Note: I've only played the Vs AI games, so can't speak to the online multiplayer.

Before getting to whether Ozymandias is fun (spoiler: it is), I want to point to an element of game design that is stronger here than in any other game I've seen: Doing more with less. The number of "mechanics" is the game is minuscule, but it uses those very simple rules to combine and sum up to create a much more realistic simulation than the simplistic rules would suggest.

I think a good example of this is the 4 resources. There's Science, Money, Food, and Power. All of them follow the same basic rules. You collect them from cells you control (except Power), spend them on your turn, spend your Money to buy the other resources, then you lose a percentage of anything left unspent. These similar rules might make it seem like the resources will feel interchangeable, but the slight adjustments of numbers make them stand out. You lose much less of your unspent money than any other resource, so if you want to save up Science for a big tech, or a bunch of Food for growing a city, it would be better to save it in cash rather than the less stable raw resources. Power gets more expensive the more you buy each turn, so dropping your military power is a risky decision because if you need it high again quickly, it's going to cost you.

The small details in the rules tell stories. You can choose between a small cadre of elite troops which can push through narrow chokepoints, or a wide rush which can attack the other civ's full border. You can prioritizing grabbing a key mountain tile because you know that it will make a strong defense against invading forces. You can place your city in rough terrain as a defensive base or quick resource boost, or on a river delta to plan to grow them to huge sizes. I'm not going to pretend this game has the story-telling capabilities of Civilization, but for a game with complexity comparable to a particularly heavy board game, the depth squeezed in is downright impressive.

Now that I've praised the theoretical accomplishments, the more important question is, is it fun? I'd say absolutely. You have a wide array of options on what you want to prioritize each game. The hugely asymmetric starting positions and goal cards you get each turn shift up your strategy enough that the decisions you're making never feel trivial. It has the nice level of complexity and randomness where it's predictable enough that you can feel like you're working towards a long-term strategy and take actions that will pay-off turns later, and can plan out a turn or two in advance in detail, but it's still chaotic enough that you don't need to be counting exact numbers for 5 turns later, because it's almost certain something will pop up to disrupt that before you can carry it out. The large array of maps all give slightly different challenges, but are similar enough that you can feel like you're learning and getting better as you play. Each civ's unique bonuses also push you to try out different strategies. You have to be a pretty stubborn player to not be tempted to try zerg-rushing another civ when you see that you can build a military unit multiple turns before your neighbor.

One key fun element worth calling out specifically is the endgame. Every other Civ-like game I've played, no matter the complexity, has suffered in the endgame, where you are the unquestioned master of the world and you're just pressing end turn for a hundred years. Not here. If you reach total dominance, scoring the required points will be relatively quick, or alternatively, if you've set the difficulty right, you might be carefully squeezing out every edge as a rival super-power threatens to steal that last point from you. There's very little garbage time in Ozymandias. You're either ruthlessly grabbing every advantage you can, or quickly wrapping up a won game.

Verdict is that you should definitely try Ozymandias if you're interested in the theory of game design, and if not, you should still try it as Civilization Zero. That same great Civ taste without the icky calories of the dozens of buildings, days-long games, and moving a hundred Giant Death Robots across the map an hour after you stopped having fun.

Note: I've only played the Vs AI games, so can't speak to the online multiplayer. Before getting to whether Ozymandias is fun (spoiler: it is), I want to point to an element of game design that is stronger here than in any other game I've seen: Doing more with less. The number of "mechanics" is the game is minuscule, but it uses those very simple rules to combine and sum up to create a much more realistic simulation than the simplistic rules would suggest. I think a good example of this is the 4 resources. There's Science, Money, Food, and Power. All of them follow the same basic rules. You collect them from cells you control (except Power), spend them on your turn, spend your Money to buy the other resources, then you lose a percentage of anything left unspent. These similar rules might make it seem like the resources will feel interchangeable, but the slight adjustments of numbers make them stand out. You lose much less of your unspent money than any other resource, so if you want to save up Science for a big tech, or a bunch of Food for growing a city, it would be better to save it in cash rather than the less stable raw resources. Power gets more expensive the more you buy each turn, so dropping your military power is a risky decision because if you need it high again quickly, it's going to cost you. The small details in the rules tell stories. You can choose between a small cadre of elite troops which can push through narrow chokepoints, or a wide rush which can attack the other civ's full border. You can prioritizing grabbing a key mountain tile because you know that it will make a strong defense against invading forces. You can place your city in rough terrain as a defensive base or quick resource boost, or on a river delta to plan to grow them to huge sizes. I'm not going to pretend this game has the story-telling capabilities of Civilization, but for a game with complexity comparable to a particularly heavy board game, the depth squeezed in is downright impressive. Now that I've praised the theoretical accomplishments, the more important question is, is it fun? I'd say absolutely. You have a wide array of options on what you want to prioritize each game. The hugely asymmetric starting positions and goal cards you get each turn shift up your strategy enough that the decisions you're making never feel trivial. It has the nice level of complexity and randomness where it's predictable enough that you can feel like you're working towards a long-term strategy and take actions that will pay-off turns later, and can plan out a turn or two in advance in detail, but it's still chaotic enough that you don't need to be counting exact numbers for 5 turns later, because it's almost certain something will pop up to disrupt that before you can carry it out. The large array of maps all give slightly different challenges, but are similar enough that you can feel like you're learning and getting better as you play. Each civ's unique bonuses also push you to try out different strategies. You have to be a pretty stubborn player to not be tempted to try zerg-rushing another civ when you see that you can build a military unit multiple turns before your neighbor. One key fun element worth calling out specifically is the endgame. Every other Civ-like game I've played, no matter the complexity, has suffered in the endgame, where you are the unquestioned master of the world and you're just pressing end turn for a hundred years. Not here. If you reach total dominance, scoring the required points will be relatively quick, or alternatively, if you've set the difficulty right, you might be carefully squeezing out every edge as a rival super-power threatens to steal that last point from you. There's very little garbage time in Ozymandias. You're either ruthlessly grabbing every advantage you can, or quickly wrapping up a won game. Verdict is that you should definitely try Ozymandias if you're interested in the theory of game design, and if not, you should still try it as Civilization Zero. That same great Civ taste without the icky calories of the dozens of buildings, days-long games, and moving a hundred Giant Death Robots across the map an hour after you stopped having fun.