History was, in fact, told

Ara: History Untold isn't a bad Civilization clone.

It's not an alternate perspective of the genre, like Massive Chalice. It doesn't re-theme the Civ formula like Warlock or Age of Wonders, or even twist it like Beyond Earth. This is Kirkland Signature Sid Meier's.

Military management is a little underwhelming, compared to building infrastructure and expanding your empire -- just like Civ V. The nuances of city micromanagement are fiddly and confusing -- just like Civ V. Diplomacy is mercurial, leaders rejecting simple trade proposals for no apparent reason -- just like Civ V.

And once you've got a campaign started, it's hard to put down; there's an addictive urge to play "just one more turn" -- just like Civ V.

I do think that it needs a better interface for late-game management of your over-long checklist of city details (or maybe ... fewer details to manage in the first place), so it's cool to see post-launch support like the National Economy Screen making progress in that direction.

All that said, I don't know if I've got it in me to sink more evenings and weekends into the same kind of 4X empire-building I've clicked through before.

But, I am a big fan of the online multiplayer as a "light" social experience. It's easy to process the game's prompts-to-action while shooting the breeze in voice chat (and talking shit about Queen Elizabeth).