Ara: History Untold

68%
Game Brain Score Based on 747 reviews
  • gameplay
  • optimization
  • graphics
Ara: History Untold Game Cover
Ara: History Untold is a vast strategy game that gives you plenty to do, but success consistently rewards you with new ways to play.
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Ara: History Untold is a historical grand strategy game that offers unique innovations in the genre, allowing players to shape human history through different leaders and strategic decisions.

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Reviews

68%
Audience ScoreBased on 747 reviews
gameplay53 positive mentions
optimization33 negative mentions
  • Innovative crafting and production chain system that adds depth to gameplay.
  • Gorgeous graphics and a living world that enhances immersion.
  • Unique simultaneous turn mechanics that improve pacing and reduce wait times.
  • Poorly optimized performance, leading to significant frame drops and crashes on various systems.
  • Clunky and unintuitive UI that complicates resource management and city planning.
  • Lack of meaningful diplomacy and combat mechanics, making military interactions feel simplistic.
  • gameplay192 mentions

    The gameplay of "Ara: History Untold" presents a mix of innovative mechanics and frustrating design choices, with many players appreciating its depth and crafting systems while criticizing its user interface and AI performance. While some find the intricate resource management and strategic elements engaging, others feel the gameplay can become repetitive and tedious, particularly due to unclear mechanics and a lack of polish in certain areas. Overall, the game offers a fresh take on the 4X genre, but it requires patience and a willingness to navigate its complexities.

    • “Fresh mechanics and great gameplay.”
    • “While the main civilization franchise has been repeatedly simplifying mechanics and streamlining to appeal to a broader audience, Ara takes the complexity dial and turns it to 12, for a very refreshing experience once you wrap your head around it.”
    • “It's such a basic mechanic that, even if intended, it represents a huge oversight in game design.”
    • “The gameplay is a breath of fresh air.”
    • “The visuals/graphics are very nice but the mechanics of the game are simplistic, boring and not challenging at all.”
  • optimization149 mentions

    The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players experiencing significant performance issues, including stuttering and low frame rates, even on high-end systems. While some users report smooth gameplay, others find it unplayable at times, leading to frustration and refunds. Overall, there is a consensus that the game requires substantial optimization and improvements to its user interface to meet the expectations of strategy game fans.

    • “I'd like to recommend Ara to all 4X fans, especially during Christmas sales when the game will be much polished and optimized.”
    • “The tons of options and optimizations, however, can be really enjoyed by the more hardcore strategists and builders.”
    • “The game runs smoothly, it's responsive, barely any bugs, loads incredibly fast, constantly above 50-60 fps, all by having a mid-high tier laptop, running medium-high settings.”
    • “But the game at this stage has serious performance issues.”
    • “At least for now, this game is literally unplayable due to optimization issues.”
    • “Unfortunately, my experience with the game left me deeply disappointed, primarily due to its abysmal performance, even at the lowest settings.”
  • graphics138 mentions

    The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beauty and detail, creating an immersive experience that enhances gameplay. However, many players report performance issues, including graphical glitches and frame drops, particularly on AMD graphics cards, which detracts from the overall experience. While the visuals are considered stunning, they often demand high-performance hardware to run smoothly, leading to mixed feelings about optimization and user interface design.

    • “The graphics are stunningly beautiful, though they demand high-performance specs to run smoothly.”
    • “I love the graphics, which are detailed and immersive, making each era and city feel alive.”
    • “Absolutely beautiful graphics and it feels like a mix of Civ & Millennia.”
    • “Annoyingly, there are also some graphical glitches (maybe only on NVIDIA cards?), which is a shame on something so lovely to look at.”
    • “The graphics are abysmal.”
    • “The pretty visuals, when you can actually appreciate them between the frame drops, just aren’t enough to save the experience when the performance is this terrible.”
  • grinding59 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game has received significant criticism for being overly tedious, particularly due to micromanagement and a convoluted crafting system that can overwhelm players, especially in the mid to late game. While some players appreciate the depth and complexity, many find the repetitive tasks and unintuitive UI detract from the overall enjoyment, leading to a frustrating experience. Developers have acknowledged these issues and are working on improvements, which may alleviate some of the tedium in future updates.

    • “The game becomes tedious very quickly and it feels like all you’re doing is micromanaging production chains.”
    • “The economic system is fun at first but as you progress through the game it becomes less fun and more tedious.”
    • “The micromanagement is getting out of hand and it is so tedious to play.”
  • music26 mentions

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players finding it decent and immersive, while others criticize it as forgettable or annoying. Many feel it lacks the impact and uniqueness found in other titles, such as Civilization, and some even choose to mute it entirely. Overall, while there are positive remarks about the ambiance created by the soundtrack, it does not consistently resonate with players.

    • “The soundtrack and score create great ambiance.”
    • “The music totally absorbs me into the game, it's super lovely.”
    • “There's plenty of satisfaction to be found in the game, and the music is good enough that I didn't swap over to my own playlist.”
    • “What they'll probably never bounce from are horrifyingly bad music (sound effects in general imo) and UI from the 90s.”
    • “The music isn't memorable, the vibe doesn't evoke anything beyond what Civ does, and if you want to chill out and manage a town for a while, there are hundreds of other offerings on here that are much cheaper and better.”
    • “The soundtrack is honestly a little annoying and I've found myself turning it off sometimes.”
  • stability17 mentions

    The stability of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing significant bugs, crashes, and performance issues, particularly on lower-end systems. Conversely, others report smooth gameplay and minimal glitches, suggesting that performance may heavily depend on individual hardware configurations. Overall, while some users enjoy a stable experience, many others face frustrating stability problems that detract from the gameplay.

    • “I have seen people complaining about the game's performance; I think that has to do with your PC, not the game, because it runs great on my RTX 4070 with 16GB.”
    • “Do be aware that it takes a pretty stout graphics card to run this game, but even though my graphics card is not as powerful as I would like, after the GPU shaders finished their compilation, which usually takes around 20 minutes, the game runs great. I have never had it crash yet, and I have really been enjoying Microsoft's and Oxide's take on a large-scale civilization building game.”
    • “I don't see the point in paying $89 if I need to run the game on low settings and endure the stutter and the glitches.”
    • “It's incredibly buggy and not optimized at all.”
    • “I can't even play for more than 10 minutes before it freezes on me.”
  • replayability8 mentions

    Overall, the game's replayability is considered moderate, with some players enjoying the diversity in early gameplay and the unique bonuses of different civilizations. However, concerns about the lack of significant differentiation in later stages and the need for more unique units or buildings suggest that while it is replayable, it may not offer enough variety to keep players engaged long-term.

    • “The early game is very fun and even on repeated games and starts can be very diverse, which increases replayability.”
    • “Time will tell with replay value, but right now I am more likely to play this than Civ 5, 6, Humankind, or Millennia.”
    • “Infinitely replayable (or almost).”
    • “Replayability is 'ok' but the game feels the same every time.”
    • “I worry slightly about replay value; each civilization and leader has bonuses that will make them specialize differently, but I think the game would benefit from civ-specific units and buildings, or some other form of specialization that makes different games feel different.”
    • “Tldr: visuals = 9, strategy = 2, replayability = 3, overall = 3 and I want my $60 back.”
  • story7 mentions

    The game's story is praised for its unique human elements and engaging leader selection, contributing to a rich narrative experience. However, players note that the frequent events can overwhelm the storytelling, making it difficult to appreciate the narrative depth. Overall, while the storytelling is a highlight, its execution can sometimes detract from the player's immersion.

    • “And it's not because the game is bad, there is a lot to love here with how it has a uniquely human touch, the storytelling elements of the game, the extremely good leader selection, and its lovely graphics while watching the town be built over time.”
    • “This is a game about the story of your people; it would be great to see more emphasis on the will of the people.”
    • “I have had missionaries spend multiple in-game ages trying to convert a single one of my neighbor's cities, to no avail.”
    • “I got a spearman and tried to complete the quest; however, I never got a pop-up or even talked to the tribe.”
    • “The game also spams you with events extremely often, often times not being worth it to even read the storytelling and just look at the benefits vs. the drawbacks.”
    • “This is a game about the story of your people; well, how about adding the will of the people?”
  • humor2 mentions

    The humor in the game is well-received, with players appreciating its comedic elements that enhance gameplay, such as quirky character traits and amusing references to historical figures like Swiss Guards and British palace guards. Many find it to be a significant improvement over similar titles like "Millennia" and "Human Kind."

    • “This game is funny; it's much better than Millenia and Humankind.”
    • “Maybe you could give them traits that boost prestige after becoming obsolete, like Swiss Guards or funny British palace guards.”
  • monetization1 mentions

    The monetization aspect of the game has been criticized for being overly focused on micromanagement, leading to disappointment among players who were seeking a more engaging experience. This has drawn unfavorable comparisons to other games perceived as greedy in their monetization strategies.

    • “I was hoping for a game to fill the void that Civ left when it started going full in on being awful with its greedy monetization, and I got a game that ended up ruining all the hype I had for it by just being a game about micromanagement.”
  • emotional1 mentions

    Users note that the emotional aspect of the game is hindered by the AI's unpredictable aggression, which can disrupt the player's experience and immersion, particularly in sensitive border situations.

Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

77% average critic score

Buy Ara: History Untold

Play time

12hMedian play time
41hAverage play time
10-100hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 3 analyzed playthroughs

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