Basically Civ confined to antiquity (which was always the best stage of Civ), and incorporating the dynastic, character-driven elements of Crusader Kings (though simplified). It's definitely better than its contemporary, bigger budget Civ 6, and improved with DLCs, but has a somewhat steep learning curve and punishing in higher difficulties. I'm hoping for an Old World 2 to take this in a more RPG direction, focusing more on events and character development rather than the points and numbers.

Thematically this is neat and the event system provides a lot of neat storytelling. However every game becomes progressively less interesting as it progresses. The first half of a game is solid and provides plenty of interesting decision making but like many other 2X games the later game becomes too defined by one player snowballing either through the point score or military numbers and the minute to minute gameplay becomes increasingly dull as a result of this.