Ara: History Untold is quite different from Civilization, actually

And it’s better for it

Oxide Interactive / Microsoft

I’ve accompanied the development of Ara: History Untold for a while now – from participating in the first closed gameplay test over to playing it at Gamescom 2023 and trying the latest closed Alpha, I’ve seen how the project has changed and how Oxide Games has taken fan feedback to heart. Returning to the Xbox booth at Gamescom 2024 to give the turn-based 4X strategy game another spin ahead of its impending release almost felt nostalgic.

Speaking to the developers in Cologne, I discovered that they actually weren’t all that nervous about Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 being set for a February 2025 release – after all, they all said, their take on the genre was very different from that of Firaxis. They’re not wrong. Anyone who labels the game a “Civ Killer” is, frankly, clickbaiting.

Sure, there are all sorts of similarities – these games do belong to the same genre: You choose a civilization and lead it through the ages to a hopefully prosperous future by amassing food and resources, expanding your borders, and engaging in diplomacy and warfare inside a turn-based game system.

However, Ara takes in so many influences from other strategy genres that it ends up feeling like something very fresh.

That all starts with the map: Ara is not a game played on hexagon-shaped tiles. Each region on the map has an individual shape, often defined by the coastline, mountain ranges, or rivers, and is divided into several zones internally. These zones provide space for your improvements and buildings, allowing you to build gorgeous cities that fit into the landscape. 

I mentioned to one of the developers that I really like placing farms in the bigger zones inside a region, because it looks better, and he said he was doing the same thing, even making sure his farms in neighboring regions were connected to the original one to give the impression of a huge agricultural district.

Amenities produced by your economy and trade relations fulfill the needs of your population and keep productivity high. / Oxide Games / Microsoft

The visuals support this focus on building the cities of your dreams: Ara is a beautiful game and you can zoom all the way down to, say, a farm and watch your individual citizens work the land.

These aspects make Ara feel more like a city-builder at times – and there’s more to that. Likely the standout feature is its deep production chain mechanic, which goes into much more detail than Millennia’s counterpart to this mechanic. You produce commodities like flour from grain, which can in turn be refined into bread or preserved foods and be given out to cities as amenities, helping them grow and become more prosperous. But where Millennia has just a few such chains, Ara can rival complex economic simulations like Anno with its variety of resources, materials, and goods.

This vast amount of production you can build up in your realm leads to the game feeling much more domestically focused than other genre representatives – you can get so involved in the running of your empire that you completely forget that other civilizations are out there. When push comes to shove and war has arrived, you can field large armies that clash with others on separate battle screens – kind of like the unpopular ones in Millennia, but much better looking.

Ara’s scale is pretty massive in all areas: Its economic system, the armies clashing in battle, and the immense maps providing space for one giant metropolis to the next. Naturally, the game has some political and religious systems to engage with and allows you to form a government with the help of Paragons – essentially the game’s version of Great People. You can name Paragons as your advisors to receive bonuses for your empire, put them to work creating legendary artworks, or have them helm your armies in times of war.

The Paragon system feels great: It's like you can assemble the avengers of history for your government. / Oxide Games / Microsoft

Combining the very natural-looking map with the sheer grand scale of the game evokes yet another strategic sub-genre that Ara takes inspiration from – the likes of Europa Universalis. Oxide’s team members love Paradox Interactive’s titles, I was told, so it’s no surprise that an idea here and there may have made its way over. 

Perhaps that’s really what makes Ara feel special – it’s not bound by the principles of a pre-existing franchise. It doesn’t need to hold back on experimenting with features out of fear that it would drive away an existing fan base. Ara: History Untold feels like the result of the developers eclectically taking what they thought was great about other strategy games, regardless of genre, and mashing it all together into their personal sandbox – and from what I’ve seen and played so far, that passion is really paying off. Even as I was playing a build of the game at the Xbox booth, the developers were discussing cool ideas for features and quality-of-life improvements they had for the future.

I’m not a big fan of microtransactions and cosmetics in strategy games, but even the costumes for the leaders are pretty cool. Every leader gets differently colored versions of their outfit for free in the game for a little bit of customization, but the Deluxe Edition comes with skins that are kind of brilliant: Sappho in a modern suit? Nefertiti in an elegant dress? Elizabeth I wearing something from Elizabeth II’s wardrobe? I dig it.

Microsoft did well to let Oxide Games have as much time as it did with Ara: History Untold, which is set to be released on PC on September 24, 2024.