Old World Critic Reviews

A clever spiritual successor to Civilization full of both novelties and big ideas.

Old World is a successful hybridization experiment, which lacks only in the interface, sometimes very unclear, and in explaining its main mechanics to the player, due to a really lacking tutorial.

There's a lot more to Old World than the glib description of "Civ meets Crusader Kings" can convey. Yet it succeeds because it feels like a genuine meeting between the two, a deeply considered merger that applies the strengths of both games to cover their weaknesses. It doesn't feel like you're playing Civ, but with some Crusader Kings characters butting in every now and again with some silly tale or grievance. It feels like you're playing Civ, but with some Crusader Kings characters who grow alongside you, whose relationships to you and each other actually matter, and who prove that the great stories of empires aren't about production rates per turn--they're about the people who lived through them. And their pet monkeys.

A thoroughly integrated and refreshing mix of classic 4X turn-based strategy, role-playing elements and varied events.

Old World adds dimension and complexity to the 4X style, but its slow pace and intricate resource management hinder it from reaching its full potential.

Old World is a smaller-scale 4X game than its Civilization forbearers but its new ideas add both interesting depth and intimidating complexity.

Old World clearly shows its origins, coming from a small team of developers intimately connected with 4x strategy games. It adds several new mechanics to an established genre, some of which are clearly brilliant and others that seem less significant. Old World succeeds in giving genre fans a clear alternative to their favorite games, but it seems unconcerned with welcoming the uninitiated, thanks to a fussy interface, lack of patient tutorials, and a focus on a fairly narrow slice of history and culture. Fundamentally, Old World both honors a tradition and gently pushes it forward.

Old World has its moments, but it's a very niche offering. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't hardcore about 4X games because the learning curve is brutal. However, if you've played the rest and you're looking for something new, and especially if the overload of stats is something you find compelling, check out Old World. At the very least, you get to enjoy Christopher Tin's majestic soundtrack.

While the game has interesting concepts and ideas, some odd design choices and an atrocious tutorial hamper Old World’s ambition.