4X strategy is no joke. And any development endeavour down a path of 4X where new ideas and new IP is concerned, is likely one of the most daunting in all of game development. Get it wrong and the die-hard community will lynch you. Get it right and their expectations amplify to loftier heights. And if you've come from tested stock to branch out on your own... well, all eyes are going to be on you. As is the case with Old World from ex-Civ alumn, Soren Johnson and his studio, Mohawk Games.

Here's a snippet from our in-depth review of Old World via one David Wildgoose.

Old World is a turn-based 4X strategy game from Mohawk Games, the small studio founded by Civilization IV designer Soren Johnson, and it has just emerged from Early Access on the Epic Games Store, hitting version 1.0 on July 1. The imprint of Sid Meier's Civilization series is indelible upon Old World's hex-grid map, but Mohawk adds colour and detail with a layer of character interaction and development -- of courtly politics, sibling rivalry, familial favours, and simian espionage -- that borrows heavily from Crusader Kings. The result is a deep, complex and story-driven Civ-style game that succeeds at capturing at least some of what it must have been like to actually rule a Mediterranean empire a few thousand years ago.

You do many of the usual Civ things in Old World. You produce settlers to found new cities and workers to exploit the land. You train spearmen to defend your homeland and siege units to conquer your neighbours. You build barracks and shrines, theatres and libraries. You research new technologies and introduce new laws. And you erect ancient wonders like the Pyramids. If you've played a Civ game, and particularly the hex-based, one-unit-per-tile mode of the most recent series entries, then the early turns of Old World will feel very familiar.

Click here for our full Old World review.