In recent years, Xbox has gone to great lengths to bring back one of its most popular PC gaming franchises, Age of Empires. Apparently, the resurgence of the real-time strategy game series has sparked other interests within Xbox Game Studios in other PC-centric genres.
In the Xbox & Bethesda Games ShowcaseXbox has introduced a new game called Ara: History Untold. Rather than a real-time strategy game, Ara: History Untold will be a turn-based strategy game.
If those who saw the trailer for Ara: History Untold they confused it with the reveal of a new Civilization game, they weren’t the only ones. The cinematic trailer for Ara: History Untold featured a narrator talking about glimpses of interesting characters, places, and historical moments.
Only these glimpses weren’t entirely accurate. For example, the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the Sphinx were shown in the snow along a river, and Benjamin Franklin’s remarkable kite flight was shown over Stonehenge.
It is clear that Ara: History Untold it won’t respect history exactly like Age of Empires and Civilization. Instead, it will allow players to create their own history, creating their own version of the past. This is an attractive concept for a turn-based strategy game, although without gameplay it’s hard to make any assumptions.
Although the announcement trailer for Ara: History Untold does not include any gameplay, several pre-alpha screenshots have been shared on the game’s new website. These screenshots showed huge sprawling cities from multiple tech epochs, as well as an overview map with cities displayed as territories, each with their respective attributes and garrison units.
Although it is too early to make concrete assumptions, it is clear that Ara: History Untold it’s more of a grand strategy than a Civilization. Developing Ara: History Untold is the Ashes of the Singularity studio, Oxide Games.
Oxide was formed in 2013 with developers including Daniel Baker, Civilization 5 Graphics Lead, Marc Meyer, Civilization 5 Lead Programmer, Tim Kipp, Civilization 5 3D Engine Architect, and Brian Wade, Lead Programmer of not just Civilization 5, but also Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth 2. Suffice to say, this is a team that knows turn-based strategy games.
Little else has been confirmed about Ara: History Untold at the moment. The title is confirmed only for PC, although it will be available both in the store of Xbox like in Steam.
It has also been confirmed that it will be a release of the Day one in PC GamePassnaturally, although it is not clear what its release date will be.