There is little doubt in my mind that this is the Civ IV BTS of the 2020s. What this means, if you are not an old fart like me, is that this game has no real rivals in its space currently. If you already like 4Xs and have the time and money, there is no choice but to try it out.

Sure, we can have fun with the competition. In particular with Civ VI, and I still do, but OW (Old World) is vastly superior, in several spaces. Most importantly, war in these games, war in Civ VI is a joke due to the inept AI. It's "press a button to win", and the AI always press it for you on the hardest difficulty, and you always end of rampaging their faces despite your vastly inferior numbers. In OW, war is oh-so-hard and oh-so-rewarding.
Imagine fighting over a mountain pass you fortified, except you don't have the feeling of shooting pigeons because the AI brings the best counter to what you have to offer, like a human would. In every 4X, I never lose a unit. In Old World, it's next to impossible.
So war is actually so damaging (like, guess what, irl) that you will probably try to avoid it.

Which brings me to diplomacy. Remember when Civ obscured diplomacy and we discovered it was all just pure random ? It's actually more challenging in OW but all the randomness now gets an actual explanation. I'll give an example : you have an excellent relationship with the old ruler of Persia, your stronger neighbor. Trade is good and you are at peace. Except you insulted their heir at some event because that earned you something, whatever it was. Can you see what's brewing 15 years down the line ?
You can plan for that.

Which brings me to the rewarding and constant challenge of deciding between the immediate returns and long term returns.
Arguably I am now at the core of the reason why this is the GOAT. This is why we play 4X, and how we do it. It's always about the balance to get the best long-term without sacrificing too much on the short term, and grabbing the best shiny pretty bounty now that still preserves the chances for our uber domination late game. And oh my god this game is cocaine on that front. There are just so many levels of relevant decision making. And the fact that the UNDO ACTION IS EMBEDDED IN THE GAME DESIGN means I don't have to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ save scum anymore because the designers UNDERSTOOD THAT WE DO IT anyway.
Because when you play on the hardest difficulties, losing an important unit because of a silly mistake is game over. So you would save scum (because the alternative is starting over, or doing something productive like knitting, playing Dota or hitting your cat). Except in OW, you just click click click that ♥♥♥♥er and go back in time. It's part of the game. It's probably the feature I miss the most in all the other games nowadays.
I want that in all future 4X games, pretty please. Thank you Santa.

It also helps learning the game. What does this do ? Let's click. Meh, it's ♥♥♥♥, undo. What if I flank their units with my pikemen and block the path with my archers. Let's do it. Okay it looks stupid and like I am going to get kicked in the ♥♥♥. Undo undo undo, let's try something else. What if I take that decision, what if, what if...

Finally, the game is pretty and the music is god tier. It also helps escaping our very divisive political landscape : today, there kinda is an agreement over the personality of Dido or the politics of Assyria, you know, right, and even if you disagree with my opinion about these, it wouldn't make me, or you, a -phobe or a -cist. Invading other countries and killing people is still bad no matter what, no debate possible here, eh.

It also helps it's filled with little details (mountain foehn effect anyone ?), embedded game-pedia and is a work of love, being consistently taken care of by the developer since I bought it day 1 (on Epic). To compare, Humankind|Endless Legend is also a pretty work of love (unlike the recent Civs), but whenever I come back to it, I quickly remember why I left. When I come back to Old World, I think instead, '♥♥♥♥ this is dope'. And I proceed to lose another whole week-end.

Finally FINALLY, you don't need the DLCs to enjoy the game at all. Most of my playtime is without the DLCs. Start without them. They do add content but it's "the good way", not the Paradox way. It's similar to Amplitude in terms of philosophy - so get them only once you've convinced yourself this studio deserves your hard earned coin.

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TL;DR Old World is a leap forward in 4X videogames. They are to their competitors (including what we know of Civ VII that's about to go live) what Civ VI BTS was to Civ II. I miss Millenia, Ara & Shadow Empire in my playlist but I've played all the others so I feel confident stating this. That's also why I felt confident buying it a second time on a different plateform.

I am going to play this for the years to come. Like Civ IV BTS in its time.

Really. Frankly, the only better value for money I can think of would be Dota. ♥♥♥♥. No. No god no. Not again please no ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ Noooooooooo...!

Better than Civ7, will play this or civ 5 to itch that scratch

Old World – A Deep, Rewarding 4X Experience

I've played Old World for 100+ hours, and I feel like I'm just getting started! This game offers incredible depth, to the point that I've even downloaded and started reading the manual. I haven’t read a manual since Civ 3.

At its core, Old World is a very transparent game. The ‘Orders’ system is a breath of fresh air for the genre.

The AI is genuinely fun to play against. The tech tree sometimes feels like a sledgehammer cracking a walnut, tackling small balance issues with heavy-handed solutions.

Even with its imperfections, Old World is one of the most innovative and rewarding 4X games I’ve played. If you enjoy deep, thoughtful strategy games, this one is absolutely worth your time.

👍 Highly recommended for fans of Civ IV