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Lead a nation through changing eras, building resource chains and cities while competing through simultaneous turns, diplomacy, and war.
Released 24 Sep 2024
Craft Nation Supply Chains
Build Cities by Region
Plan Simultaneous Turns
Build a nation starting at any point in human history and compete for supremacy in this epic turn-based strategy game. Engage in diplomacy, fight wars, and go head-to-head with other leaders from history.
Developed by Oxide Games · Published by Xbox Game Studios
Choose a nation and historical leader, then guide your people through twelve technology eras as you compete with other nations. The game centers on developing a country over time, with no single prescribed route to success.
Explore a world divided into territories and zones, claim land, and develop cities with farms, workshops, and other improvements. Gather resources and turn them into goods through production chains, then use those goods to support cities, improve production, and equip forces. Research follows a branching, non-linear path.
Manage relations with rival leaders through diplomacy, trade, and conflict, while also expanding cultural and religious influence. Military units can be organized into formations, and nations’ orders resolve simultaneously each turn. Prestige tracks national accomplishments and determines how nations fare in the contest.
Players who enjoy the game often single out its production chains and economic management, which make resource gathering and city development feel connected and give them choices to optimize. Its detailed, animated world and simultaneous turns also earn praise. The supplied reviews are mixed, though: players frequently describe production management and the interface as tedious, and criticize combat and diplomacy as less developed than the economy.
Ara: History Untold is an evolution in historical grand strategy, featuring beloved classic PC strategy mechanics alongside innovative gameplay like a national crafting economy, true simultaneous turn resolution, a non-linear technology tree, and cloud-backed synchronous/asynchronous multiplayer - all with an expansive and vibrant presentation where you can zoom out from surveying the very edges of your empire all the way down to your citizens living their daily lives. In Ara, there are no pre-set paths to victory, leading to endless possibilities. Your choices will define the world you create, your experience, and your legacy.
Explore an Immersive Living World:
Explore a dynamic living world filled with life and charm across sweeping landscapes ranging from tropical jungles to sand-swept deserts as you discover the resources you need to develop your nation. Witness the world come to life in vivid, realistic detail as citizens move throughout the world and react dynamically to times of health and sickness, war and peace, wealth and despair with unique biomes, cultures, and eras representing the diversity of human experience.
Build Your Nation:
Serve your people and grow your prestige with numerous Improvements, from forges to libraries, citadels to cathedrals, public parks to industrial factories - as well as a global variety of the greatest architectural Triumphs ever conceived and built by human hands.
Guide your people through the eras of human discovery:
Nurture your people’s brilliance and invention as you progress your Nation through twelve unique Technology Eras, making the hard choices about where to focus your Nation’s greatest minds. As you near the end of each Era, you’ll have to decide how fast to push your scientists along the path to the future - at the risk of the present.
Oversee a rich and detailed national economy:
Harvest the bounty of the natural world and deploy the labor of your people with a depth-filled National Crafting system. Will you manufacture Amenities - like lavish feasts - to provide your cities and citizens with powerful benefits, or invest in the creation of Equipment - the weapons of war - to prepare your Armies to defend your nation or conquer your rivals? Whatever paths you choose you’ll need to carefully optimize your resources and production to achieve the most efficient systems if you want to outpace your rivals to fortune and lasting glory.
Rule Your Way:
Choose from dozens of history's most influential figures to embody as you reshape the world through your choices. The unique and varied global Leaders and Nations in Ara emphasize a wide variety of different playstyles. Experiment with gameplay-impacting Traits and powerful Leader Abilities drawn from the effect they had on world history. Whether friend or foe, each Leader has a distinct personality based on their historical background that informs their AI behaviors.
Grow your Nation:
Extend your reach and expand your Nation’s borders through claiming new territory, conquering cities, spreading your Religion, or by expending Influence. How your Nation grows and defines new borders is up to you.
Experience True Simultaneous Turns:
Every turn each nation's actions and choices resolve simultaneously, leading to suspense, anticipation, unique outcomes, and surprising twists on the classic turn-based formula. The fate of your people will be determined by your decisions and your ability to predict your opponent’s next move, putting your skill as a leader to the ultimate test.
Defend your people by land, sea, and air:
Warfare in Ara is presented in the Living World, as thousands of years of military conflict reflect the progress and martial prowess of your people. Develop technologies to advance your weaponry against your rivals, hone your wartime economy and industry to gain the edge, and outthink your opponent’s strategies as maneuvers resolve authentically at once thanks to the power of True Simultaneous Turns.
Prove Your Worth in Online Multiplayer:
Combining the speed and surprise of True Simultaneous Turns with the power of the cloud - multiplayer in Ara is fast, seamless, and able to be enjoyed asynchronously with a wide range of options to tailor you and your friend’s experience to the way you want to play together.
A Microsoft Account is required to play online multiplayer.
| Platforms | Windows |
|---|---|
| Achievements | 45 |
| Age ratings |
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| Controller required | No |
| DLC / extras | 4 listed on Steam |
| Content notices |
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| Website | Official website |
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