Hands on with Ara: History Untold’s 1.1 Update

Last month Xbox Game Studios and developer Oxide Games announced their first big patch for the recently released 4x sim game Ara: History Untold (make sure to check out our review, here!). This 1.1 patch brings with it a number of notable improvements, and I had the opportunity to check the patch out ahead of release, which drops tomorrow on November 14th.

One of the biggest additions being introduced in Patch 1.1 is a new, streamlined way to manage your various structures across all cities. This is done via the National Economy screen, accessible through the menu options on the top-right corner of the screen. From here you’ll get a handy list of all your current buildings, what they’re producing or gathering, what upgrades are currently available, and so on. The list of buildings is broken down into groups, so Workshops, Farms, etc. are all together, and you can expand out each one for more details. You can also automate improvements by setting policies for each building, which really eliminates a lot of the micromanaging you had to do previously. While I didn’t have much of an issue with navigating the prior set-up going through structures city by city, this is absolutely a much better approach. Being able to quickly see all available crafters and resource gatherers on one screen, and then assign any available upgrades or resources for improvements really does eliminate a lot of unnecessary time from the game.

Patch 1.1 also introduces the ability to upgrade your military units, which helps prevent being stuck with outdated units as you progress into Act 2 and Act 3 of a campaign. You can choose the upgrade option from the same command menu you’d use to move, fortify, wait, etc., and it will give you list of available unit types to upgrade to, and what resources you’ll need in order to complete the upgrade. Again, another very helpful tool that’ll surely help players that prefer using the military path in order to achieve victory.

I also had the opportunity to use the new leader, Canada’s first Prime Minister John. A MacDonald. One of his three traits provides a significant boost to government and military improvements, but keeps things in check via the Pacifist trait that reduces the strength of your forces outside of your territory. This is rounded out via the Woodsman trait that increases lumber production. The Prime Minister feels like a solid addition to the already large roster of available leaders, and from my initial playthrough he felt like a balanced leader, slotting in just fine with the existing leader options.

Rounding out this patch update Oxide Games is introducing the Earth Map, setting up a continent and ocean structure modeled after Earth, giving some additional separation and room to each nation on the map. Also, this patch brings with it the start of modding support for Ara: History Untold. Admittedly I didn’t have much opportunity to play with this since I’m certainly not skilled in that arena, but players can now mod files and use them in-game, with additional mod support being planned for the future.

All in all, Patch 1.1 brings some significant improvements to Ara: History Untold, a game that I already loved. If you haven’t had the chance to check it out yet, or jumped off because you weren’t in the mood to micromanage structures and resources, then this is a perfect time to try it out or get back into it. This patch shows a lot of promise for the future of Ara as well, and I look forward to seeing what’s next.