I was a longtime intensive player of the Civ series. I think this game beats them all!!!!! If you think Civ 7 does not cut it, give Ara a try.

Very interesting 4X, clearly inspired by Civilization and Anno. Amazing graphics and promising mechanics, but poor execution.

The Anno part on this game is clearly poorly designed, and leans heavily into micromanagement and byzantine systems. If your civilization has one incoming source of iron, why is it forced to dump all of it into either the production of metal tools, troops, or other consumer products? The game tries to be clever by forcing the player to micromanage a rapidly growing list of amenities, but lacks the proper execution of a minimally intelligent supply and demand system. In the end, the player is not taking interesting decisions, but instead managing numbers in the game's spread sheets to get some obscure bonuses.

On the Civ side of the game, nothing too innovative compared to the Civilization games. Most of the systems are at best on par with Civ, and some others (such as combat) are mediocre.

I want to like this game, but right now I cannot recommend it. The soul is there, the mechanics also; the devs just have to figure out a direction to make the game pleasing and interesting to play. Hope to come back to it in the future and see some good work done.

A really ambitious game. Looked abandonded but since the new team picked up and 1.4 has been released it already improved a lot and I'm confident that with 2.0 this summer most annoying stuff is fixed while the beautiful game persists.

+ Graphics
+ Menu and UI looks really smooth and finished with tooltips and all
+ Zones instead of standard grid
+ Super fast turns after last patch
+ Supply chain management
+ Really innovative stuff in the 4x genre on ammeneties, war, supplies and the prestige system

- Micro management on supplies which has been improved with 1.4 and will be fixed pretty sure.

I used to play Civ IV, V and VI, but have not yet tried Civ VII. While Civ VI was Really good and I got to know the game well. Still I have been searching for something different. I tried old world which is really fun, but it is also a smaller scale than many 4X games. But it seemed more war focused.

I am really happy, though, that I bought Ara: History Untold. In many ways it is quite different from the Civilization series. For example the crafting of Items and then combining items to craft other things. War/Combat is somewhat different, but not bad. War is not the prime focus of the game. The GUI is nicely done, The maps are nice. One can zoom down to ground level and watch the people go about their business amid the flora and fauna and buildings, which is a nice touch, and pleasing to the eye. its a work in progress but unlike some games the developers Communicate often and well with patches and major releases still coming.

I enjoy playing it and I think you will too.

The game has every bit of potential to deliver on what Civilization VII did not, but is presently overburdened by punitive micromanagement and a clunky, convoluted, and disjointed UI. On the plus side, it is supported by ongoing development, and the patches don’t bring just cosmetic and performance tweaks. They are substantial, and the developers are open to shifting the entire paradigm if need be. I am cautiously optimistic that in spite of its initial flaws, this game can yet prove itself to be a title worthy of the genre it represents. I can only hope the publishers remain committed to it and allow it to flourish. The key features and building blocks are certainly there.

It’s why I’m giving it a provisional positive review. Version 2.0 is supposedly just around the corner (last I heard it was coming in September) and will bring with it significant improvements to both gameplay and performance (note: I’m not having any issues on a 9800X3D/4080S).

As a side note, I'm perplexed at how little promotion this title has received. I stumbled on it by pure accident. There didn’t seem to be much marketing behind this at all. It’s almost as if it was designed to fail.

Version 1.4 has reduced micromanagement, thus created a more pleasant game experience. the difficulty sliders make the game more flexible and enjoyable. The AI competitors are interesting.

They need to make the combat more tactical. Right now it's just a numbers spreadsheet and there is nothing you can do to direct units or try to overcome a mathematical difference in units. Also, the rock/paper/scissors approach isn't explained well and again, doesn't leave the player any ability to place units or use terrain during the battle. It's just a numbers formula that determines who wins. Also, the battles take forever, which means what should have been an easy victory all of the sudden gets reinforcements from halfway across the map because the "simple" battle take 7 turns (again, with nothing you can do while it plays out except add more units to the numbers total). The rest of the game has a lot of promise but without the combat being improved, I can't find enjoyment in this. Btw, I have about 100 hours of it on another platform and recently installed it on Steam to see if the updates helped.

It's an itch that Civ can't quite scratch for me, and I love it.

For those who *don't* want to micromanage and min/max city output, you will not want to play after your 3rd settlement.

For those that *do* like to micromanage and optimize settlements/cities/buildings, then you'll love this.

In my mind, it's like Civ 6, move adjacency bonuses to regional bonuses/synergies with buildings/construction, and sprinkle in some (a lot) of (forgive my nomenclature) "tier-crafting". Think, "I need this far to gather spices, then I need another farm to get grain, build a bakery and use that grain to accelerate the output and then assign it as an amenity for whichever city needs it most".

It's a great game, with some performance issues. I play on high/ultra and it can get choppy zooming out quickly and in, but it's a turn based game so it doesn't impact playability in my opinion.

Try it out, it's good fun. My only two gripes are sometimes battles are a pain in the ass to initiate, and I prefer a much more realistic representation of historical characters. I was NOT a fan of Civ VI art style, but it grew on me. Same with Ara.

Play for two hours and if you don't like it, refund it :)