Ara: History Untold on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Build a nation and lead your people throughout history to the pinnacles of human achievement as you explore new lands, develop arts and culture, conduct diplomacy, and go head-to-head with your rivals to prove you are the greatest ruler ever known. It's Your World Now.
Ara: History Untold is a strategy, 4x and grand strategy game
developed by Oxide Games
and published by Xbox Game Studios.
Released on September 24th 2024 is available only on Windows
in 26 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Portuguese - Portugal, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Vietnamese and Malay.
It has received 1,753 reviews of which 1,206 were positive and 547 were negative resulting in a rating of 6.7 out of 10. 😐
The game is currently priced at 59.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Ara: History Untold into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Ara: History Untold through various videos and screenshots.
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 (20H1) or later
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2400G – Intel i5-5300U
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 480 – Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 50 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This is a fine, detailed and well-designed 4x game. It's visually similar to civ-series, humankind, old world games. But under the surface it has neat mechanics and unique approach to the 4x genre. Its all about cute details, smartly designed systems and amazing graphics. The cons are currently a usual mix of freshly released 4x games from the last 10 years. I've played civ5, civ6, humankind, age of wonders3-4, old world, endless legend, endless space from the day one with more than 100 hours into each of them (3k hours in civ 5). These flaws are poor graphics optimisation, clunky UI, holes in design here and there and balance issues between the factions for MP. All of them currently (october 2024) is here, waiting to get fixed by devs and modders alike. With 4 patches released in 1st month already (and 5th patch coming this week) I have my hopes on this game. BTW the game has already a classic "one more turn" feeling I'd like to recommend ARA to all 4x fans, especially during X-mas sales when the game will be much polished and optimized. Edit (after playing 94 hours, v1.2): with the broken release of Civ7 and a total mess around it, I think people should take a closer look at Ara. The game has been polished, patched and still has ONE MORE TURN feeling :) Edit #2 (107 hours, v1.3): the game is in much better state now. Lots of things have been polished by developers. I love the new take on gaining city tiles, you can expand into every needed resource now. Wandering barbarians from aggressive tribes are cool addition, feels good to fight against em and to build an army early in the game to crush em. Pillaging tribes is also a rewarding experience - you get resources, you get experience and you remove a real threat to your cities. City cap of 2 at the start seems like a really good change. With just 2 cities at the start you have to think carefully about the resources. What kind of goods you want to produce? How you're going to get ingredients for it? Where you're going to expand both of these cities? And also it's drastically reduces micromanagement for the first 30-50 turns, which is a good deal imho. Yes, there are still some bugs here and there, but none of them are game-breaking. Comparing to civ7 current state, Are is such a delicious and curious experience for me!
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I'm gonna give this game a guarded "thumbs up." The game (rightly) invites comparisons with the Civilization series. Much is similar - each nation has particular strengths and bonuses (and sometimes maluses). You build cities, and as these cities expand (in Ara through growth-driven annexation of regions, comprised of zones, with one build option per zone) the cities become more powerful. There are some standard features (like Wonders of the World, which Ara calls 'triumphs') and bonus-giving governors (which Ara calls 'paragons' and there's a lot more of them). But it's NOT Civ - the gameplay is much different and you gotta keep that in mind. Some have called it the lovechild of Civ and Anno ... I'm inclined to include Vicky somewhere in the parentage. But the key point is that economic management is MUCH more prominent - and it involves developing chains of industries that will produce ever-more-sophisticated (and powerful) goods. Civ economics is checkers; Ara economics is chess (or perhaps even go). I have found it to be utterly fascinating and absorbing, but YMMV. Gameplay dynamics are different from Civ; you've gotta retool your thinking. (One example: producing more food doesn't directly lead to population growth ... what matters is building structures that enhance the growth rate. These just happen to produce more food, but it's the growth rate not the food that's the primary driver.) This gameplay difference is a major plus - we don't need another Civ clone. Unfortunately, the information needed to retool that thinking is often obscure or unavailable. What's driving the population growth of my city? I'm given partial information (the farm is boosting growth rate 3%, for example) but I'm lacking the complete picture. How many zones are in that region? That's important for city planning, but is only easily available when I can expand my city. What does it take to get another paragon? This thwarts my OCD tendencies to min-max things ... but even more importantly hinders my ability even to build appropriate strategies. I'm not playing blind ... but my game vision is far less than 20/20. So I'll give it a moderately enthusiastic endorsement. If you're looking for a Civ clone you will be disappointed. If you're looking for something simple, this is not the game for you. But if you're looking for a different take on the 4X historical genre, and want to invest some time and effort in discovering and mastering some deep gameplay, then this would be an excellent (albeit suboptimally documented) choice.
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This is primarily an economic management/chain supply game with 4X elements sprinkled along. This game has taken heavy elements out of the Anno 1800 mechanics and added classical CIV and Humankind elements in the mix. This is not an easy game to play; the learning curve is rather steep and during your first few games you might feel overwhelmed by the number of decisions that you have to make. This is more on a Paradox complexity level rather than a Firaxis one. This game wasn't easy for me to grasp in the first few hours and I'm a veteran of thousands of hours on Paradox titles as well as 4X games (started my gaming career with CIV II). Everything you gather matters. Everything you produce has at least a dual purpose. Buildings have many slotted items, can be upgraded and oftentimes have multiple production paths from which you must choose. Chains are difficult to set up, but once you manage, it feels extremely gratifying to witness your economy booming. Plus Items: - Non linear tech tree - Nearly everything is customizable with slotted items. Buildings, improvements, armies, great people, you name it. Crafting possibilities are mindboggling! - Cities and Units are limited (can be expanded by technology). Once you set up your economy turns begin to fly. Negative Items: - Diplomacy is really primitive and needs to be beefed up. You can't really interact with minor tribes except for random events. - UI needs to be decluttered and streamlined. As it stands right now, you need some time to understand how to best manage all those buildings and production chains. Also, it's extremely difficult to understand exactly how bonuses specifically impact production chains. - Army management needs to be improved. You can only merge units into formations while they're still in reserve. Combat close ups, while only optional, are a joke and need to be abolished. For me, this game is a yes, but I do understand that his is not everyone's cup of tea. This is a game which requires serious planning and has a steep learning curve. You need to like optimizing things to really enjoy this one. Is it worth 60 Euros? Well...I mean, for 60 Euros I did expect a better UI but I suppose that they'll be fixing this as the game moves forward.
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After several more hours of play here is my updated review. I still hold to the fact this is one of the best civ games I have ever played. Pros: -Wares being produced individually such as tools, jewelry, medicine, etc and then applying them to your buildings and cities for bonuses is so much more immersive than simply grouping them together under "Consumer Goods" -The attention to detail is amazing, being able to zoom right down into the city and see the people walking around and working the fields, or your armies marching to the next province. -The battles being more of a cinematic rather than just watching the avatars of giant spearmen the size of mountains clashing makes me drawn into each battle rather than just clicking away. I want to see what happens in the turn report. Cons: -The only giant con that needs to change is how armies are managed. Once you craft your said spearmen you then deploy them either as a singular squad or as a formation that has tactics grouped together with other units. Now, when you spend multiple turns crafting and then deploying, and then mustering said army it is permanent. You cannot add or switch units out of formation, you cannot change the units tactics, nor can you return them to the reserves to reduce maintenance cost. You have to disband the entire army and start all the way over. This is a huge oversight that needs fixed and it is absolutely no where near historically accurate. Minor issues: -Please turn off turn limits -add different speeds to how the game progresses. Id like to take my sweet time and enjoy being in the iron age and hate it when there is a rushed feeling. Wishlist: -Id love to see some form of internal politics take place. This is a game about the story of your people, well how about adding the will of the people. Senates, Parliaments, cabinets, assemblys for each government, various parties and laws that can be enacted. -Map Editor -larger maps & AI's not starting so close to player. Sugestions: -When progressing into the next act the "forgettable" civilizations are lost. This is interesting but it could be better. Maybe instead of them just going "oops i lost bye bye" you could add in something that is a massive crisis they face. For example they descend into civil war or there is the sea peoples invasion. Maybe a plague is sweeping across their empire and they must struggle to survive. So my suggestion is, instead of just eliminating players maybe give that civilization a chance to survive but it is a existential crisis they face. Just an idea. Overall I love this game so far, and I cant wait to see where the developers take it from here. I do recommend this game.
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Stable, no crashes, beautiful graphics, non intrusive sounds. Very deep game, with lots of way to get where you're going. Less CIV then CIV, more production chains. Best thing about it, is economy centered, not military centered, very good.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 08 April 2025 22:16 |
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| SteamSpy data | 13 April 2025 08:49 |
| Steam price | 15 April 2025 04:29 |
| Steam reviews | 13 April 2025 08:08 |
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Online players
88
Developer
Oxide Games
Publisher
Xbox Game Studios
Release
24 Sep 2024
Platforms