our verdict
Ara: The Untold History makes a meaningful contribution to the well-worn grand strategy genre at every turn, though the absurdity of its mix-and-match historical approach can be hard to swallow.
The urge to take one more turn is still there. Ara: The Untold History is the latest in a handful of games to offer alternatives to Sid Meier’s classic formula, such as Humans or Old World. Conceptually, Ara isn’t reinventing the wheel. I hadn’t paid attention to Civilization since its fifth release, but the basics of the game felt immediately familiar to me. However, the numerous small and significant differences create something in serious conversation with other grand strategy games. Ella: the untold history Not a complete improvement, not just a homage. It’s worth participating in on its own.
Like Civilization, Ara lets you control an empire at the beginning of its history: first control a small village on an unexplored map, until it grows into a vast and technologically advanced empire. Instead of providing multiple paths to victory, various strategies provide reputation (like victory points in European games). Each country competes on a global leaderboard, and the person with the highest score wins the era. At the end of each act, the major epochs of history, the lowest civilizations will exit because they were not memorable enough to survive.
While this system offers greater flexibility—if war breaks out, you can strictly regulate military production and then return to the build pool as soon as the war ends—you’ll still need to adjust your overall strategy. Each civilization’s leader provides various benefits. Military leaders like Yizkotel or Genghis Khan will give you buffs for participating in battles, or give your troops extra strength when they are outside your territory. Other leaders, like Eva Peron, focused on cultural advancement, while others, like Sejong the Great or Nicolaus Copernicus, focused on knowledge and innovation. Ara features over 40 leaders that will change the way you play and how eager you are to engage in combat.
Because of the way Ala’s cities work, the cost of fighting can be even higher. Each city is made up of different tiles. The larger the population, the more blocks your city can expand into. Each tile offers room for improvement, such as farms, hunting camps, workshops, and factories. When a city is captured, it may be razed or assimilated. If it were razed, all improvements would be reduced to ashes. But even if your opponents don’t level a city, they can loot improvements outside of the city’s center. A devastating war could knock your civilization out of contention. Additionally, cities can improve infrastructure or build military units, but not both at the same time. Every step you take toward military rule is a step away from economic or cultural power.
Rounds are played simultaneously, which means you have to anticipate your opponent’s every move. Once your armies are locked in combat, they cannot retreat, although you can always bring in reinforcements. So, you need to be careful about what fights you enter and when. Each battle is affected by many factors, such as terrain type, type of military unit, etc. However, Civilization does a better job of presenting these strategic decisions. If you want to understand the game’s military system, you’ll need to dig into the submenus to find buffs and debuffs, and work on perfecting your economic engine.
Speaking of which, another great addition to the grand strategy game formula is crafting. Like Civilization, you can capture land using resources like salt, livestock, or silk. You can then use these resources to craft materials. You’ll build chariots with wheels and horses, plant flowers to create hanging gardens, and craft gunpowder to build cannons. You can also assign specific goods to your cities and various production sites to improve your statistics. This gives the game strategy a city-building flavor. You need to make sure you can build the right materials to train the right units or build the best Victory (the game’s take on the wonders of Civilization). The result is incredible levels of micromanagement. Mapping each city’s economic power can be overwhelming and sometimes boring. However, if you have the right mindset, crafting can give strategy games a surprising edge. Closing the gap in reputation points can win the game. Therefore, efficiency of the production process and choosing the right items can win you victory, just like a decisive battle or a powerful religion.
Visually, Ara does away with hexagons and squares. Each space on the map has a looser, more “natural” border. It also pursues a more direct “representational style” than Civilization. Zooming in on the map will show small citizens moving around, farming, fishing and working. It’s great to see your small cities grow into hubs and magnificent metropolises. It’s like entering a real little world. In the game, however, you’re mostly exposed to Ara’s UI, which is filled with bland, board-game-like icons and slick-looking but overwhelming menus and submenus. It’s difficult to understand the economic status of your city at a glance. You’ll spend a lot of time deciding what you’re going to do actually Needs to be made. Still, the UI is great at keeping things snappy. The notification bar on the right side of the screen will update you with information about each major event that is your turn. At its best, the UI doesn’t get in the way of Ara’s obsessive nature. I could have stopped at more places – it’s easy to lose track of time – but the game deserves credit for being so encompassing.
Part of the appeal of these historical “simulators” is their ability to remix and recontextualize key historical figures. It’s fun to nuke a country like Gandhi, or to be cathartic like a colonial nation defeating its invaders. However, the hybrid nature of civilization, and its emphasis on exploration, expansion, exploitation, and extermination, has led to many absurdities.
Even at first glance, Allah is full of such contradictions. Key leaders include some of the usual suspects: Charlemagne, Queen Elizabeth I, and other key military leaders and monarchs. However, Allah: An Untold History also includes many marginal figures who left clear historical legacies but far less power, such as the poet Sappho, major Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller, and Abbot Hildegard von Bingen. These are not the people who decide the fate of the country. For her part, Wilma Mankiller is fighting for her right to be recognized in her country and even to take control of her own finances. I’m glad the game makes characters like this more identifiable, but their existence is just ridiculous. Despite Ara’s strategic flexibility, each of its systems emphasizes the logic of “might makes right.” This is still a game about building an empire. The addition of some fringe and homegrown heroes doesn’t change that.
All in all, I don’t think a game released by Microsoft would have the irony of Syphilis or the anti-colonialism of Elf Island. For what it is, Allah: The Untold History is well done. It has a strong overall arc that is engaging at every turn. It makes meaningful contributions to a well-worn genre every time, even if those contributions aren’t always successful. If you’ve invested countless hours in games like Civilization, Ara will legitimately challenge your preconceptions and instincts. Yet the fringe history that Allah participates in but does not embrace deserves better stewards.