One of the best strategies out there (not just 4x, but in general). That's coming from a man who spent 1000+ hrs in games from civ franchiseOne of the best strategies out there (not just 4x, but in general). That's coming from a man who spent 1000+ hrs in games from civ franchise (from 1 to 6), 1000+ hrs in paradox strategies like EU4, Stellaris, CK 2/3 and HoI IV, 100+ hrs in Total War games, and countless hours in other strategies like Endless franchise, HoMM III and others. If you like a 4k or strategy games in general you most definitely will like it, as it brings numerous improvements and innovations for 4X genre. Its main systems (events, characters, families, orders,trading, production) are quite robust and well-thought-out and fundamentals are strong.The game kept my attention for the entirety of my runs (I'm well over 150 hrs of playing time currently) - the thing I can not say about some other strategy games. Some of them are too long (EU4), in some (like in the Total War series) you get to snowball very fast getting a decisive advantage pretty early, and then the game becomes a chore (because you already "won", but you need to keep playing for a long time to actually claim it) and Old World has none of it - 200 max turns, perfect victory conditions and overall balance of early-mid-late game are all just in the right spot for me. It focuses on one era and does it well, providing a tight, well-tuned experience. Game systems have a lot of depth - so you will learn many new things even after hundreds of hours. Good things are to be said about the overall balance of the game - compared to ...some... (YES, I'M POINTING AT YOU CIV VI), where devs release new civilizations or features without any after-thought of actually balancing it. All things I said apply even to the highest difficulty and I'm really glad it does, as difficulty can really skew perception, alter your playing style and limit things that can work - here it actually remains about the same - just more challenging (however, I have to say, for most players, even veterans, this game will be much more difficult than Civ - AI is not amazing but better (especially combat AI) and, while getting more advantages from the start, it doesn't "cheat" afterwards like in Civ, just gets a head start. There are a lot of options, so you can adjust it for yourself just fine. Replayability is pretty much endless, you already most certainly can sink hundreds and thousands of hours into it.The game soundtrack is awesome, and the overall graphic design of the game has a coherent, theme-fitting style to it.The main criticism for me would be performance issues (the game is so good I actually don't mind, but they are real - it runs worse than any other strategy game out there I've played, tho graphics are nothing special, some would even call it "outdated") and overall "scope" so to say. It is just an initial release and the dev team is quite small (but very passionate and actively engaging with the community), so there are not what many different civs or overall content in terms of raw numbers (only 7 civs, 5 tribes, the overall number of systems/units e.t.c.), however, to me it is not a downside, because it makes the game tighter, civs balanced, each system having a meaningful place, tho some people may have a different opinion.The tutorial is quite bare-bones as of July 2021, but I definitely got hang of its systems just fine, and the learning curve was quite smooth, but my perception on this subject is definitely skewed.Overall, I will without hesitation say that Old World is one of my favourites now and the best strategy game I've played in a while, so despite not being perfect in every aspect, it gets 10/10 personally for me. It is awesome and you should try it too.… Expand
