Ara: History Untold trailers & gameplay details

Ara: History Untold is a new strategy franchise from Xbox Game Studios, currently slated to launch in Autumn 2024. Oxide Games, the developer of Ara, is a company made up of several former Firaxis Games employees, the developer behind the Civilization series.

With Ara, Oxide Games wants to push the grand strategy genre forward with fresh ideas for the game, so here is everything we know about it so far.

What is Ara: History Untold?

Ara: History Untold bridges the gaps between several of the biggest 4x grand strategy games around. It draws inspiration from games like Civilization and Age of Empires, while also forging new paths with fresh ideas. Players can play as one of many historical leaders, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Click to enlarge

From there, you begin building your empire from scratch and watch as the world around you reacts to your advancement. The goal of the game is to increase your Prestige, the metric by which the winner is determined. Prestige is gained through multiple means, whether that be commerce, culture, military might, scientific advancement, or other ways of improving your civilisation.

There are no set win conditions in Ara, players are free to pursue the things they want and still gain Prestige, allowing them to win the game. You could win through world domination, or by having the prettiest collection of world wonders.

Ara: History Untold trailers

Our first look at Ara came with the Gameplay Trailer in August 2023, which showed off multiple locations and various stages of building a civilization. While the trailer is light on details, it shows off many of the triumphs that can be built, some of the leaders that you can play as, and a hint of battle.

At the Xbox Developer Direct in January 2024, we got the Ara: History Untold Game Overview, a much more in-depth look at the game and the people behind it.

This deeper look at the game shows us more gameplay, specifically some of the new features that Ara is bringing. These include a living world that changes in response to the players, the Prestige scoring system, a crafting system, and much more.

That is all we know so far on Ara: History Untold. For more, check out the other big news from the Developer Direct on Indiana Jones, Avowed, and Hellblade 2.