How Version 2.0 Brings Ara: History Untold into a New Age of Strategy Gaming

The launch of Ara: History Untold was only the beginning. From day one, we envisioned a deeper, more expansive experience for our historical, turn-based strategy game — developed by Oxide Games in partnership with Xbox Game Studios and Stardock Entertainment. Over the past year we’ve listened closely to you, our players, and transformed some of these bold ideas into reality. Today, we’re excited to announce the release of a massive update for Ara: History Untold: the Revolutions v2.0 Update.

We’re also celebrating the one-year anniversary of the game’s 2024 release by announcing a lower price for the base game and the availability of two DLCs, the Deluxe Leader Pack and the Official Game Soundtrack, that includes the digital art book.

Our goal with Version 2.0 is to bring you a strategy game that is both fun to play and unique to the genre. The team has been hard at work taking your feedback and molding them with our own innovations to keep Ara’s strengths, while improving nearly every area of the game. In many ways, it feels like a whole new experience.

Culture & Influence

Art, music, language, and traditions feed the game’s Quality of Life system with a new Culture stat that generates Influence. You can spend Influence in the all-new Culture shop to buy Claims for your Cities and new Cultural Traits for your nation.

Unique Units Per Nation

Each nation now has its own unique unit. For example, the Mongols gain Mangudai (elite horse archers), while the Aztecs gain Jaguar Warriors. Leader abilities reward specific playstyles. Genghis Khan has a leader feature that rewards having units in combat and for taking cities. Harun al-Rashid uses his leader traits to gain an advantage by building relationships and gaining an advantage through research and paragons. Benito Juarez can steal the game through taking care of his cities and accentuating strong buffs with golden ages.

Quotas & Priorities

Based on player feedback, we have streamlined crafting and greatly reduced micromanagement from crafting queues. In Version 2.0, you can simply set quotas and priorities. The player maintains total control without having to micromanage their economy.  Players can ensure their production pipelines are created and distributed in an efficient way without having to micromanage each building or crafting queue.

Cultural Conquest

With the new Revolutions tech, you can unlock the Agitator who can incite rebellions in foreign regions.  Imagine a city that has strategic improvements and key strategic resources. Send the Agitator to incite rebellion and claim their resources as your own.

This region prevents the nation from being contiguous. Capturing it creates a land connection.

Unique Leader and Nation Traits

Each leader and nation gets unique traits that change how that nation plays. A host of new leader traits have been added or adjusted to make each one feel and play more distinctive. The units give nations a truly distinct feel and character and provide access to tactics and strengths other nations won’t have.

Adaptive AI

We revamped the entire AI system to be smarter and added a game option called Adaptive AI so it can stay competitive. When Adaptive AI is on, the AI checks multiple game stats and adjusts its difficulty level in each specific area, making the game better adapt to your skill.

AI Shop Owners

In Version 2.0, you can let the AI Shop Owner – workshop, factory, or weaver for example – run the shop for you, including setting up priorities and quotas. This is handy when you conquer a massive city that has a dozen city improvements. Rather than managing multiple shops, you simply press a button and let the AI handle it.

New Map Generator

We changed the way resources are distributed to reflect more natural geography. Horses and zebras won’t exist in the same ecosystem, for example. Other resources, like coffee, are only found in clusters.

We also made extensive changes to the map system, introducing new map styles that allow you to create random maps with unique shapes, varied ecosystems, and multiple style options to choose from.

And Much More!

These are just some of the improvements delivered in Version 2.0. You will also find improvements in rendering, UI, and performance. You can read here on the official site all the new features available with this massive update. The Revolutions v2.0 Update is our boldest update to Ara: History Untold yet and we can’t wait for everyone to dive in!

Ara: History Untold is available on Xbox on PC, Steam, and with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

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Ara: History Untold is an evolution in historical grand strategy, featuring beloved classic PC strategy mechanics alongside innovative gameplay like a national crafting economy, true simultaneous turn resolution, a non-linear technology tree, and cloud-backed synchronous/asynchronous multiplayer – all with an expansive and vibrant presentation where you can zoom out from surveying the very edges of your empire all the way down to your citizens living their daily lives. In Ara, there are no pre-set paths to victory, leading to endless possibilities. Your choices will define the world you create, your experience, and your legacy. Explore an Immersive Living World: Explore a dynamic living world filled with life and charm across sweeping landscapes ranging from tropical jungles to sand-swept deserts as you discover the resources you need to develop your nation. Witness the world come to life in vivid, realistic detail as citizens move throughout the world and react dynamically to times of health and sickness, war and peace, wealth and despair with unique biomes, cultures, and eras representing the diversity of human experience. Build Your Nation: Serve your people and grow your prestige with numerous Improvements, from forges to libraries, citadels to cathedrals, public parks to industrial factories – as well as a global variety of the greatest architectural Triumphs ever conceived and built by human hands. Guide your people through the eras of human discovery: Nurture your people’s brilliance and invention as you progress your Nation through twelve unique Technology Eras, making the hard choices about where to focus your Nation’s greatest minds. As you near the end of each Era, you’ll have to decide how fast to push your scientists along the path to the future – at the risk of the present. Oversee a rich and detailed national economy: Harvest the bounty of the natural world and deploy the labor of your people with a depth-filled National Crafting system. Will you manufacture Amenities – like lavish feasts – to provide your cities and citizens with powerful benefits, or invest in the creation of Equipment – the weapons of war – to prepare your Armies to defend your nation or conquer your rivals? Whatever paths you choose you’ll need to carefully optimize your resources and production to achieve the most efficient systems if you want to outpace your rivals to fortune and lasting glory. Rule Your Way: Choose from dozens of history's most influential figures to embody as you reshape the world through your choices. The unique and varied global Leaders and Nations in Ara emphasize a wide variety of different playstyles. Experiment with gameplay-impacting Traits and powerful Leader Abilities drawn from the effect they had on world history. Whether friend or foe, each Leader has a distinct personality based on their historical background that informs their AI behaviors. Grow your Nation: Extend your reach and expand your Nation’s borders through claiming new territory, conquering cities, spreading your Religion, or by expending Influence. How your Nation grows and defines new borders is up to you. Experience True Simultaneous Turns: Every turn each nation's actions and choices resolve simultaneously, leading to suspense, anticipation, unique outcomes, and surprising twists on the classic turn-based formula. The fate of your people will be determined by your decisions and your ability to predict your opponent’s next move, putting your skill as a leader to the ultimate test. Defend your people by land, sea, and air: Warfare in Ara is presented in the Living World, as thousands of years of military conflict reflect the progress and martial prowess of your people. Develop technologies to advance your weaponry against your rivals, hone your wartime economy and industry to gain the edge, and outthink your opponent’s strategies as maneuvers resolve authentically at once thanks to the power of True Simultaneous Turns. Prove Your Worth in Online Multiplayer: Combining the speed and surprise of True Simultaneous Turns with the power of the cloud – multiplayer in Ara is fast, seamless, and able to be enjoyed asynchronously with a wide range of options to tailor you and your friend’s experience to the way you want to play together. A Microsoft Account is required to play online multiplayer.