Egypt: Old Kingdom

About

"Egypt: Old Kingdom" is a historical simulation game set in Ancient Egypt from 3500-2140 B.C. As Horus, you assist pharaohs in unifying Egypt, constructing pyramids, worshiping gods, and developing technology. The game is based on real history and features the challenges of the First Intermediate Period. Your decisions will impact the growth and stability of the ancient kingdom.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

85%

Audience ScoreBased on 758 reviews

gameplay68 positive mentions

grinding8 negative mentions

Fascinating and immersive strategy game that effectively teaches ancient Egyptian history.
Beautiful art direction and easy-to-comprehend controls, making it accessible for beginners.
Offers a unique blend of resource management and historical context, with engaging gameplay that encourages replayability.

The game can feel linear and 'on the rails', limiting player agency and strategic diversity.
Difficulty spikes can be frustrating, especially during later trials that may feel punishing.
Some players report bugs and issues with the user interface that detract from the overall experience.

gameplay
194 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
60%
5%
The gameplay of the game is a mix of simple mechanics and historical elements, allowing players to manage resources, build structures, and engage in strategic decisions. While some players appreciate the educational aspect and the engaging flow of gameplay, others criticize the unclear mechanics, poor balance, and reliance on RNG, which can lead to frustrating experiences. Overall, the game offers a casual yet deep experience for fans of turn-based strategy, though it may not appeal to those who prefer more complex or fast-paced gameplay.
- “The gameplay is easy enough to understand, plus I can learn the history of Egypt.”
- “The game is not meant to be a granular grand strategy-esque simulation of the historical world of Old Kingdom Egypt, but it manages to accomplish its goal of teaching the player about this period and provides excellent management/strategy gameplay that complements it well.”
- “Gameplay is very deep and addictive; replayability makes this game an enjoyable time killer.”
- “The first game was way better; this one has some pretty broken mechanics, horrible explanation of how anything works, RNG is horrid, and the game is all in all way too long, like a chore.”
- “You can lose after seven hours of gameplay just because you may have not made the perfect choices within the first hour.”
- “Poor balance, inscrutable game mechanics, and an almost impossible, pointless level of difficulty combine to make it just not very much fun.”
graphics
110 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
49%
4%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the unique art style inspired by ancient Egyptian wall paintings and the overall aesthetic that fits the game's theme. While some players appreciate the colorful and stylish visuals, others criticize the graphics as being simplistic or reminiscent of mobile games. Overall, the graphics are seen as a step up from previous iterations, contributing positively to the gameplay experience despite some technical issues and varying opinions on their quality.
- “Beautiful graphics and music, satisfying gameplay.”
- “The graphics are crisp and interesting, with a well-chosen color palette.”
- “What it does have is an amazingly authentic Egyptian art style to every visual aspect of the game.”
- “The artwork and graphics in this game are absolutely terrible.”
- “This is not a game with eye-popping graphics or effects.”
- “I ran it on a MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and an i7 processor, but it got stuck on the display fog of war event on minimal graphic settings.”
replayability
82 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
54%
12%
The game's replayability is a mixed bag, with some players praising its extensive options and challenge, particularly with new modes and strategic diversity, while others criticize it for being repetitive and lacking depth. Many reviews highlight that while the game offers enjoyable experiences and varied playthroughs, its overall replay value may be limited due to narrow gameplay mechanics. Ultimately, it seems that the game's replayability can be rewarding for those who appreciate its challenges, but may not satisfy players seeking infinite variety.
- “I cherish this game; its difficulty and parameters are incredibly flexible, its art direction is charming, the replayability is extensive and it felt incredibly rewarding to finally figure out the secrets to success within its depiction of ancient Egypt.”
- “Gameplay is very deep and addictive; replayability makes this game an enjoyable time killer.”
- “Old Kingdom adds much more randomization, better tech tree, better building options, tripled game length and has much, much more replayability.”
- “Predynastic Egypt was not a replayable game; outside of maybe trying it once or twice to beat it, there was no point in returning to it.”
- “The game is disgustingly repetitive with little to no replay value.”
- “I liked the game until I tried to replay it and I realized that there was no replayability.”
music
40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
52%
8%
The music in the game is widely praised for its relaxing and ambient qualities, enhancing the overall gameplay experience. Reviewers appreciate the thematic coherence of the soundtrack with the game's aesthetic, noting that it provides a soothing backdrop for strategic planning and city-building. While some suggest that the music could be improved, it is generally considered fitting for the prehistorical setting and contributes positively to the game's atmosphere.
- “Nice soundtrack, relaxing and interesting, perfect to play at the end of a stressful day on a tablet on the couch!”
- “This is an outstanding, challenging, and historically-informed game with a lovely aesthetic and pleasing soundtrack.”
- “And the music they chose to compose for the score fits nicely alongside the game, making it a soothing and calm experience, which is the mindset you’re going to need whether you’re planning on the next big city you want to build or whether you’re plotting the downfalls of your neighbors.”
- “When I started the game, it loaded to a blank main screen with intro music playing.”
- “When I ran the game for the first time, I went to game options to configure my settings, and as soon as I clicked ultra (in graphics), the game screen turned black but the menu music was still playing.”
- “I closed the game and ever since then, I just receive a black screen with background music and a 'not responding' message.”
story
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
59%
14%
The game's story is centered around managing resources and workers in a historical strategy setting, with a campaign that includes quests and trials that add depth to the gameplay. While the narrative is engaging and well-integrated with the mechanics, players often find the random events frustrating, particularly when they lead to significant setbacks like starvation or population loss. Overall, the story mode offers a short but replayable experience, with limited variation between playthroughs, yet it remains enjoyable for those who appreciate strategic challenges.
- “I've never played a turn-based strategy game where the decisions and the general feel of the atmosphere was so well-tuned to a broader story.”
- “Its about 10-15 hour single player story-driven historical strategy game.”
- “The campaign revolving around quests and trials makes this quite different from your standard strategy and empire building games and, while there is very little change between playthroughs, the multi-level difficulty settings and campaign parameters selected before each new game do offer a fair deal of variation.”
- “This game in a nutshell - workers produce luxuries, food, and production - they consume luxury, food, and production - they use them on different actions that must be done, and my part in this plot is to use them elsewhere. There isn't much left for my building projects, and somehow I'm not even at the top of this 'food chain' because they are very expensive workers and I'm just a 'poor leader.'”
- “The campaign revolving around quests and trials makes this quite different from your standard strategy and empire-building games. While there is very little change between playthroughs, the multi-level difficulty settings and campaign parameters selected before each new game do offer a fair deal of variation.”
- “At least one achievement is currently impossible as it looks like an update pushed back the quest start trigger for it to be completed.”
atmosphere
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
86%
14%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its pleasing art and sound design, which effectively enhance the immersive experience, particularly in its historical context set in ancient Egypt. Players appreciate the well-tuned decisions that align with the broader narrative, making it a standout in the turn-based strategy genre. Overall, the combination of pretty animations and a captivating atmosphere contributes to a compelling gameplay experience, despite its challenging difficulty.
- “The art and sound design are pleasing and flesh out the atmosphere of the game nicely.”
- “I've never played a turn-based strategy game where the decisions and the general feel of the atmosphere was so well-tuned to a broader story.”
- “Great immersive atmosphere and art.”
grinding
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game enjoyable and not overly frustrating, contributing to its replayability. However, some note that the endgame can become tedious, particularly on easier difficulty settings, which may deter players from replaying. A significant update in July 2018 improved the grinding system, enhancing the overall experience.
- “The endgame becomes a bit tedious but there's great fun to be had before you reach that stage.”
- “I played through the whole game on beginner and the last hour or two were very tedious and had no challenge, and it was too long for me to want to go back and play it again on the historical settings.”
- “This system was tedious at the beginning but was completely changed as of July 6, 2018, and is now great.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
The game's stability is inconsistent, with reports of freezing issues when switching maps, indicating a buggy experience for some players. However, others have noted that it runs smoothly on specific systems, such as Mac OS 10.12.6. Overall, the stability appears to vary significantly depending on the platform.
- “I have played this game on a Mac (OS 10.12.6) and it runs great.”
- “The game sometimes freezes up when switching maps.”
- “Cons: buggy, gameplay isn't well designed.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
25%
25%
The game's optimization mechanics require players to continually refine their resource management strategies, as even successful setups can falter under new challenges like famine. While the complexity of choices remains manageable, achieving optimal performance can be elusive, leading to frustration when previously successful tactics fail. Overall, players find that mastering optimization is essential but can be unpredictable.
- “Even on the more complex settings, the choices are never too complex, and the difficulty is entirely based around the game setting your various resource production goals and giving you various handicaps that together demand ever more perfect optimization to overcome.”
- “After many trials, I think I understood it, and it's quite okay, but then I start a trial (which I succeeded in previously) and famine kicks in. Despite having a huge population and moving my pawns all over the map to food resources, I still can't fight it. The game kills the pawns, and I still can't keep up when I thought I had maximized - at least optimized - my economy compared to my previous games.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is well-received, with players appreciating the developers' inclusion of quirky elements like ancient aliens and zombie-mummies, which add a fun and entertaining layer to the experience.
- “And the developers seem to be humorous enough to add in some fun stuff for the community, like ancient aliens and zombie-mummies!”
- “It's really funny.”

Buy Egypt: Old Kingdom

8h Median play time

8h Average play time

5-11h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 6 analyzed playthroughs

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Egypt: Old Kingdom

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