Ara History Untold: Anniversary Edition

This Game has so much potential that is actively being sabotaged by the developers for reasons that I infer to be control oriented. The modding potential is being deliberately throttled and I suspect it has something to do with the activist bent of the game, which modding could help alleviate, which is such a shame. This game has great gameplay ideas and mechanics that with mods could be polished. But let me talk about the ideological shackles in the game design because it goes beyond flavor, it's mechanical and deliberately protected. The leader cards are the most glaring offense and they result in anti-historical realities. Not only are real historical figures typically punished with bad traits, but the more effective and less activist darling they are the worse it gets. This distribution is discriminatory along sex lines as well, at least with the line up I last had access to ALL of the leaders with negative traits were men. Most of them incredibly successful or historically impactful men. The characters with the most stacked traits were activist identity aligned nobodies who accomplished little to nothing historically. I don't mind balancing to make the alternative choices as…

Honestly, this game surprised me in a good way. It’s not just another Civ clone—it actually brings new ideas to the table. ​What I like: ​Simultaneous turns: This alone saves so much time in late-game. No more sitting around waiting for turns to process. ​Economic depth: The crafting and supply chain management give you a lot to optimize if you enjoy micro and logistics. ​Graphics: Zooming in and seeing your empire actually look alive is super satisfying. ​Devs care: Oxide Games has been pumping out solid updates that fixed a lot of the initial launch issues. ​Minor complaints: ​The UI can still feel a bit clunky with all the clicking required for production chains, but it's getting better with patches. ​If you like grand strategy with a heavy focus on economy, give it a shot. Easily an 9/10 for me.

The game has really good ideas, and while not every player will like the higher micro management required, I do enjoy the idea of using production and supply, it make things interesting and new. The combat system do need polish tho. However, I did reinstall the game recently to discover that.... the texture/shader are completely buggy now and on every Nvidia 50+ now. And what a surprise, the issue exists for month now, and still no fix, so I'm guessing it will simply never be fixed especially considering the stance of the developper on the subject. Blaming Nvidia might be credible.... if that wasn't litterally the ONLY game with that issue. The graphics were really one of the selling point of the game, so in this state it's really horrible to play. I suppose if you have an older card it might be worth trying, but consider that if such a game breaking issue take years to solve, that mean this game can become unplayable real quick.

I gave this game a chance but it was a waste of time. The game is basically an inferior Civ knock-off. The first thing you will notice when starting a new campaign is that many of the faction leaders make no sense. Empress Irene as head of the Byzantine Empire? Rather odd choice but not as baffling as the next one. Harriet Tubman as head of the United States? Why? 90% of what gets said about Tubman is literally invented and she wasn't anything more than a footnote in US history. She also never even approached political power. Why would she be the head of the United States? The head of the Cherokee is also a wildly bizarre choice as Wilma Mankiller. Then you get to the game mechanics. The maps are tiny even when you tweak the settings. The city building is complicated without adding any value to the game. The art isn't even impressive. I'd give this game a 3/10. If you are a grand-strat player like myself but want to try something new, maybe skip this game.

Keep that refund button nearby; crashed on startup and I never got to play a game of this.

I cannot believe it but referring a recent negative comment about the game crashing frequently it's true. I bought it with the intent that it could be stable enough and give the game a try, only to find myself running into the same issue head on. Maybe I'll pick this game in the far future, or not but at this current state stay as far away as possible. By the time they'll fix it, just wait for the next sale season. You're better off with another 4x Civ5-6, Endless legend 2 or 1, endless space 2, humankind so on... At least they don't crash on selecting leader, turn 1-2 or turn 8.