Old World - The Sacred and the Profane
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Old World - The Sacred and the Profane
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Old World - The Sacred and Profane is a downloadable add-on for Old World, a historical strategy game for Windows PCs and Macs. Players must own the base game to play. This expansion pack adds new mechanics for the religious element of civilization building, new city projects to build, and a large number of new in-game events. The game remains very complex, and requires managing even more resources to succeed. While the game provides options for peaceful paths to success, most games will require players to engage in military action and political manipulation to conquer their opponents, though no blood or gore is shown during play. References to alcohol are made, but it's never shown in game.
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What’s It About?
In OLD WORLD - THE SACRED AND PROFANE, players act as the leader of a real historical civilization, and try to develop and expand their empires in a turn-based strategy game. With the additional contents included in the expansion pack, you will have more opportunities to interact with the religious beliefs of the times, which gives you new opportunities to control the development of your civilization. New character traits, clergy members for your court, and events help keep the game fresh with each run.
Is It Any Good?
New mechanics and events keep this historical strategy game feeling fresh. Old World - The Sacred and Profane takes the excellent foundation set up in the base game and adds a new layer of interaction with the expansion of the religion mechanics, which goes a long way in keeping each scenario feeling unique. The basic format of a campaign remains the same: you pick a civilization and try to grow and expand your empire while completing personal goals for victory points. If you gather enough victory points or conquer all of the other civilizations on the map, you win. The game scales back from something like the Civilization series, and places a greater focus on your life as the leader of the empire, and the new religious mechanics add a bunch of interesting wrinkles to both the personal and overarching strategy of the game.
The most interesting addition is the inclusion of over 350 new events that pop up depending on the circumstances of the campaign. These can range from the birth of new religions, to conflicts between rival religious groups that are mingling in your territory. Having so many more events in rotation means that you are much more likely to have games with dramatically different developments than before, and it encourages new and nuanced ways of strategizing. Just having a simple goal of getting every member of your court to convert to Zoroastrianism changes the way you interact with your council, affects how you pick marriage partners and advisors, and might risk consequences from the new religious dissent mechanic. Combined with new historical characters, new character traits, and new city projects, these new features all add great flavor and nuance to the already excellent strategic core present in Old World.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the role of war in video games. Is it acceptable to use military actions within Old World - The Sacred and Profane? Does the new religious dissent mechanic change the way you feel about using armies in-game?
Did you recognize the religious beliefs shown in Old World - The Sacred and Profane? Did it affect how you see the religions still present in the world today?
Game Details
- Platforms: Windows, Mac
- Pricing structure: Paid ($4.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Hooded Horse
- Release date: January 16, 2023
- Genre: Strategy
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters, History, Science and Nature
- ESRB rating: NR for No Descriptions
- Last updated: January 24, 2023
Our Editors Recommend
For kids who love strategy
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