We Love It's Guide to…
Guide an ancient kingdom across generations, balancing court politics, city-building, diplomacy, and war with limited orders each turn.
Released 18 May 2022
Rule Across Generations
Spend Limited Orders
Balance Noble Families
Old World is a revolutionary new historical strategy game where you lead your dynasty over generations of rule against rival kings and queens. Wage massive wars, manage your court, and build a dynasty — or watch your empire crumble to dust. What legacy will you leave behind?
Developed by Mohawk Games · Published by Hooded Horse
Themes from a helpfulness-selected sample of Steam reviews, not the aggregate Steam score.
Old World is a turn-based historical strategy game set in the ancient world. You lead a ruling dynasty, with each ruler eventually giving way to an heir as your kingdom develops and faces rival powers.
Expand by founding cities at designated sites, building improvements, managing resources, exploring, and dealing with tribes and neighboring kingdoms. Lead armies in terrain-aware battles, conduct diplomacy, and decide how to spend a limited pool of orders across your realm each turn.
Noble families, court characters, marriages, succession, and events shape domestic politics and can affect your plans. Technology choices vary between games, while ambitions and other victory goals give you different paths through each reign.
In the supplied reviews, players who enjoy Old World often praise how its limited-order system makes them prioritize actions, and how dynasty management and story events add personal drama to empire building. Reviewers also value the interconnected strategic choices, changing events between games, and challenging opponents. Others find the systems and event text demanding, and some criticize warfare, fixed city sites, or late-game pacing.

Old World is a historical strategy game where you lead your empire through multiple generations, building a grand legacy to last beyond your own years. This is an era of great leaders, from the revered to the feared. Which will you be?

Marry for politics, raise your heirs, and manage your relationship with the families of your kingdom. In the fast and furious world of kings and queens, family matters.
Each of the 7 kingdoms has four noble families that provide various benefits when put in charge of your cities.
Manage family ties through events, actions, and marriages to keep them happy and reap additional benefits. Upset them, or make them too powerful, and you risk their ire.
Maintain a strong family unit, or distract yourself with more illicit adventures.

The world is full of great characters with distinct personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Use them to forge your kingdom, defend your borders, and build ties with other leaders.
Seek out and recruit famed warriors, philosophers, builders, and more. Have them tutor your children, lead your armies, and further your reign.
Different personality archetypes allow your court members to perform different tasks in similar roles. Find the right combinations to take full advantage of governors, diplomats, spymasters, and even your spouse.
Characters develop new personalities and traits over time, growing old, gaining experience, and finally falling ill and passing away, leaving room for the next generation.

Unsettled tribes, barbarian marauders, and remnants of previous cultures are all waiting in the vast unexplored wilderness.
Discover artifacts and great heroes of the past at ruins scattered across the map.
Experience over 3,000 unique events inspired by history and mythology.
Contact with foreign dignitaries triggers event chains, stories, and courtroom drama.
Pursue ambitions and legacies related to conquest, development, faith, and more.
Historically inspired scenarios, weekly challenge games, and a choice between randomly generated and handcrafted maps to explore. Lead Carthage to victory as Hannibal in the Punic Wars, hold your own against Barbarian Hordes, or compete against other players in tackling fictional scenarios.

Why do things the way they've always been done? Old World brings a new take to key elements of the 4X strategy genre:
Go beyond the traditional resources. Buildings are made of wood and stone, not "industry." Population doesn't grow off "food" alone.
Orders are a resource shared across your realm. Instead of moving every unit once per turn, each unit can be moved multiple times until fatigued or Orders are depleted.
Technological advancement is not predetermined. Randomization helps keep technology trees feeling fresh with each new playthrough.
Quality of life improvements, such as the ability to undo mistaken commands and nested tooltips, ensure you're always making informed decisions.
Play with friends in countless multiplayer modes — from hotseat, to asynchronous, to cloud play.
Experience a Grammy-nominated soundtrack blending Arabic music with contemporary influences.
Mods further open up infinite options for new worlds, empires, and dynasties — inspired by our real world, and by works of fiction as well.

| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
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| Achievements | 408 |
| Age ratings |
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| Multiplayer | Old World supports multiplayer, including online PvP, online co-op, shared/split screen PvP and co-op, hotseat, asynchronous play, cloud play, cross-platform multiplayer, and Remote Play Together. The provided text confirms multiplayer with friends and competition against other players, but does not state player-count limits. A review states there is no built-in matchmaking queue and that lobbies are password-only, with games organized externally. |
| Multiplayer & mods | The game is moddable, has Steam Workshop support, and includes a level editor. The text says mods open up new worlds, empires, and dynasties, but does not specify multiplayer limitations or compatibility rules for mods. |
| Controller required | No |
| Demo | View demo on Steam |
| DLC / extras | 7 listed on Steam |
| Content notices |
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| Metacritic | 80/100 View on Metacritic |
| Website | Official website |
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