Ara: History Untold Reviews
There’s a lot to like about Ara: History Untold, even with the rough edges that appear every so often. Barring some performance issues, I’d say anyone even a little curious about the genre should give the game a shot and try it for themselves (especially if you have Xbox Game Pass).
Ara: History Untold winds up being a mixed bag that doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights it had set its sights on, but the future for the game looks bright.
Ara: History Untold enhances the 4X genre with a deep crafting system and simultaneous turns, where you earn Prestige across multiple categories, like population welfare, to win. The game shines with its diverse leaders, nations, and wonders, and while random events and cultural visuals could be more varied, it remains a polished and rewarding 4X strategy experience.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Ara: History Untold is absolutely gorgeous, the ambient sounds and music and event dialogue is wonderful. The focus on building and developing your nation rather than combat, alongside it's great tutorial makes it feel very accessible to newcomers, while also being a lot fun for fans of the genre.
I was a little skeptical beforehand. After all, Ara wants to be a lot of things and combines classic Civilization mechanics with those of more complex building strategy games in terms of complex production chains. But the balancing act succeeds and with some time to get used to it, I quickly fell under its spell. One more round! Ara motivates me with the many ways in which I can build up my nation and collect prestige points for victory, but always remains fair. The complex production chains, including the choice of religion or form of government, are also quite challenging in the way I learn the game. Ara is clearly aimed at more experienced players who are not playing a game like this for the first time. Yes, the nations would like to have a bit more of their own identity, for example through the way they can bring their own stories. And yes, I would have liked to have influenced one or two battles more directly. But Ara nonetheless leaves a surprisingly positive impression and the really nice looking 4X strategy game places itself as a serious option in the genre that will certainly keep me busy for many hours to come!
Review in German | Read full review