Test – Ara History Untold: in the footsteps of Civilization

Civilization-like games are not easy to come by. After a Humankind in 2021 full of good ideas, it is the turn of Ara: History Untold to stand out.

All eyes of 4X fans are currently on 2025 and Firaxis. And for good reason, the highly anticipated next Civilization will be released next February, almost nine years after the release of the sixth episode. But before that, another 4X is coming to our computers. Developed by Oxide Games and published by Xbox, Ara: History Untold was designed by former employees of… Firaxis.

Announced in 2022 during the Xbox Bethesda Showcase, Ara draws many ideas from the 4X giant. And for good reason, those who worked on it are former Firaxis employees, and seem to have taken with them some ideas from their former employer’s flagship license to propose them in Ara. And you will see that the two titles are extremely close to each other, perhaps a little too much even.

In reality, Ara is truly an alternative version of Civilization, and in many ways. First of all, when we first launch the game, we can only see the very marked inspirations of “Civ”. The title thus offers us to choose from one of the 41 proposed leaders, which is much more than the 20 proposals of the game Civilization without the extensions. And the advantage here is that we can discover much lesser-known historical figures. Alongside the traditional Julius Caesar, Leopold I of Belgium or Joan of Arc, we find Tamar the Great (Queen of Georgia), Cesare Beccaria of Italy (great opponent of the death penalty) and Ashoka (third emperor of India). It is rather pleasant to discover new faces and no longer have to deal with the traditional Gandhi, George Washington and other Abraham Lincolns.

When you start your game, the similarities with the Firaxis franchise are, here too, uncanny. You have the choice between a predefined or procedurally generated map (yes, sir!) and you start with settlers who must found a first city, acting as a capital. In our main game, we chose the first King of the Belgians, Leopold I. His capital, unsurprisingly, is Brussels. Brussels in the Stone Age, it’s rather funny, but Ara offers this kind of situation. As your city gains population, you can expand your city (again like in Civ) and obtain real regions of the faction leader’s country. For example, around Brussels, we had Evere, La Louvière, Mol or Ostend for a coastal region. This method of expansion only grants you “regions”. If you want to get more cities with all its benefits, you will need to recruit a colonist and send him to other lands where he can settle.

What we could criticize the title for is that it offers few customization options to start a game. Besides the choice of map, the difficulty of the AI ​​and the number of factions present, the game does not offer us much more choice. We would have liked more options, but this did not seem to be a priority for the developers. Natural disasters are not part of it either.

But what probably distinguishes Ara from its illustrious model is the composition of these cities. If their improvement and construction system is identical in all respects to Civ, it is above all their design and staging that is particularly neat. They are full of life and, when you zoom in on them, you see characters walking between the different buildings, interacting with them, and even exchanging with each other. These microcosms even evolve according to the era in which you find yourself, with an almost bluffing realism. And if you have built a triumph – the equivalent of a monument, the inhabitants will even come to admire it.

We also appreciate the staging of the battles. Like a Total War, the troops we send onto the battlefield are truly modeled and fight with the enemy before our eyes. The battles are settled over several turns, and we can see the evolution of the size of the garrisons as the fights progress.

City management is rather simple, although demanding. You chain the construction of buildings necessary for its proper functioning and must take into account the mood of your population, their health, but also the prosperity of your cities. To do this, different resources come to punctuate the proper functioning of your state, starting with wealth (gold), food, raw wood and materials (stones, metal, etc.). Like Civilization, each building will make you gain one or another resource, but also cost you some. Thus, a farm will bring you food, while a palace will cost you money each turn, but will bring you prestige, oh so important for the glory of the nation.

Another particularity of this Ara, differentiating it from the competition, is its gameplay system. Where all the others favor a traditional turn-based system where the protagonists play one after the other, Ara focuses on surprise and strategy. Here, all actions are performed simultaneously. We perform our actions and, when we pass our turn, it is again our turn to play, the others having already performed their actions. We are thus entitled to a constant surprise effect, forcing us to constantly review our plans.

Ara also has various small peculiarities that make it specific, but which do not upset the 4X genre. We will note the presence of Paragon, historical figures of lesser stature to whom we can assign a position of “minister”. Chief advisor, military advisor, internal advisor or even creator of masterpieces, allowing to increase prestige, are all positions that they can occupy. They appear at the dawn of a golden age, when the nation is prosperous and everything is going well. Another particularity of the title is the recruitment of units, which constantly pushes for reflection and strategy. After the few turns of waiting for recruitment, you must wait an additional turn for the “gathering”. Then, the unit appears in the training city. An interesting idea that prevents recruiting at all costs, pushing the player to think.

But unlike Civilization which has a graphic style that is very cartoon-oriented, Ara seems not to know which style to go for. The graphics are really not great, with poorly done characters and leaders inspired by Civilization, but less well done. And this lack of depth in Ara’s design is felt almost everywhere. If the game is free of defects in its gameplay part, it is especially the interface that seems finished with a spade. Many texts are displayed badly with code instead of words, the interface during the tutorial is not precise… We also regret that negotiation is not on the agenda, since when we receive a proposal, we can only accept or refuse it, out of the question to negotiate…

Conclusion

Ara: History Untold or Civilization? Civilization or Ara? Very clearly, very few elements differentiate the two titles as they are so close to each other. We can recognize the design touch of the former Firaxis in the development of Ara, with the difference that some gameplay elements seem less accomplished or completely absent from History Untold. The graphics engine, the display bugs or the lack of customization of the games are somewhat of a stain in Ara, while the idea of ​​resolving the turns of all the leaders simultaneously really changes the game. This leaves the player in total suspense, forcing him almost constantly to review his plans according to the actions of the AI. The cities, alive, are full of inhabitants who wander in all directions, truly giving the feeling of controlling the population. For the Civilization fan, Ara will seem like a pale copy of the Sid Meier license. On the other hand, those trying 4X for the first time will find this a great entry point into the genre.

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