Ara: History Untold Reviews

For a first title, I'm really enjoying this game. I'm looking forward to what else the Oxide team makes. Has a lot of work to be great, but its foundation is strong

Ara is a really good game. I played first on game pass and bought it here later. No civ clone but an alternative with many different concepts and different focus. Clearly to recommend, but maybe not for all. At first some of the concepts can be confusing, but when you get into it, most makes sense. [b]Resources and Crafting[/b] to produce amenities for your cities and equipment for your units are a main focus. You need some time to understand what is important and how many workshops, potteries, forges, ... you need to build by when so that everything runs smoothly and with limited micro management. If you like creating and optimizing your production chains, this is your game. [b]Era changes [/b] are included with the main impact that the weakest nations are removed (but no, no nation/civ changes). This increases the challenge to survive and works well for me, but I saw also many criticizing it in the beginning, so maybe not for everyone. [b]The map [/b] has no hexes, but is divided in small provinces with 1-6 subregions where you can build farms or buildings. As your cities grow, you claim more. Borders look more natural. [b]Food generation and city production[/b] are not only dependent on the fertility of a province. It depends a lot on city size, improvements and corresponding adjacency boni, city happiness, assigned specialists,... The resulting values can be at first hard to predict, but it makes more sense after a while. [b]Units and warfare [/b] are on a first look more simplified. You build units into a reserve pool and muster them in combined squads (in any city, not only the producing one). Certain combinations inside the squad give you boni. Battles are in the end often decided by who brings more to the battlefield/province maybe including supporting fire from squads with archers etc from neighboring provinces. If you want a more complex battle simulation, be cautious here. Might be not for you. But overall it works fine. [b]Diplomacy[/b] is okay. Nothing spectacular so far. Not every relation change is clear, but also not too random. More unique is the idea, that wars have goals and a timer leading to an auto-peace. It is good and avoids prolonged wars, but might also appear as too artificial for some. V1.3 is announced to bring improvements to diplomacy. I am looking forward to what it will bring. [b]AI opponents [/b] are on high difficulties competitive in the first half of the game. Later they fall back . Devs mentioned that AI improvements are on their list and I hope they can do more here too keep Ara more challenging in the long term [b]Trade [/b]is very simplified for a game with so many goods. Beside AI improvements, a new system here would be my biggest wish, even if it comes later as paid content. There would be more to mention, but this is enough for me now. Finally I would like to add that the developers look for feedback and continue to work on it. New patches are coming to improve the game, not very fast but steadily.

Bad optimization, really bad. Compared to other 4X games, this one is the worst. Before selling it at this price, optimize it first. The graphics are good, but not ultimately epic compared to other games.

The most underrated game! Extremely good! Strongly recommended for all disappointed fans of CIV7! :)

I really did not want to "Not Recommend" a review but this poorly optimization is so bad every time I load the game up it freezes my PC where I have to hard reboot the PC. Please focus on optimizing your game first before you add more content. The good thing is when I do get in it's amazing. I love how it feels like Sid Meier's Civilization meets Victoria. I wanted to wait until I finish the game for my full thoughts but this terrible optimization needs to be looked at.

Fantastic start to a great 4X with some amazing potential. Already very well polished and complete, especially compared to other games in the genre. Some key points: - Looks amazing - Very satisfying to grow your cities - Simultaneous turns in a historical 4X is fantastic. It's about time! - Finally a game that dares do some different, whilst still feeling somewhat familiar. - No hexes mades both the visuals and gameplay (city growth and unit movement) flow so much better. Amazing scope to flesh out the core systems into something truly special. Looking forward to what is added in the coming months.

A really wonderful idea of a game. It is a mix between a couple of games all in one , which is a really cool and nice idea. It is in its core a 4x game with alot of city managing mechanics , it can be a little hard to get the hang of things , but if you like micro managing , the game does it really well. The battle mechanics leave something to be desired from. As a long time player of most 4x games there are and a big fan of the Anno series , this is a very unique mix between those two. Is it perfect ? No. The game has performance issues for sure , i have a beast of a PC and it struggles at times to run it , but tbh it is absolutly stunning most probably the best graphics there are in a 4x atm. Would definitely recommend the game if you like Anno and more classic 4x games. Really hope this receives more attention as it really should. Would solidly give it a 8.5/10 at its current state. Can really be a game that will stand the test of time if they stick with it. Overall the game is really fun. And everything aside , hat down to the team , that they went with a unique idea , rather that a safer Civ style clone. Buy it , try it , see for your self. Honestly 60 euro for the game is the correct price for the product. Especially with the high end graphics.

If you like to micromanage, this might be the game for you. I'm talking dictating what kind of product each factory in each city in your nation level of micromanagement. I'm talking printing individual gold coins for the realm. I'm talking thousands of turns waiting for horses every six turns at the beginning and managing herds in the midgame and then watching them become nearly obsolete at the widespread use of the car (which you make individually in your factories after producing their component parts at your other factories). If you like this idea, buy the game at full-price, you'll enjoy the crap outta this. Everyone else - consider very carefully, but my payoff has not been worth the investment. That said, I'm writing this after 241 hours, approximately my third attempt at a playthrough and around turn 1100. Anyway, I'm no where near a satifisfying conclusion though I suppose I could make war and end the game faster. Actually, war is declared on me every 20 turns by the same ineffectual neighbor before I finally decided to build siege weapons and be done mopping their attacks every new war. They became my enemy when I made an alliance with someone they were against or something. The diplomacy isn't exactly strong, you'll have to fill in most of the details of the talks yourself. The long and short of it is this game is slow, a bit boring, and endlessly bogged in minutia. I plan to try finishing this game by reaching the scientific era without skipping any tech because I made the opponents too garbage or something, so it's not a real race, so expect the hours to go up on my play, but I can't imagine a very large segment of the population enjoying this game. Which is a bummer, I was hoping for a major studio competitor to CIV to drive innovations and now I'm just hoping CIV doesn't copy this. Bright spots: The leader felt like it had a lot of advantages I could lean into and so agency through the avatar felt good. They did great with the diplomacy avatars having little videos and such, feels polished in that regard. Wonders or Great Works or whatever were a serious consideration when you have to designate all the farm land and all the skyscrapers and all the factories and you run out of space too quick - this kind of challenge was interesting but too predicated on the need for individual factory building and individual factory building queues. The fine granular lives of the visible citizens is beautiful. So far as polish goes, it has most the bells and whistles you expect/hope from a AAA game.

I want to like this game but some of the UI design, lack of tooltips for many things, and levels of micromanaging needed to produce "Amenities" for your city's buildings distracts too much from the overall experience of them game.

Game is very underrated. Picked this one up alongside Civ7 and played both side by side for a couple hours for a first impressions. Needless to say I personally think this game blows Civ 7 out of the water for a first impressions review. The map in this game is absolutely gorgeous with excellent detailing, I really have to commend the Devs for the map alone. Game play wise IMO this game focus's more on Economics rather than conquest, which I see as a good thing, and makes the game a lot more engaging and invested. The systems already in place give you all the information you need, and I like it. Also - there is a 9999 turn option now included so endless play is real. I do note the last update included some QOL improvements. If Devs keep working on this game its a thumbs up from me. If you are disappointed with Civ 7 give this one a go, I am sure you wont regret it.