

While Civilization covers the entire scope of human history, Old World is, as the name might suggest, fully focused on the ancient era – roughly modeling the Mediterranean region in the period from the rise of early Iron Age civilizations until the height of European antiquity.

And while it brings some new and cool tricks to the table, it plays a lot like one as well.

Even down to the look of the map, it would be easy to mistake the build I played for a Civilization V mod. That’s not too surprising considering it’s the work of Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson his first new game since 2016’s economic RTS Offworld Trading Company. In fact, a lot of things about it will – from warfare to the way settlements exploit tiles to produce resources. If you’re a long-time Civilization player, settling your first city in Old World is going to feel pretty familiar.
