Ara: History Untold will ‘let the player know they already lost’ because accidentally persevering with a losing game ‘sucks’
The grand strategy game is set to release in ‘fall 2024’
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Oxide Games’ upcoming turn-based grand strategy gameAra: History Untoldnow has a release window, and fans have been shown a behind-the-scenes look at its development.
Revealed during the Xbox Developer_Direct,Ara: History Untoldis set to release on PC viaSteamand PCGame Passin ‘fall 2024.’ Generally, fall releases for games point to a launch somewhere around September to November, but Oxide Games hasn’t revealed the specifics yet.
Furthermore, in aninterviewposted on Xbox Wire,Ara: History Untold’s design director, Michelle Menard, spoke more about the areas of the grand strategy genre that the developers have aimed to improve withAra. One of these is the ‘Act’ system, which breaks down games into three separate phases which players can only progress through if they have enough ‘Prestige.’ This is earned through things like completing quests and making technological advancements. Essentially, this system results in players losing more quickly, which Menard described as a “kindness.”
“It sucks so hard to play a 20-hour game to realize that, by the end of it, you lost at hour two,” Menard explained. “So, it’s a kindness to players. Let them build, lose early, and then let them restart anyway. So: fail often, fail early, learn from that, and then play further because you know you need to learn from your failure to play these games. Nothing wrong with that, but let the player know they already lost and let them actually lose.”
Also revealed during the Developer_Direct was the first footage of MachineGamesIndiana Jonesgame. TitledIndiana Jones and the Great Circle, the first-person action-adventure is set to release later this year onXbox Series X|S and PC.
For more games like Ara: History Untold that you can dive into right now, be sure to check out our roundup of the verybest PC strategy games. If you’re looking for something different, there are some fantastic varied picks on our list of thebest PC games.
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Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
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