Ara: History Untold

While Ara: History Untold is a visually captivating historical 4X with an interesting underlying economy, it gets bogged down well before the midway point.

A beautifully presented and accessible game in a sometimes obscure genre, Ara: History Untold is a pretty picture book rather than a deep tome.

Empire-building re-envisaged as managing elaborate production chains, then re-re-envisaged as another 4X with repetitive micromanagement and weak, bland AI.

We feel like we've only scratched the surface with Ara: History Untold even after thousands of turns and multiple games, but this is a fun take on this type of experience and a great choice if you're looking for an engaging PC game to pull you in. If you don't mind history with a bit of a twist and want a game where you can sink hours into each session as you overcome all sorts of challenges and triumph as a nation, Ara is well worth a look.

Despite a few issues, I still think Ara: History Untold is some of the most fun I’ve had with a 4X historical nations game that wasn’t Civilization. Oxide Studios clearly knew the assignment and they aced on a number of fronts. It’s a little disappointing that for their experience, they weren’t able to avoid common issues like mid-to-late grind, but if you want a game that will offer plenty of variety in playstyles and an interesting and engaging crafting mechanic, Ara: History Untold is quite an extensive option for any fan of 4X strategy.

Ara: History Untold brings city-building to Civilization with strategic success.

Ara: History Untold is a highly ambitious 4X game that looks to branch out and add even more depth to an already detailed genre. In many ways, it succeeds, bringing in a map and city-building system that far surpasses others in the genre and successfully interlinking practically every area. However, with some successes come issues, with the added depth in the supply chain making it a bit of a micromanagement nightmare; it tries to alleviate some of these issues with a user-friendly UI, but it could be a sticking point for some. The AI also seems to go on the fritz and break the game's rules.

Ara: History Untold is taking players across history in a massive strategy adventure, but while it may do some unique things, something is missing.

ARA: History Untold may not quite measure up to the Civilization series as of now, but despite its shortcomings, it remains a memorable and engaging title that will satisfy fans of turn-based 4X strategy games. Considering that ARA is still in its early stages, there is hope that it will address its flaws over time and eventually emerge as a serious competitor to the Civilization series.

Strategy games needed new ideas, and Ara has a few of them if you're patient and play.