Old World is heading to Steam and GOG next month

Old World has been limited to the Epic Games Store for longer than most games, arriving there in early access all the way back in 2020 and getting its full release last year. That’s finally changing. Soren Johnson’s mixture of Civilization and Crusader Kings 3 will come to Steam and GOG on May 19th, alongside a new expansion that will be free to keep for the first two weeks.

Here’s the trailer for the expansion, Heroes Of The Aegean:

The expansion features six scenarios from Ancient Greece in which you can control leaders like Leonidas and Alexander The Great. It’ll launch on May 19th, alongside full Linux support for the base game and localization in a bunch of new languages.

If you’ve not played the base game yet, you’re seemingly in for a treat. Soren Johnson is perhaps still best known as the lead designer of Civilization IV, and Old World is his return to that genre, armed with a decade of influence from Paradox grand strategy games. Nate was greatly fond of it when he played its final release last year, though its Steve Hogarty’s early access review I’m going to quote from.

Old World is a game with the map obsession of any 4X game, but where the fate of your nation can also be shaped by your choices in narrative snapshots. Steve adopted a monkey.

“Decision points come thick and fast, but the pet monkey is a real wildcard. I’ve no clue what the chances of him appearing are, but if you choose to adopt him from a traveling salesman he might later show up during trade negotiations with visiting dignitaries, snatching a priceless totem from the bejeweled headdress of a high priest, and scampering off with it. This sours relations for years to come, but nets you a rather heavy piece of jewelery for your palace coffers. On one occasion the monkey escaped into the streets of my capital city and caused so much havoc that I somehow lost an entire lumber mill.”

Which feels like plenty of reason to play it, even without a free expansion to sweeten the deal. You can, if you wish, stare at Old World’s store pages on Steam other GOG until it unlocks five weeks from now.