When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Heres how it works.
I’ve personally played dozens upon dozens of games, but rarely do I venture into the strategy genre.
Alright, Oxide Games, you got me.
Your cities can become rather lovely in Ara, and you actually have some control over that.
But what actually drove that change in thinking?
In Ara: History Untold, the Prestige system means that everything you do can help you progress.
Your strategy can draw from every area of the game, driven by your Leader’s unique abilities.
Playing as Sappho of Greece, I remained competitive without ever building a single military unit.
My Scout, alone and untested, was trapped with no route of escape until it died.
Any other time war threatened my nation, I used my abundance of horses to negotiate swift treaties.
This mess of menus rarely appeals to me in strategy games, but I quickly learned the ropes in Ara.
“Military units are trained and then await deployment in your reserves.
“You might have a three-unit formation that has a spearman, an archer, a cavalry unit.
Putting PC players first… Oxide’s developers are also considering what lessons they can learn now that might benefit them down the line.
I became so immersed in building up my city that I actually completely forgot to found new ones.
“How do we also create a transfer that is intuitive and accessible?
I’m always thinking about how we can learn from the best practices from other games.”
“It’s really from an accessibility standpoint.
The Prestige system means that the best nation overall wins, not the one that checked enough boxes in one specific area.
How can we have our cake and eat it, too?
This also allowed Oxide Games to begin building modding support into Ara: History Untold from the beginning.
Oxide Games is going up against some well-established heavy hitters in the space, but the studio seems confident.
With the coming of a new age, many nations may fall behind and be lost to time.
“Another key differentiating factor with Ara is our crafting system,” Leskur continued.
“Simultaneous multiplayer is huge,” Leskur told me.
“It’ll allow a lot more people to come together at the same time.
I only managed to build one of these magnificent landmarks during my preview.
I was honestly shocked by how detailed and dynamic this game’s worlds are.
You can observe each battle coldly, just focusing on the numbers.
Or you can actually watch your armies clash in real time.
There’s a lot of variety and verticality in Ara: History Untold’s worlds, and where you settle matters a lot.
I didn’t explore the ocean much during my preview, but naval warfare is absolutely here.
The Eiffel Tower, but this isn’t Paris.
Crafting plays a huge role in Ara: History Untold, and gives you a lot more flexibility in your strategies.
This is a very zoomed in view on just one area of one city.
