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[Draugoth]

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Game Title: Ara: History Untold

Platforms:

• PC (Sep 24, 2024)

Trailers:

• Ara: History Untold Launch Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2024
• Ara: History Untold Gameplay Reveal Trailer

Developer: Oxide Games

Publisher: Xbox Game Studios

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 77 average - 80% recommended - 15 reviews

Critic Reviews​

But Why Tho? - Charles Hartford - 9.5 / 10

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.

GGRecon - Lloyd Coombes - 4.5 / 5

Ara: History Untold brings fresh ideas for a long-running genre, and more than stands on its own because of them.

Gameliner - Anita van Beugen - Dutch - 4.5 / 5

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.

Gamer Social Club - Vikki McGowan - 9 / 10

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.

GamesFinest - Christian Koitka - German - 8 / 10

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!

GamingTrend - David Burdette - 75 / 100

Ara: History Untold tweaks the Civilization formula, but doesn't change it all that much. While it's a well polished experience, I'm not sure it does enough to push the genre forward, settling instead to do what it does well. That said, good strategy games can be hard to find, and Ara is a good one in a crowded field.

IGN Italy - Andrea Giongiani - Italian - 8 / 10

An enticing strategy game that caters mostly to those who love to develop a culture and bringing it throught the eras. Deep and complex just at the right degree.

Kakuchopurei - Alleef Ashaari - 70 / 100

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.

New Game Network - Alex Varankou - 70 / 100

Ara: History Untold is a decent foray into the historical 4X, with enough borrowed and slightly tweaked elements to make it worth a look for fans of the genre. Its original ideas become too much of a slog however, along with a scattering of UI issues and performance hiccups that need addressing.

SECTOR.sk - Branislav Koh�t - Slovak - 7.5 / 10

In the end, it's a successful Civilization clone that excels in some ways and falls a little short in others. And the game is also graphically pleasing. It is definitely worth trying.

Seasoned Gaming - Joseph La Russa - 7 / 10

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.

Shacknews - TJ Denzer - 8 / 10

Quote not yet available

TheSixthAxis - Stefan L - 8 / 10

Ara: History Untold is another distinctive take on the historical 4X strategy genre, putting a real emphasis on furthering your nation, managing supply chains and resources, and shifting the focus away from warring mentality it's so easy to sink into. There's room to grow, but this is a strong contender.

XboxEra - Aarsal Masoodi - 7.8 / 10

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).

 

[winjer]

I rather wait for Civilization VII. Not to long to go.

 

[AJUMP23]

I heard I could finally have my representation in world leaders. It is what I need to feel important and relate to every game.

 

[Little Chicken]

Sounds like it would be an "85" after a few patches. Their first game too, well done!

 

[adamsapple]

This should fill in the civilization gap for people while they wait for VII next year.

 

[Mownoc]

So worse reviews than Humankind, Old World, Age of Wonders 4 and Dune Spice Wars. Basically every recent game like this I can think of.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Oh right this is an Xbox game so I should probably review bomb it

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I rather wait for Civilization VII. Not to long to go.

Boy oh boy, do I have 122486293457 DLC for you!

EDIT: It's 10€, just do it.

 

[winjer]

So worse reviews than Humankind, Old World, Age of Wonders 4 and Dune Spice Wars. Basically every recent game like this I can think of.

I only played Humankind and it was kinda bad. Not terrible, but also not good enough.
If Ara is worse, then it won't be worth, even at a discount.

 

[Rentahamster]

 

[RespawnX]

This should fill in the civilization gap for people while they wait for VII next year.

Depending on what the developers patch into their game and how they develop it further, it may be more than ‘just a gap filler’ by then.

With every Civilisation, I have the feeling that I'm starting from scratch in terms of scope and features. It feels more like sidegrades than real upgrades unless you buy your way through the DLC swamp.

 

[amigastar]

Just installed the game on game pass, ready to start playing but i'm afraid of not liking it, i hope it turns out really good, it has a score of around 78 so thats sometimes a double edged sword. Currently watching some reviews to get an idea of the game.
To people already playing it, how do you like it? Is it better than expected?
Someone even called the game the Path of Exile of 4X Strategy games.

 

[winjer]

Not a terrible start, and it might still get to 5000 concurrent players. But it's also nothing special.

 

[Jaybe]

58% not recommended. What a failure. Apparently performance is dogshit.

 

[Natsuko]

I can see the conclusion of Shacknews for AoM Retold has aged well: "However, with more substantial structural improvements in later Age of Empires games, plus with the likes of Ara: History Untold just around the corner, I’m just not sure Retold needed to exist."

Oops, AoM scored a few more points? So, does the game actually have some sort of reason to exist after all?

Anyway, I'll give Ara a try. Maybe it's something for me. The reviews don't sound that great, but not bad neither. If not, Civi is coming soon.

 

[winjer]

58% not recommended. What a failure. Apparently performance is dogshit.

I was reading up on some reviews on Steam. And it doesn't look good. Lot's of people complaining about optimization, bugs, bad UI and unnecessary complexity with certain task and a ton of micromanaging.
Seem to be much worse than Humankind. They might improve this, but it will take a ton of work to fix what is wrong with this game.

 

[calistan]

I've been playing this a lot over the last couple of nights, and really enjoying it so far. There are a lot of options but the tutorial is keeping me on track.

Playing as Japan and going for a cultural / religious victory, so I haven't done much with the military side of it. Not sure how the diplomacy works either - I've helped all my neighbours with their problems, but when they stop asking me for stuff their rating goes down from trusted to neutral, and they decline my requests. They're just a bunch of beggars with short memories. I might have to build an army to teach them some respect.

Nicer graphics than Civ,with individual people wandering the streets when you zoom in. Performance is very solid, although I haven't uncovered the whole map yet.

 

[adamsapple]

58% not recommended. What a failure. Apparently performance is dogshit.

At least it didn't disappoint in this regard

 

[mckmas8808]

Is this game not on Xbox?

 

[amigastar]

Is this game not on Xbox?

Nope, releases at a later point.

 

[adamsapple]

Is this game not on Xbox?

Not yet, PC only. Console release at a later time.

 

[Jaybe]

At least it didn't disappoint in this regard

Ehh seems better CCU than Hellblade 2 levels but not quite getting to Redfall levels