’s 4x knowledge into something both new and old, something part Civ and part Crusader Kings, something not afraid to try new things (like orders) or embrace old things (like worker spam), a game not afraid to put scout and worker automation toward the middle of the research tree because you should be out there, actively building and exploring - actively thinking. Which is something that most current 4x games are trying to bleed out of the genre in the hopes of larger audiences and bigger console sales (looking at you, Civ VII). At the risk of sounding hyperbolic (which I frequently do, when excited about a game or book), Old World is a gorgeous masterpiece. The maps are lush and hand-drawn and easy to read. The paintings for the events and the characters are exquisite. The fog of war is a blanket of dark roiling clouds lit by the occasional strike of lighting. The UI is detailed and easy to use. Seriously, some games after all these years just can’t get the UI right (looking at you again, Civ VII), but Old World sneaks so many quality-of-life upgrades into it - some upgrades maybe too cleverly hidden - that I was still learning new things on my third or fourth game. And the music, from composers such as Grammy winner and previous Soren Johnson roommate, Christopher Tin, ranges from the subtle to the sublime. And it doesn’t even start playing until you research Drama. Under the hood the mechanics are smart and it takes a while to realize just how different it plays as a Civ-like. The order mechanic limits your turns, both excising some of the bloat from 4x micromanagement and creating interesting decisions as to what you should focus on during your turn. Should you push toward Babylonia with your army or take a breath to concentrate on making sure your infrastructure is secure? Related to orders is also a new feature that every 4x should have - the undo button! You can undo your last misclick or even an entire turn, it’s up to you. Is there the chance of abusing this function? Of course! But the design decision to give players the right to choose how they want to play redolent not on just this simple ( sniff, glorious!) button but in every facet of Old World. This extends to the Crusader Kings side of the game too, which has you playing as a ruler - every turn a year in your life - until your heir takes over and you continue as a Hero or a Diplomat or more. Don’t want to contend with this portion of the game? Turn it off! But, you’ll be missing a big reason this game shines: its ability to give and take and create a tapestry of interesting decisions leading to ambitions and subterfuge and even Pieface. There are dozens of design decisions that make Old World intricate and interesting. I won’t ruin all of them for new or possible players but here are a few: from orders to the research system that acts like a deck of cards to randomize every game, from gamey victory conditions like ambitions to removing stock-standard endgame culture and science victories, from the balance of the resource systems and how they operate in your various cities to the very different form of diplomacy. Make no mistake, this is a 4x game, but it’s a more complex system with an abundance of minutia leading to compelling decisions at every turn. This is me rushing through the details because the turns are drawing me back… Is Old World perfect? Of course not. There are still the long endgame turns prevalent in the genre as well as declining performance. And CPU turns can take a while as well (I’m writing this review in short chunks as the turns process). But, overall, Old World is an outstanding 4x game that brought this old 4x grognard back to the table in a big way. Thanks Gren!

Old World feels like Civ but with way more personality and meaningful decisions. The character and family system adds a cool RPG-like layer that makes your leaders actually matter instead of just being stat boosts. Turns move quickly, and the Orders system keeps you thinking about every action. If you like historical strategy games but want something deeper than standard 4X, this one’s easy to sink hours into.

In maybe 15 years of steam I have NEVER written a review but the way this game did me wrong made me SO ANGRY that I had to share. This game CAN AND WILL DELETE ALL YOUR SAVEGAMES. Not just the lastest one. ALL OF THEM. A weeks long campaign POOF, gone, and no way to recover. I just think this is unforgivable and not even worth it on sale. This happened multiple times, I tried various techincal fixes but none of them worked. Edit: I am not sure where people are getting the idea that I am using onedrive. I am using no cloud storage platform at all here. The problem is with Old Worlds saving system, and the devs know it well. Just look at how many others are reporting the same thing.

This is the game Civilization 7 should have taken inspiration from. The way the some very basic constrains in its design results in very engaging prioritization decisions in the game play. The most integral of these constrains is the order-system. In the game, every action any unit takes consumes an order from the limited pool that refreshes every turn. Some other actions, like assigning governors or generals also consumes orders. Because of this limitation the Old World does not have the same carpet of doom issue that Civ 5 has, and the endgame unit management is not a great chore every turn. Also because of marching an army from one side of an empire to other is not free, positioning of units in peace time really matters. Catching an enemy (or getting caught) off guard can be much more devastating in Old World than in other 4X games. Also internal politics are fun in Old World, much more so than in any other game in the 4X genre. Old World has Crusader Kings-like characters who can and will die, be born or marry during the game. And if they are important, like head of a religion or an heir to the throne, their opinions matter. Internal strife can be devastating, but there are many ways to handle or prevent it. I could go on, but this is my favorite modern 4X game.