Even though many other studios have tried in recent years, no one has really been able to replace Civilization. Firaxis is currently not really defending itself against the competitors that keep appearing. After all, Civilization 7 hasn’t been revealed yet.
Now studio Oxide is trying to fill the gap and at the Xbox Developer Direct 2024 there was a new behind-the-scenes video in which the studio discussed many of the features of Ara: History Untold.
The game is scheduled for fall 2024
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Crafting on a global scale: Civ rival Ara brings survival mechanics to a larger dimension
This is how Ara differs from Civ
Historical global strategy as we know it from Civ was dominated by Civilization for a long time. Of course, Civ has always tried to reinvent itself, but completely new competitors can of course expect some of their own innovations. Ara offers some of them:
The living world
A particularly visual difference to Civilization is the so-called living world. The earth to be played on not only looks more realistic, there is also a lot more life on it. Animals wander around, people walk on the streets. Furthermore, the world is not divided into hexagons, but rather into dynamically malleable regions.
No victory conditions
Ara completely foregoes classic victory conditions like in Civ and instead relies on a prestige system in which your score ultimately determines your rank in the world. However, most points can be earned if you put a certain amount of focus. For example, a series of so-called triumphs (in Civ these would be Wonders of the World) could award tons of points.
Crafting
Even though goods and resources always play an important role in 4X strategy games, their management is usually kept rather superficial. In Ara you can delve deeper into the matter and determine at production sites which goods and equipment for soldiers you currently need. The effects of the goods can also be adjusted by adding different components.
Simultaneous trains
One of the most exciting changes concerns the sequence of moves. In Ara you can’t always react directly to another ruler’s move because it’s not your turn one after the other. Instead, all moves are made simultaneously once a round ends. So there is always some uncertainty as to whether your move will have the desired effect.
Whether Ara will actually be successful with all of these changes will become clear when the game is released in autumn at the latest. In recent years there have also been many other competitors such as Humankind or Old World – both did certain things better than Civ, but each also had weaknesses. Do you have any wishes about what you expect from a game in this genre?
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