Old World Review
Ashurbanipal had been ruling the Assyrian Empire through discipline and an iron fist. His son and only heir was a deviant and a miscreant, cast away from family and throne. For 20 years, Ashurbanipal had no heir, despite having outlived four wives. A long war with the Greeks was exhausting him and while he enjoyed initial victories, the Assyrian king hit a quagmire as his men were falling by the day trying to capture the Greek capital of Pella. Eventually, the opportunity presented itself to add a member to the family, an orphan who he saw himself in. And not a moment too soon, as Ashurbanipal passed from this world. Unfortunately, the cowardly Carthaginians took advantage and declared war on an embattled Assyria. Soon the Assyrian Empire would not be more than a memory...
And that is how my first game of Old World went, a game created by the excellent team at Mohawk Games. Led by renowned game designer Soren Johnson and talented CEO and writer Leyla Johnson, Old World is [spoiler alert] one of the finest and most innovative 4X games to be produced in this era. Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical despite Soren's previous work on Civilization IV, another great title and one of my favorite genre-defining 4X games. My concern was the limited scope of the Old World setting being solely in the Pre-Classical (aka the Classical Antiquity) era, whereas Civ IV covered pre-history to the near future. Old World, however, succeeds in digging deep into the era and making a remarkably interesting game in the process. As an aside, I highly recommend that you read a bit about the Classical Antiquity era, as it is a fascinating period of human history.
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TL;DR
Old World pushes the boundaries of the 4X genre and does it extremely well in a fun and tight package. This is one of the best 4X games of this generation and should be at the top of your list of games to play if you are a 4X fan.
Score: 9.5/10
