While Civilization 7 may or may not arrive this year, it has a potential major competitor in the upcoming Ara: History Untold. Developed by Oxide Games, a studio founded by former Firaxis developers, Ara is not the first game to step forward to challenge Civ’s dominance in the tun-based 4X genre. However, while Civilization undoubtedly inspired it, History Untold shakes up the formula in several important ways.

One of the new ideas in Ara: History Untold is the game's Prestige system. The player’s goal in Ara is to build the most influential civilization of all time, but there are many paths to achieving that. Unlike Civ, where there is a list of specific victory conditions, victory in Ara requires the player to build up a score called Prestige. However, some fans might not be clear on what Prestige actually is.

Prestige in Ara: History Untold

Oxide spoke briefly about Ara: History Untold’s Prestige system during the Xbox Developer Direct on January 18. As Design Director Michelle Menard explained, Oxide’s design philosophy can be summed up as “Rule how you want to rule.” Ara encourages players to do that by awarding them Prestige points for a wide range of actions. This allows players to play however they want while progressing towards victory instead of building their playstyle around predetermined objectives.

Gaining and Losing Prestige

Oxide's Ara: History Untold divides Prestige into seven categories: Commerce, Culture, Government, Industry, Military, Religion, and Science. Players earn Prestige in each category, which contributes to their total Prestige. While there are still a few things that Oxide hasn’t explained about Prestige, the studio has given a general idea of what each category means.

• Commerce Prestige comes from establishing trade routes.
• Culture Prestige comes from Masterpieces and Masterpiece Sets
• Government prestige comes from completing Quests, earning respect from Independent Settlements, and having a Golden Age
• Military Prestige comes from winning wars and capturing Cities.
• Religion Prestige comes from founding and spreading a religion.
• Science Prestige comes from researching technology.

Some of these requirements are self-explanatory, though others require further explanation. Quests, for example, are optional objectives that players get starting in the Middle Ages. Triumphs, meanwhile, are Ara’s equivalent of Wonders, while Masterpieces are probably its answer to Civilization 6’s Great Works. However, fans haven’t revealed exactly how players go about collecting them. The same goes for Golden Ages, which sounds a lot like the mechanic from Civ 6’s Rise and Fall DLC, but Oxide hasn’t explained exactly how they work in Ara: History Untold.

It’s also possible to lose Prestige in Ara: History Untold. The gameplay trailer from August 2023 included a brief look at warfare. This includes the detail that declaring war costs a small amount of Prestige. It also appears that failing a Quest might incur a Prestige penalty. Presumably, losing wars and other failures might also cost Prestige, though Oxide hasn’t clarified whether that’s the case.

Prestige Decides Who Wins and Loses in Ara: History Untold

The Prestige system is also crucial to winning the game, thanks to Ara’s three-act structure.

• Act 1 – Ancient to Antiquity
• Act 2 – Middle Ages to the Enlightenment
• Act 3 – Industrial Revolution to the end of the game.

At the end of each Act, the game ranks civilizations in four tiers based on their Prestige. Civilizations in the lowest tier are considered Forgotten and eliminated from the game. Their empire falls into ruins for other players to claim and pick over. This turns Ara into what Oxide calls a “historical battle royale.”

However, winning does not necessarily mean being the last player standing. Instead, Act 3 will introduce various challenges to test the player’s strategy. These include new quests starting in the Industrial Revolution and various crises that will emerge as players get closer to the end of the game. Navigating them will help players achieve victory in Oxide Games' Ara: History Untold. Oxide Games hasn’t detailed what those late-game challenges are or explained the specifics of how victory works. However, Prestige will be the deciding factor in winning the game.

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