Ara: History Untold from Oxide Games is an interesting experiment, with room to improve, and I hope it does. It’s a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) strategy game that attempts to rewrite the genre with a unique blend of familiar mechanics and ambitious innovations. While Ara boasts a beautiful presentation and some truly inspired ideas, its execution stumbles with an overcomplicated crafting system and a lack of depth in certain areas, though the redemption arc for this will be fun to watch. As it stands today, Ara: History Untold is a demanding 4X game that can’t keep up with its own exigency.
Editor’s Note: This game was reviewed up to the most recent Patch 1.0.3
The first thing that strikes you about Ara is the familiarity. There’s an air about it that makes you feel like you’re at home, whether you’ve played Civilization or HUMANKIND. Though it brings interesting ideas and twists on traditional 4X mechanics. At the start, every civilization seems viable because there doesn’t seem to be a difficulty signifier to playing them. The developers have meticulously crafted a world that transitions seamlessly from the macro scale (viewing your entire sprawling empire) down to the bustling streets of individual cities. Zooming in allows you to witness citizens going about their daily lives or animals roaming the plains, adding a layer of immersion often absent in strategy games. You do get the option to select from randomly generated maps or preset maps made by the developers.
Ara throws several curve balls at established 4X mechanics. One of the most intriguing is the “national crafting economy.” Unlike traditional resource gathering, Ara focuses on building intricate production chains that combine raw materials to create advanced goods. This is where Ara: History Untold finds itself similar to the Anno series, and this adds a layer of strategic depth, requiring players to carefully consider resource allocation and production bottlenecks. As you expand, you’ll gain city tiers, which allows you to claim new portions of land to create dedicated districts or regions. Despite similarities, Ara: History Untold doesn’t look or feel like a boardgame, it feels more realistic as a result.
Another interesting twist is the “Acts and Eras” system. The game is divided into distinct periods, each with its own technological and societal advancements. At the end of each Act, civilizations that haven’t reached a certain power threshold are eliminated. This “culling” creates a sense of urgency and forces players to adapt their strategies as the game progresses. After a civilization has been knocked out, they become explorable ruins to further exploit for resources, and act as a reminder not only what happened to them, but what can happen to you.
The true highlight of Ara is its “simultaneous turn resolution.” Unlike the turn-based model seen in most 4X games, Ara allows all players to make their moves concurrently. This eliminates the tedious wait times and lets the game flow more dynamically. However, it comes with a caveat – players can only see other civilizations’ actions after they’ve committed their own. This can lead to confusion and strategic missteps in the early hours.
Despite its innovative features, Ara suffers from a couple of key shortcomings. The crafting system, while initially intriguing, becomes overly complex in the later stages of the game. Managing intricate production lines and resource flows can become a chore, detracting from the overall enjoyment. Additionally, the diplomatic and military aspects of the game feel underdeveloped. While diplomacy exists, it lacks the depth and nuance seen in other strategy titles. Similarly, combat is fairly automated and lacks the tactical engagement that hardcore strategy fans crave.
Ara: History Untold is a game bursting with potential. The world is beautiful, the innovations are intriguing, and the simultaneous turn resolution adds a welcome layer of dynamism. However, a convoluted crafting system and a lack of depth in certain areas hold the game back from greatness. Ultimately, Ara caters to a niche audience. If you’re a strategy veteran seeking a deep, complex experience, you might find yourself frustrated by the game’s shortcomings. However, if you’re intrigued by the unique crafting mechanics and enjoy a visually stunning environment, Ara: History Untold might be worth checking out, especially if you can snag it on sale.
The whole UI and interface is rather lacking, often requiring a lot of extra clicks or not easily readable information at the start. This can affect things like warfare, and decision making there. Warfare itself is not great, as it plays out in these full-screen battles where things can get choppy and nothing dynamic really happens other than the representation of who won or lost the battle. Though you can see how technological advancements happen across the hundreds of years of evolution.
This is both a single-player and multiplayer game, and in both modes you will take the aforementioned true simultaneous turns with no waiting. This does take things in to unsatisfying territory with the multiplayer specifically, because a staple of this genre is play by email, or even hotseat play. That said Ara feels fresh and modern by not conforming to those tropes.
Ara: History Untold looks better than most 4X games, with many visual options to tweak the experience. Performance wise it runs great until the late game, where you do see a reduction in framerates. This is due to the fact that the fog of war is lifted and there’s so much happening on-screen. The soundtrack is equally impressive, adapting dynamically to the state of your civilization. Uplifting music accompanies periods of peace and prosperity, while tense drums build during conflicts.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
Ara: History Untold takes strides in pushing the boundaries of the 4X genre to new and exciting places. While it stumbles in its execution, it offers glimpses of an exciting future for the genre. If you’re a patient strategist willing to grapple with its systems, there’s an enjoyable game here. Though it’s going to take additional updates and DLCs to right the ship, as the mid-to-late game needs support. Like many civilizations in history, Ara: History Untold is on the cusp of greatness before it falls due to its own hubris.
A Steam code was provided by the publisher for review purposes
