Old World

It's fine, not great. The game is essentially just the classical era of a civ 4 game with the event system of CK2 (at launch) with very few lessons learned from either game. Your turn consists of issuing some number of Orders, usually less than you'd like. You have to split this between your units on the map (civilian + military) and the character interaction stuff. Building out the cities and managing the internal family politics is reasonablly entertaining, The resource management and tribal diplomacy is simple but tied into the character events in entertaining ways. Foreign rulers all kinda blur together - you can make friends with other leaders, but alliances rarely outlive either ruler, and because of how random it is there's often a big age gap. Where the game misses is it didn't learn the lesson Paradox did from CK2 to CK3 - for the character events to be impactful, there has to be a cost to your characters (their solution was the stress system). Instead, you just pick the optimal option for your current situation and all of your rulers kinda blur together. War is also miserable. Unit movements are so high and maps so large than enemies can swoop in from out of view and surround and nuke any individual unit. There's nowhere near enough tactical depth to justify the time spent babysitting units. It's a huge step back from a game like Humankind (specifically the game's battle system and its use of land). Ultimately the game does a few things reasonably well but doesn't really offer anything new and most of the things in this game are done better in others.

I have been a long time fan of the civilization series and for me, the high point of Civ was part 4. After that, a lot of new mechanics and problems were introduced and I found the games to be slower in part due to 1UPT. Along came Old World. I was skeptic at first because it also uses 1UPT but I was fascinated by the combination of Crusader Kings like politics and Civilization gameplay. I love Paradox games but they can be a bit abstract. This game combines the best of both worlds. It creates stories around characters, but due to the relatively short games, you actually remember all your rulers and what they meant for your story. The shorter span of a campaign (compared to Civ) also means the end game doesn't drag that much. 1UPT in this game works really well compared to Civilization. The scope is much smaller. Civ tries to mimic the whole world and it wouldn't make sense for units to move large distances. Old World can do that and by increasing the movement limit, it solves a lot of the logistical problems of Civ. Also, the AI is much better at using the system compared to Civ. I have the game on epic and there have been some slow downs in the late game but the performance has steadily increased and it performs fine now for me personally. If you like 4X games and want something with a fresher taste, you should definitely give Old World a go.

This is one of the few games that have made it into my "I'm going to play this over and over again" list along with classics like Civilization and Master of Orion. It gets only 4 stars becuase of some annoying bugs; if those are fixed in future patches it is a solid 5 star title. I don't think I've had a complete crash yet, but there are a few rather annoying bugs like the game playing all my previous achivements when I start it which takes something like 2-3 minutes of annoying fanfares and messages like "your leader got the title of Fountainhead". The good: Graphics are excellent and the balance seems right. One nice feature is how the game avoids most of the (usually boring) endgame by having decent victory conditions that allow you to win the game without eliminating every last opponent. In fact, conquest seems rather difficult from my (limited) experience - something that helps keep the game interesting throughout. One of the mechanisms used to achieve this is "orders" - a resource limiting the numer of units you can move each turn, making exploits like a horde rush more difficult to pull off. Nice new mechanism that keep you on your toes and make games interesting and fun. The slightly less good: The only thing I don't enjoy quite as much is the micromanagement of the development of your family members. Honestly it distracts a bit from playing the game for me. A typical turn may consist of 4-5 popup messages allowing you to choose if your heir should get a +1 bonus to wisdom or charisma and you need to read a blurb of text explaining the event, then check each option to see the effect and last of all check the family member in question to see what seems to work best with that person in particular. End result is that i probably spend more time reading the reports and responding to events than I do planning for how I should expand my empire which IMHO is the wrong balance. I'll put this down to preference, though. I'm sure other love this aspect of the game.

On the surface, Old World looks like a Civilization game, but it doesn’t play much like one. It’s more narrow in scope and the Crusader Kings style interactions with characters make for more complex and surprising playthroughs than “Gandhi has declared war on you” (again - but this time his words are backed by nuclear weapons instead of catapults). Decisions you make, which seem inconsequential at the time, may become problematic or prove useful later in unexpected ways. Which probably sounds familiar to Crusader Kings players, but rather than the real-time-with-pause grand strategy of CK (make decision(s), press resume and wait for stuff to happen), the turn-based 4X style means that Old World plays out quite differently. It’s not turn-based in exactly the same sense as Civilization or other 4X games, however: Possibly the greatest innovation in the game is the introduction of Orders - essentially an abstract resource (similar to Culture in Civilization). Each turn, the available orders are used for movement and other actions you take (or can be saved up for the next turn), but since the orders are limited, moving every unit every turn is rarely a good strategy. This solves the issue of mid to late game tedium in 4X games where you usually have dozens of units all waiting to be moved around with a fixed set of individual movement points each turn. The use of orders in Old World means you have to make hard decisions on what to do each turn, because you can never do everything in the usual 4X sense. Every decision you make means not doing (or postponing) something else. If there’s one thing I wish other turn-based 4X strategy developers take note of, it’s this particular mechanic. Combined with character events that always pop up with interesting decisions leading to short term or long term consequences, the end result is a 4X strategy game that is unusually engaging each turn and avoids the “glorified spreadsheet” feel of many other games in the genre.

In the direct line of the 4X concept - eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate - Old World invites you to build your empire by adding in several components to influence the output and stability of said empire. Mainly, the relation you have with the main figures of your empire, with the noble families as a whole, and with religions. Sadly for me, while I admit the base game is promising, the current product (which will probably change, it's still new at the time of writing) is too poorly balanced in my opinion, and lacks content beyond turn 80. In the beginning, everything is a challenge - never enough actions available, families are rarely friendly, and you never have enough money or resources. So far so good, but there come the two main liabilities in my opinion: the far too excessive focus on religion as a mechanic, and civics as a resource. Civics are used to pump out specialists or town projects, both being permanent additions to all productions. Since it's also used in electing governors (whom also increase your towns' outputs), laws, some missions and so on, civics are a critical resource which make a world of difference - such a difference that you can deal with every event to increase your legitimacy and build a bunch of world wonders. For religions, as said earlier relations work as a mechanic to the output and stability of your empire, in the form of events for characters (possible assassinations) and discontent or rebels for your towns, lowering their output or risking losing them if undefended. However religions influence families, nations, tribes, town discontent - so play their games, cajole them during their tantrums, and all that remains are character relations which don't have much of an influence, except the court vying for power. In the end, once you get your civics production up and act docile to religions, everything gets awfully easy and let you wage war without a worry. Enjoyable as-is, but the lack of balance won't keep you hooked for long!