Ara Analysis: An Untold Story

Ara: The Untold Storyis the new proposal of Interactive with oxidea title that puts all its efforts into overthrowing the legendary Civilization. As we have already told you, this is a work that follows the classic bases of 4X games. Works where every turn counts to expand our empire to new territories, technologies and, in this case, eras. We buy, is an extremely ambitious title that clearly shows that it is not afraid to compete with the giant of Firaxis. In fact, Oxide is made up of former employees of the company, so they are not exactly new to this field.

Yes indeed, We buy This is not a simple clone of the famous saga. No, we are facing a launch that wants to attract a new audience, players who want to try deeper experiences than those that can be found in Civilization. For that, The game features mechanics never seen before in the genre, in addition to adopting a much more realistic approach, both playably and artistically. If you are a fan of this type of games, you cannot miss the following analysis.

Choose your empire

As soon as we start our game in Ara: The Untold Storyyou will have to choose a character. The game has a large number of famous characters, who are references for different civilizations. We can find such important names as Catherine the Great or Genghis Khan. Each of them will offer us different advantages that will directly affect the game. For example, the Mongol Emperor will have a much more aggressive approach, giving advantages to our cavalry forces.

Once we decide, a map will be generated and we will start playing. Each game is very different from the previous one, mainly due to the distribution of resources on the map. There is a huge amount of resources that we can use for different productions and improvements of our civilization. It’s very interesting to see how much of an impact their layout has on the game.. For example, if we have a herd of horses on our territory, it will be important to investigate breeding as soon as possible, in order to take advantage of this resource.

Once on the map, the game will give us the opportunity to follow a tutorial that will guide us throughout the game. This is absolutely necessary to understand all the mechanics that the game offers. Ara: The Untold Story, It’s a really complex game and can overwhelm new and old players alike.

At this point we have to comment on the excellent work done by the team with the graphic and artistic section of the game. Ara: The Untold Story, It has a fantastic and very striking graphic quality thanks to its realistic style cut. Likewise, its sound part is more than remarkable, with a great dubbing in english and some beautiful melodies that will accompany us during the game.

Road to Civilization

Each game will start with a first city already installed in a random area of ​​the map and a beater that will allow us to explore the map. The first turns are fundamental for the development of our civilization, which begins in the Stone Age. At this point, we will have to start exploring and building our first structures. Although the game does not have a hexagonal map like Civilizationworks by region. Each region generates a series of passive resources that can be (Goods, Food, Materials or Wood), each of them will be added to our chests each turn. Likewise, it will be divided into boxes, in each of these boxes we will be able to build different buildings according to our needs.

The resources we have just mentioned are fundamental to the development of our civilization. While wood and materials are essential for construction, goods allow you to recruit troops or speed up processes.. Likewise, food will be essential for the population of our cities to increase and thus be able to claim new places.

In addition to these basic resources, Ara: The Untold Storyunderstand a quality of life system. Each city we control will have to take into account values ​​such as Health, Food, Prosperity, Security and Education. Depending on the value we have of it, we will obtain certain effects or others. The simplest example is this one, A poorly educated city will barely add research points, so it will cost us much more to develop our technologies.. To improve this quality of life system, the game includes the service mechanic.

In many buildings we can create tools or products that we can then use as services. An apothecary will be able to create medicines, which can be used as a service for a limited number of turns and thus increase the health of our city. However, here is where a layer of complexity appears within Ara: The Untold Story. Creating these services will take time, which can be accelerated if we have adequate resources. Continuing with the example of medicine, if we have medicinal herbs, the process will go 100% faster, and if we have tea leaves, we will be able to add them another 25% faster. This makes resources, as we mentioned, very important when managing our game.

Investigate and progress

The system we just described becomes really complex as we progress through the game and control more resources, more technologies and buildings. Be particularly complex when controlling multiple cities. Leaving that aside, the game has other classic mechanics in titles of this genre. The technology system seems quite classic, allowing the player to research between a number of technologies in each era. After mastering a certain number of technologies, the player can enter a new era. Of course, if we decide to take the step without investigating some technologies, without investigating, they will be lost. A very interesting proposal that adds a protagonist thanks to the chapter system.

During the game, the game will go through a series of chapters, which will begin once a civilization reaches a certain era. When this happens, civilizations that have not reached it will be eliminated from the game.

Now how to win at Ara: The Untold Story? Well, then, The game has a value called Prestige. There are many ways to generate prestige, whether through conquest and combat, through the splendor of our civilization or through a religion that spreads throughout the world. The game will also offer different objectives to increase our level of splendor, such as undertaking a large construction like the Colosseum. There is an amazing compilation of emblematic buildings of humanity. All this means that games can be played in a variety of ways, with spectacular replayability. Even more so if we take into account its multiplayer mode.

One of the most interesting ways to gain splendor in the game is to produce great works. From time to time we will be able to recruit a great personality of humanity to serve as an advisor or to generate a great workwhether it’s writing, music, art, etc. These works will add splendor points at the end of the game.

to make war

Conflicts are a recurring phenomenon in human history. Something that Ara: The Untold Story takes into account during our game. The game allows us to recruit a wide variety of units that will vary depending on our time and technology. Even though it is a 4X game in which we will not have real control of our units during the conflict, the game will allow us to use tactics. These tactics will give our characters a series of advantages and disadvantages that will directly influence the fight.

Despite this, I believe that Ara: The Untold Storybecomes excessively complicated in this section. It is especially confusing in the early games to recruit troops. The game allows us to recruit troops, which will take a series of turns. Once recruited, we will have to group them into squads, legions or other formations. This will consume another number of turns. In itself, It’s a very slow process and involves too many actions on the part of the player. Given the complexity of the work, I think this aspect could be much simpler and more intuitive.

With all this, you will have the idea that Ara: The Untold Storyis a much more complex game than other 4X games of the genre or its direct competitor; Civilization. It is a difficult work to access in its early stages but after a few rounds you will not be able to stop playing. The phrase “one more turn” was very present during all my games, causing me to stay up late on several occasions. In short, it’s a remarkable title, although very complex if it’s the first time you’re diving into the genre.

Thanks to the team of Xbox Europe for the code that allowed us to carry out this analysis.