Dry as hell. The developers wanted strategic elements they felt had long been missing from the Civ series, and ended up packaging it into this dizzying mess of numbers, stats, and hyperlinks. Which normally, I could like.

But I'm taking a different slant on this. It's because of the writing. This is the most unfeeling, unemotional, non-immersive text I've ever seen in a game that imagines itself as one to tell a story. Tech discoveries and unit descriptions literally read like a manual for an efficiency stove.

Imagine the new player - "hey, I'm a wide-eyed civ-veteran that wants to trawl across the ancient landscape and build a dynasty that blazes through the old world! Oo, 'Legitimacy' - Let's see what that means in this game!" So, expecting to see something in the writing like:

[Your right to rule - the respect, ambition, and ability to sway your subjects. It's the seductive force that turns your leadership from mere authority into undeniable reign]

The ACTUAL text reads:

"Legitimacy comes from achieving Ambitions and acquiring better Cognomens (...and is lost in the next generation by etc.)"

That's it - it's not what legitimacy actually is or what might be cool about it, just the function it serves, how you get it, and how the stat can diminish over time.

It's that absence of rich explanation, or /why/ the concept being explained should be emotionally or historically relevant to the game, such as [legitimacy] giving access to more [orders]. The rest of Old World continues to miss the mark in text, pop-ups, events, all disconnected from any real purpose to garner any desire to push forward and so it generally plays dryly like the brown palette it's set against. You want a complex historical map game with lot of management? Fine. But it's a GAME; dress it like it's sexy and interesting, not like a miasma of stats and functions connected through links but unlinked to any real sensation of greatness or growth. Like what happened to Spock narrating tech discoveries? What happened to "Hey, your subjects want to celebrate your rule - here choose something to add to your throne room!"

Developers - it's great that you wanted to flesh out deeper strategy elements. But - and crazy considering there's a huge dynastic element baked in - you're missing the soul of the game.

For all the love and praise Hooded Horse games get, usually deserved, Old World seems to always be forgotten.

Old World is pretty much Civilization meets Crusader Kings. I say pretty much because it really elevates the Civilization gameplay far beyond any other game I've played in the genre.

For me, the Civ games always grow stale. You pick a different leader every game, but nothing really changes outside the map and what victory condition you go for. Every game will play out roughly the same way. This is why so many games, be it Old World, Millenia, Humankind or recently released ARA all attempt to change.
First off, Old World gives you more choices when it comes to basic 4X gameplay. Troops have a certain number of moves, but using a resource (orders) you can force march units much farther, to where you need them. For instance, don't need to move your scouts, but need your spear units much farther, don't move your scouts and use all your orders on your spears. You have way more control over that.
Planting a city you pick between families to govern, each with pros and cons on how that city will run outside of the resources available.

Throw in the Crusader Kings elements of you playing AS a character, managing your heirs, having events, and trying to keep the other families happy ON TOP OF the other empires around you and their diplomacy. Old World is, in my opinion one of the best, and most diverse 4X, Civilization styled games on the market.

A few cons I'd say is sometimes the writing isn't the best, which sucks in a text heavy game.
As well I'm rather annoyed that the end turn button is on the left side of the screen rather than the right.

TL;DR: Old World is a better Civilization game (mechanically) mixed with the role play elements of Crusader Kings in one fantastic package. The tutorial is great, the music is wonderful, the developers are amazing. If you're looking for something TRULY fresh in the 4X market, Old World is my recomendation.

I'm not giving up yet but the AI is absolutely brutal. Supposedly it isn't cheating but I'm not so sure. Fun game, but very frustrating. Civ 5 clone, check it out.