I’m not a strategy game fan. While I have dabbled in the occasional Age of Empires or Civilization game, that genre is not something I have ever been interested in or good at. So why did I play Ara: History Untold? Well, it looked pretty, and its initial presentation didn’t make it out to be a very complicated game. The final game keeps to the promise, but I wouldn’t say it’s any simpler than most other 4X games or city-builders.
While Ara may look like a Civilization clone, developer Oxide Games is more interested in focusing on the actual logistics of keeping a city, nay an empire running. While other strategy games treat in-game resources as an arbitrary thing to keep increasing so you can focus on the cool parts, Ara fully recognizes that food, shelter, and diplomatic relations do more for a prosperous kingdom than the flashy stuff.
Where you build your farms, buildings, bakeries, lookouts and butcher shops will determine the yield they produce. Depending on which leader you’ve selected, you’ll be granted bonus points per turn for specific actions and citizen behaviour. In my playthrough, I selected the great Indian emperor Ashoka to lead my empire, which appropriately began in Delhi.
Ara’s map isn’t scaled to that of the real world, nor does it obey the general directions of places on our real maps, which makes it quite funny to read. Pune to its left, Berlin to its right, Ara: History Untold sure is retelling history. The political leaders representing other nations/cities that you meet also feel randomised. I know that I’m building my own history here, but the contrast between the inaccuracy of these leaders and the traits of my own, which feel quite on point, taint the experience.
Back to the game, Ara doesn’t follow a hex-based ruleset for its map. The game’s map is more free-form and based more on the general topography of the area, so you’ll need to strategise whether building a farm on the wetlands or a cornfield is more appropriate. Building a kingdom near an ocean? You better be ready to produce a lot of ropes and items required for building boats and fishing rods.
This dependence on topography is both a boon and a bane, as it can easily halt your progress in a core technology if you’re not building around that locale’s weaknesses. Speaking of technology, Ara’s three-act structure is further broken up by attaining and mastering different technologies. While you can choose which ones to focus on after completing a milestone, choosing the wrong one will extend your playtime, and not in a fun way.
This is where specialists come in, and deploying the correct ones that align with your leader’s traits and goals can make the game a breeze. You’ll need to be careful though, as specialists take a while to unlock. Playing to your leader’s strengths is always a good choice. In my game, Ashoka prefers to through religious supremacy, so building tons of monuments and temples was the way to go.
Building relationships with other leaders and nations is also not as rewarding as one would hope. By act 3, it’s pretty much you against everyone else in an overcrowded world. Sticking to the game’s tightly-knit economy systems and ensuring your own cities are well-balanced in all aspects is the key to victory.
One of the best things about Ara is its extensive tutorial system. Oxide Games has created a well-balanced tutorial that won’t be intrusive even for experienced players. While the game gets quite overwhelming later on, the tutorial and expansive in-game database ensured I was never clueless about my goals.
Verdict
Ultimately, Ara: History Untold wasn’t my cup of tea, and not for lack of trying. I just didn’t like to focus so much on food production and the logistics of maintaining armies and keeping civilians happy. The city-building aspects are also not as in-depth or fun to play with as those present in actual city-builders, so that didn’t tickle my fancy either.
You can buy Ara: History Untold on PC using this link. The game is available on PC through Steam and PC Game Pass.
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.game.press
