Tharsis
Elder Sign and Alien Frontiers' ugly baby
Tharsis is basically a cheap, space-themed copy of Elder Sign . I’m not giving this thumbs-down because it’s difficult and sometimes you’ll lose just because of bad luck. I liked Elder Sign enough to buy each one of its overpriced expansions (on the iPad version), because although Elder Sign does a piss poor job of explaining how the game works, it’s actually FUN and gives you enough control over the chaos to be satisfying. In contrast, Tharsis feels more like the Iraqi version of Wheel of Fortune: https://youtu.be/Cz8cSpRmowM?t=1m1s
– Real player with 32.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mars Board Game Games.
I love board games, I don’t hate dice, I usually like a good strategy challenge, and I think space & Mars are cool - So I can recommend this to people like me when it is on sale for at least half off. YOU SHOULD KNOW: I’d ignore reviews before August 2016 because a patch was added with a better tutorial, bug fixes, and some missions - All of which were significant additions to the game (at least for me). If you expect something more than a turn based board game, you’re gonna have a bad time. Also, I strongly encourage doing the Training missions before or after beating Easy as well as picking crew abilites that best main reasons for losing a game - Without these I could’ve rage quit before beating Normal mode. Now for a full breakdown that I haven’t seen anyone else give like this, followed by exactly what turns consist of:
– Real player with 24.8 hrs in game
Destination Ares
DISCLAIMER: If you don’t like resource management, you probably won’t enjoy this game!
Great little game, don’t be put off by the price! It reflects the care and dedication that has been put into it by the creator. The premise on the surface appears simple. You are the artificial intelligence of a colony ship, charged with getting your human cargo to Mars. You control power to the ship’s systems, but you cannot repair them when they break down.
For this you need your humans, just like they need you for breathable air and a working kitchen. Whilst you can set alarms of varying degrees of urgency to alert them to broken or compromised systems, they won’t always respond to them as they should do. On top of this your ship is old, the parts are mostly cobbled together from whatever your humans could afford. So everything breaks down. EVERYTHING! From the oxygen scrubbers that keep the crew from suffocating to the toilet to the controls of the ship itself. Repairing them takes time and effort, adding to the above problems that affect your valiant colonists. But repair them you must. No oxygen scrubber? No air. Everyone dies. No controls? You go wildly off course and actually begin to head AWAY from Mars rather than towards it. Then you run out of air or power. Everyone dies. No toilet? I shouldn’t even have to explain that one. Somehow, everyone dies. Poop and space don’t mix you know. Here is where the resources come in.
– Real player with 16.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mars Management Games.
My current favorite game on steam - a hidden gem! It’s tragic that most people haven’t found this game. Definitely worth the price for me. Reminds me a lot of FTL. I think if you like FTL, you’ll like this game. I watched the videos on the store page, thought I would enjoy the game, and enjoyed it even more than I imagined. I wouldn’t pay much attention to negative reviews before October 13th 2017 - the latest patch. It also helps if you’re good at doing minesweeper quickly.
Current best run: got to 99% and died. Also died a little inside, in real life. :)
– Real player with 16.0 hrs in game