History often sees great leaders and powerful nations pit themselves endlessly against each other, endlessly battling through art, science, land, and warfare. In Old World, by developer Mohawk Games and publisher Hooded Horse, you take up the mantle of one of the great leaders of this ancient age and lead your nation to prosperity through whatever means necessary. With a focus on the locales of the Mediterranean, your leadership will see empires rise and fall, perhaps influenced by your actions.
Old World is an incredibly detailed and in-depth game, likening it to the Civilization franchise. However, where I found the Civilization games to be confusing, Old World is concise and clear while maintaining the intricacies of ruling a country. The game is rife with levels of management; from deciding the actions of your cities and their management to rubbing elbows with the important figures of many different factions throughout your and others’ nations, each decision is made with the precision of Chess. However, the game is there to keep things from becoming uncontrollable or too complicated, reminding you of the important actions that must be taken each turn and providing a tab to show every possible optional action that you might undertake.
The system of politics is incredibly well handled: you are able to control the education of younger members of your society, exert influence onto all of the notable people of your nation, and even make efforts to negotiate marriages between your heirs. There is a definite level of control, providing the feeling of power and anxiety that comes from ruling a country, which is balanced with the randomness of the events that the other nobles of your society engage in. And everything that you can do as a leader, you can prevent from being done in an enemy nation: the feeling of controlling leagues of spies, infiltrating enemy capitals to spread discontent, and even organizing the assassination of would-be famous world leaders is incredibly engaging.
Every action in Old World feels rewarding, both from the standpoint of the gameplay and the game itself. The game features over 180 achievements in its Steam release, including specialty rewards for preventing historical figures from rising to glory. (A personal favorite is the reward for killing Alexander the Great as a child, titled “Alexander the Who?”) The engagement of the gameplay is expanded on and thoroughly uplifted by the dynamic and incredible music and sound effects. Each action carries weight, and every passing in-game year comes with the feeling of decades-gone-by. My absolute favorite tracks were those, which incorporated ancient songs, providing the ambience you would expect a world leader to have in their court.
Overall, Old World is an amazing game. I highly recommend checking it out. It features gameplay that is deep enough to enrapture a long-time strategy player while also providing enough clarity to help a newer player make their way to glory. As someone who struggled to understand other, similar turn-based strategy games, the way that this game clicked for me was incredibly rewarding and satisfying. I highly recommend picking up a copy of Old World when it comes to Steam on May 19th. Until then, I suppose I have the luxury of being one of the few people in the world with access to its achievements. Watch your back, Alexander, I WILL be the first person to prevent your conquest!
Check Out the Old World Heroes of the Aegean Trailer:
You can wishlist Old World for PC via Steam before it’s May 19, 2022 release.
Gaming is a passion that I, like many other people, hold near and dear to my heart. As an aspiring Game Writer and general Storyteller, I enjoy looking into the vast worlds and deep stories of every game I can. Then again, sometimes bad guys just need a good pummeling, and I am more than happy to provide!
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