Mars Power Industries: First Job
An interesting expansion to the original game. I like the atmoshpere and the new mechanics!
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mars Board Game Games.
That was surprisingly fun! About 20-25 minutes of gameplay, but this is a teaser for the complete game, so perfectly understandable.
You’re in charge of colony planning, sort-of. There is no narrative, and you have to experiment to find the rules of the different building types. I’m intrigued by the end of Year 21, the last level. The full game is going on my wishlist right now!
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Terraforming Mars
This game had a few bugs to play around but it wasn’t awful. As of the Nov update you can now barely finish a game there are some many new bugs. If you are thinking of purchasing this i would recommend you not. Save your money till its fixed, if it ever is. It is 3 years after the release and still has very poor stability or chance to complete a game without bugs.
– Real player with 972.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mars Board Game Games.
Too many bugs. Too many cards that dont work as intended. And too dumb an AI. And the recent patch just broke it. It was bearable before - mainly just an inept AI. But at least it worked. Now it doesnt even do that.
– Real player with 392.0 hrs in game
BasCatball Mars: Basketball & Cat
the game is really good, the graphics and animations feel like an arcade game, as it really is. it doesn’t get too overwhelming easily, the gameplay is simple, but the characters have unique skills, which makes the game more interesting, and also more cool. in the game there is the possibility to change the music which helps not to get too heavy, in short the game is incredible, even more so for an indie studio, with lots of fun and very reasoning stages, good for training the brain and having fun whenever you want, it’s cheap, good and light, a good choice for any audience, I recommend leaving the option to return only 1 shift, so as not to have to return the entire phase, and to think about adapting to android, it would be very played, already that most casual gamers are on mobile devices. but in general the game is excellent, congratulations to those involved and I hope many other games in the future.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mars Hex Grid Games.
Very fun game with very interesting and challenging mechanics. I loved the art and the cats! Congrats to devs!
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
UFO: Afterlight
If you’re looking for a decent Xcom-esque game, then Afterlight certainly fits the bill. Although the innovations are outweighed by a number of annoyances this just means that it’s not as good as one of the most beloved strategy series, no real shame in that. It is the third in the UFO series after Aftershock and Aftermath and focuses on a human colony on Mars attempting to fend off alien encroachments. So lets see how it stacks up in various categories important to squad based tactics.
Squad Personality: B. While it lacks the customization of Xcom (if you loved this, change the rating to a D), I found the hardcoded team had enough personality to carry me through. Uta (aka BattleGranny) was a highlight but the others were distinct enough without being (for the most part) grating. This is furthered by some people having dual roles, so your scientist/soldier could be medic and your engineer/soldier could be driver/bomb disposal. Nowhere near Jagged Alliance goodness of course and unfortunately voice acting in the base was at times painful and repetitive. Sadly, the aliens you can get onto your team have limited usefulness due to their slow speed so a bit of potential variety is lost there.
– Real player with 60.6 hrs in game
Summary:
An hardcore gamer-oriented and enjoyable game for those who appreciated UFO-like games and don’t pay too much attention to graphics.
Research, characters design, story-telling, and ressource management are nice. RPG aspects are average.
Interface, tactical aspects, game balance, and graphics are desappointing (not completely bad though).
Gameplay:
- The focus is put on ressource management and research. There is a wide range of technologies to discover, and as other people already mentionned, you don’t have a ‘technological tree’ to guide you but I think it’s part of the roleplay and not a problem at all.
– Real player with 55.3 hrs in game
Gaia Project
I had zero Gaia Project experience before booting this up. I think there’s a marginal learning curve to the UI, but after you run through the tutorial and get a game or so in, it’s totally reasonable.
The AI is also fantastic, really an exceptionally well done AI for a game of this complexity. I have about 15 games under my belt, all on 3-player 8-sector, and Hard AI continues to offer a real challenge (winning scores tend to be in the 160-170 range, whether it’s me or the AI pulling it off). The paths taken to victory also seem quite varied, so it’s not like it’s just programmed to spam Econ4 or something dumb; there’s real complexity going on under the hood. It’s not like every decision is perfect, but I seriously think it’d be difficult to find a better done digital board game AI for a game of this sheer scale.
– Real player with 88.7 hrs in game
Honestly I’ve played countless games of Gaia Project IRL, it’s absolutely my favorite TTG, and this digital adaptation is perfectly fine. Yes, there are grammatical errors, but how many of us actually read the EULA to begin with? Oh noes, they forgot the C in Bescods in the achievements! Time to review bomb the game, amirite?
And sure, the UI is “clunky” compared to in-person, but let’s be real here - Gaia Project is probably one of the most complex games most people will ever learn. If you’re taking the time to learn it, you probably have enough smarts in you to get through some menu screens. Upgrade your cognitive navigation track past 1 before you throw your hands up in defeat.
– Real player with 49.5 hrs in game
Mars Power Industries Deluxe
Powering Mars for the Future
_Developed by Rarykos during Global Game Jam 2018 and later picked up by 7A Games and Kurki.games for friendly development and publishing help, “Mars Power Industries Deluxe” describes itself as an “atmospheric puzzle game set on Mars” released in 2019.
While making sure that all inhabitants of our red neighbor have their needs met, strange things start to happen which threaten the hospitality of our newfound home._
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– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
june 2020 edit: 24 new levels and a new mechanic got added in a patch.
march 2020 edit: 12 new levels got added in a patch.
in a world where mars is not just a candy bar, you are tasked with providing resources to martian settlements. and collecting strawberries, because it’s a video game.
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
Terraformers: First Steps on Mars
Interesting theme, the graphics are simple but cool, the music is nice, it does run on GNU/Linux, but after eight hours of repetitive play, I wouldn’t call this a civ strategy kind of game, but more like a deck building card game, with lots of randomness, which gets you nowhere. You just need to be lucky to get the right cards at the right time for the right random spots to get a better score. No matter how good your planning is, there is too much luck involved. Maybe the 30 days span of a gameplay is too short for seeing the bigger picture, this is just a demo after all, but that’s my take on the current game. I do wish the devs good luck and I hope the final game offers a better experience.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
A pretty solid board game
Game is very reminiscent of the popular board game Terraforming Mars, with some slight changes.
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Your starting hand is always the same 2 cards
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Beyond Oxygen, H2O and Temperature, there’s a nebulous “atmosphere” terraform setting
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Ever 10 years you select a leader, who has special abilities and traits that can be used on your turn
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Pop happiness is measured and scored.
Overall its fun for a few play throughs, but with the same 6 leaders, same starting hand, and hard 30 turn limit, you’ll only have fun for a bit.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Terraformers
• Explore the Red Planet
Send your leaders to mysterious locations and be the first to discover rich resource depots, giant crystal caves and stunning natural wonders.
• Develop your cities
Found new cities on craters and in lava Tubes. Make them thrive and meet your population’s rising demands.
• Manage your resources
Mine the rare metals of Mars, manufacture them into advanced goods and set up an effective transport system between your ever-growing cities.
• Terraform with ambitious projects
Restart a volcano, construct giant space mirrors or crash ice asteroids to geo-engineer the entire planet.
• Become a gardener of life
From spreading adaptive bacteria, to planting full-grown forests with bears. Each life form has specific requirements and provides strategic benefits.
• Join the Terraforming!
By making this game, we hope to inspire humankind to take its first steps out of the cradle and become an interplanetary species, starting with Mars! Do you want to join the terraforming movement, get updates about the game development, chat with us, and be the first to be considered for the closed alpha? Then join our Discord server !
