Ara: History Untold Reviews
Ara: History Untold offers a rich and engaging 4X strategy experience with excellent graphics, comprehensive settings, and a variety of gameplay options. While it has some performance issues and lacks certain features, its addictive nature and depth make it a worthwhile game for strategy enthusiasts. It does however need a few updates to sort out the other playstyles like trading and fighting.
Ara: History Untold is definitely attempting to create some new space in the 4X strategy genre, and overall I’ve really enjoyed my time with it. It certainly has the whole “just one more turn!” thing going for it that most Civ games have, and once you get started you’ll likely have a pretty tough time putting it down.
2024 is the year of the RTS, and Ara: History Untold is worthy of being among the very best of them. While it's not reinventing the wheel in terms of presentation, the simultaneous actions taking place in a more significant turn threaten to turn this game into a pure RTS strategy game; it allows for a game larger than anything that predates it.
Despite its imperfections, “Ara: History Untold” has already drawn me into the game for several evenings and a total of 21 hours. I enjoy it and, despite all the similarities to “Civilization”, it plays differently. The graphics of “Ara” are really impressive too. The map looks much more real due to the lack of a hexagonal layout. When I scroll in, I can see flocks of birds flying. Houses burn in the suburbs and people run around screaming when enemy troops are in the region. I give the game a few advance praises with four stars and hope that the studio will make some improvements to my points of criticism.
Review in German | Read full review
Ara: History Untold has found a great way to assert itself in the 4X game market. It brings a very realistic and beautiful graphic style, has done away with the hexagons and brought in many very deep systems and a diverse production. It's just really not for newcomers to the genre and can be a little frustrating, especially at the beginning.
Review in German | Read full review
While Ara: History Untold asks a lot of players, it rewards those willing to put in the hours with a deeply rich gameplay experience that makes them feel like every choice they made shaped their nation and helped their people achieve greatness. From large-scale design innovations to the smallest details, the game delivers an almost flawless experience.
Ara: History Untold brings fresh ideas for a long-running genre, and more than stands on its own because of them.
Ara History Untold might be the one game that finally gets me into the genre. It's a good game for newcomers to the 4X strategy genre and Oxide Games is definitely a developer to look out for, since this is only their first title.
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