Genre: Alternate history strategy
Developer: Oxide Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Release Date: September 24th, 2024
Edited by AlexKnight2005
Ara: History Untold is a turn-based grand strategy video game or Civilization-like game developed by Oxide Games and published by Xbox Game Studios; much like how Rogue defined a genre of games in roguelikes, the Civilization series did the same. Funny enough, some of the members of the Oxidie Games studios team formerly worked on the Civilization series. So it’s fitting to call it Civilization-like anyway. The game launched on PC via the Microsoft Store/PC game pass and to Steam on September 24, 2024.
The version covered in this review will be the Steam version of the game. It is available for the Standard edition at $59.99, Deluxe at $69.99, and Ultimate at $79.99. You can enjoy the game to the fullest with the Standard edition. The only things the other editions add that would be useful are Leader skins and more Leaders. You can also get the art book and soundtrack with the Ultimate edition, but they do not affect the gameplay; they are just lovely stuff to have if you’re into collecting them.
Anyway, like I said, Ara is a Civilization-like game. For those who don’t know what that is, it is a style of game where you start with a small city or tribe and grow it into a world power by progression through ages until you are the only one left or various other victory conditions. However, Ara does this differently; it uses a single victory condition: the most prestigious leader wins. There are many ways to earn prestige in the game, from military prowess to economic, cultural, cultural, and various other means. The game utilizes prestige otherwise through act transitions.
There are three acts in the game, each with four eras within. Transitioning from Act 2 from 1 and 3 from 2 eliminates the lower-ranking players. That is not to say you can’t be eliminated by war, but war costs prestige to declare, so it is a double-edged sword. Going into one under-prepared can cost you more than the prestige you spent declaring it. If you succeed, you could win more prestige than you paid. Besides the victory and elimination changes to the genre, Ara brings a robust crafting system into play. You used harvested resources from the map, gathered caches found on the map, defeated predators, or from farms and hunting camps.
You use these at various production facilities unlocked through research. This, in turn, can be used to craft more advanced stuff, added to your city as amenities, or even added to your resource/crafting buildings to boost production. I found that this adds an exciting depth of strategy to the game. I really had fun figuring out this system, although the game could do a better job of explaining it through the tutorial guide in the single-player. It, however, is described in detail in the in-game encyclopedia.
Besides that, the game plays like any other game in the genre. I ran into no bugs during my games, including graphics and audio. Now, some quality-of-life issues are going to be addressed in an upcoming patch, such as the ability to upgrade your armies to the current era. Speaking of which, the audio effects and music of the game are nice and crisp. I especially enjoyed how relaxing the music is. Moving onto the gorgeous graphics, they do a fantastic job with the details of the biomes.
Even zooming in, it looks fantastic—a funny story with that and an achievement that is in the game. I randomly clicked on a city, thinking and playing my turn, and got this random achievement. It was called But Can I Pet the Dog. I had no idea what had happened, so I zoomed in on the city I had clicked, and sure enough, that was a dog right there, all happy and wagging his tail. Little details like that are amazing for me in games, and I eat them up. Speaking of achievements, there are 45 different ones you can work on. They range from easy to complex, like any game. Some have specific leader and unit requirements, such as using an elephant unit in an army and capturing a city in a snowy region—a nod to a famous general in history.
Anyway, enough rambling on this and that. What you want to know is if the game is worth getting, and it is. Whether you are a long-time fan of the genre or a new player coming into it. It is an excellent and easy game to get into. Now, it can be a little pricy for some, but you get a lot of replay out of it in the long run. So, I turn, the game’s replayability evens out the price for the most part.
Pros:
- Great Graphical detail
- Lots of leaders
- Skins for leaders
- Robust crafting system
Cons:
- The price is a little high for some people
BoxCatHero gives Ara: History Untold a Drastik Measure of 8.9 out of 10.0 (89)
