Old World Review

Last week Old World released in early access. We have written several posts about the main preview features. And today we will share with you our thoughts about the game in our Old World Review.

First of all, when you first start the game you can instantly feel the atmosphere of the game. Everything makes you think about history. All the leaders have their specific character and lore, that will help you rule in accordance with his character. In overall Old World is a unique epic historical turn-based strategy, which I enjoyed playing very much.

Build your dynasty

In Old World everything depends on your decisions. You will not only have to conduct state affairs but also educate yourself and the heirs. Each event in the game has consequences. Moreover, you could resolve some events peacefully if you had certain character traits. These character traits you can earn as you play. Thus, you educate yourself and become the best (or worst) ruler for the state.

But that’s not all. Since you are mortal in Old World, legacy rights are transferred to your successors. And your task is to grow it useful and worthy. This way you shape your legacy. But first, you will need to marry a great match of course.

But not everything is so simple. Do not forget you are the ruler in the Old World, which means that life can be quite unpredictable. So for you and for your offspring. The outside world and the character traits endowed with children affect their future destiny. Thus, your beloved son and heir to the throne can be found poisoned by someone unknown.

On the other hand, if you only inherited the throne, it may turn out that the attitude towards you is much worse than towards your father. Especially if in your youth you debauched and the king turned a blind eye to this, thereby spoiling you. In this case, you could make enemies and the consequences now can not be avoided.

So in the Old Word, you need to evolve all the time. The game will not allow you to choose profitable options every time. Very often you have to choose the best from the worst, and you still have to disentangle it afterwards.

Claim your territories

At the very beginning of the game, you will have to create as many cities as possible. But unlike Civilization, you cannot do this in any place you like. In Old World, you can build cities only in the City sites. These are special urban tiles located all over the map.

A couple located near the starting city will be free. But often there will be tribes. Of course you can declare war on them. But be prepared for the fact that a lot of such city tiles occupy tribes. And this means that you are declaring war not on one city, but several at once, and all of them are armed.

The easiest way is to find barbarian settlements. Their behaviour is predictable and does not bear diplomatic influence and consequences. But tribes have a very strong influence on world politics, their leaders are also changing and they also remember everything.

Well, the most difficult option is to declare war on another state. First, you need to find it. Then evaluate your strength against the strength of the enemy. And start a war that may not appeal to representatives of noble families. In the worst case, you will weigh the war outside the state while the nobility will raise a rebellion and rebels will take over the capital or any other city.

In addition, you can learn the technology that allows you to buy cells. Or build special buildings that will later help occupy neighbouring territories.

Keep nobility under control

In addition to a king, every nation has four ruling noble families. Each of the families will benefit the state, whether it is food, money or other resources. But in order to get these benefits, you need to put a city at the disposal of this family. At the very beginning, making a choice of a noble family for the capital, you automatically appoint this royal family. Therefore, the first leader comes from the first created family.

The most interesting thing will begin later when you create the second and subsequent cities. By giving too many cities subordinate to one family, you will offend other families. And believe me, just like that they won’t leave it.

From time to time, the nobility will set its own terms, quarrel among themselves or offer you marriage. Any of your choices affect relationships with all families. Therefore, you should carefully monitor how their attitude towards you changes. Otherwise, the conspiracy and your imminent sudden demise cannot be avoided.

Follow your ambitions

Based on what type of character you have (character traits), you will be offered the choice of ambition to fulfil. Sometimes ambition will come from the nobility. Your choice will determine how successful and legitimate you are. Moreover, the fulfilment of 10 ambitions leads to victory in the game.

The complexity of ambition depends on a historical moment. So at the beginning of the game, you will not get unattainable tasks for you. But they will be quite complicated at that time. After fulfilling one ambition, you will be asked to choose a new one. But do not despair if your demise has come before you have time to fulfil your ambitions.

All the ambitions of the predecessors pass to the new ruler with the status of Legacy. In addition to them, the new king chooses his own ambition. At first, it will seem to you that you are doing tasks too quickly and easily. But, this only means that while you are lucky. Believe me, soon everything will change dramatically.

Science and religion

The game is not accidentally named Old World. All events take place in the distant past, which means launching a rocket into space is unreachable daydream. But that means that you have more time to focus on everyday human needs.

A unique levelling of the technology tree adds features. You have to choose from the proposed cards. Each time you learn new technology, you will be given a choice from 3-5 technology cards. Since cards are shown in random order from all possible branches, you can wait a very long time for the card you need.

For example, if you are planning to build lumber mills, you will need to learn this technology. And even if it is next in the branch, this is far from the fact that it will drop to you right away. Thus, the developers wanted to bring balance and diversity to the technological capabilities of the players.

As for religion, it is not so simple. Your cities may turn to different religions. And this means that now you have to find a balance between believers. Expect special difficulties if representatives of noble families consider themselves to be of different faiths.

By analogy with tribes, those at the head of religion have memory and attitude towards events in the state. Therefore, we strongly recommend not letting the formation of religion take its course. Ideally, your task is to keep the church and state together. Otherwise, you will have to deal with many consequences arising from each other.

Conclusion

Generally speaking, I loved the game. Even on the current developing stage, it has very variable gameplay. In certain cases, I am addicted and I can’t tear myself away from the screen for a couple of hours solving the problems of my state.

Of course, there are flaws that are striking in the moments, but this does not affect the overall impression of the game. In addition, I am sure that they will all be fixed soon.

If you like historical strategies and Old World review made you think of trying the game you can buy it with a discount in the Epic Games Store until 14th May.

Pros&Cons