Surviving Mars Reviews

Surviving Mars is ranked in the 67th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
8 / 10.0
Feb 1, 2019
Surviving Mars (ACTUAL Game Review) [PC] video thumbnail
7 / 10.0
Aug 24, 2018

Overall, Surviving Mars is a solid building simulator. Its numerous options for gameplay leave room for all kinds of play styles. Player choices maintain key roles in how they wish to shape their societies. A vast array of technology makes room for endless infrastructure combinations with a wonderful level of detail. A lack of content really brings down the game a few notches because the gameplay begins to feel repetitive after a while. Although the title has a lot of awesome details with science fiction flair, it doesn't bring any new surprises after a single playthrough. Whether players are seeking a challenging simulation or a chill Martian sandbox, Surviving Mars is a title that is worth a try.

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8 / 10.0
May 5, 2018

Surviving Mars is one of that games which can entertain you for weeks and even months. Even though it suffers from some serious problems like lack of a training section, nobody can deny the pleasure of making an advanced colony on the surface of the red planet during experiencing the game.

Review in Persian | Read full review

GameMAG
Vadimeys
Top Critic
6 / 10
May 3, 2018

PS4 version of Surviving Mars is flawed and can only be recommended to the most dedicated fans of Mars colonization theme. If you play on PC, you can raise the score by one point.

Review in Russian | Read full review

8.5 / 10.0
Apr 29, 2018

Surviving Mars delivers on every front as a strategy game. Wide spectrum of difficulty, huge tech tree, seeded maps and easy to use, but complex, interface result in game that is suitable for both casual players and experienced leaders. Pick your funder conquer the planet!

Review in Polish | Read full review

69 / 100
Apr 18, 2018

Surviving Mars, is competent but dried up fairly quickly. The systems in place work well and it accomplishes all it wants to do effectively. It has a good natural difficulty and good variation between plays. For those who are comforted by grid lined paper, this is probably a cathartic managerial experience. I am not in that group however. Like the planet itself, the whole experience felt a bit one note and bare. To me, there needed to be something else, another angle or facet to the game to give it the life that it desperately needed.

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65%
Apr 17, 2018

Surviving Mars isn't bad, but it's not as good as it could have been. Too much micromanagement, bad UI and missing QoL features suggest that the game needed more time in development. If you don't mind issues like that or if your ego can handle playing on lower difficulty levels, where they're not as pressing, you might get some enjoyment out of seeing your colony grow.

Review in Slovak | Read full review

6.5 / 10.0
Apr 10, 2018

Playing Surviving Mars is like watching someone put a kitten in a plastic bubble. It's cute for a while, wobbling around in its new environment. But then you realize that the kitten is going to suffocate, and you are going to spend hours watching it slowly run out of air and die. Trying to get the kitten out of the bubble is hopeless. You don't know anything about bubbles, and the kitten isn't telling you. Have fun, kids!

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8.2 / 10.0
Apr 1, 2018

Surviving Mars is well made city-building strategy game with a interesting setting and solid gameplay that really needs a tutorial for newcomers and some variety in the side missions to be fully optimized. Fans of the the genre will still have their fun.

Review in German | Read full review

Cubed3
Top Critic
8 / 10
Mar 28, 2018

Ideally, players should try to experience Surviving Mars on the PC, but the Xbox One version is a fine substitute. In any case, they are treated to a very impressive simulator that rewards expert resource-management. The emphasis on automated drones helps to streamline all of the menial tasks, leaving players plenty of time to focus on constructing the perfect colony. Of course, the game features a steep learning curve, but there's always something new to learn. A few features, such as the individual characteristics of every colonist, are a bit convoluted and unnecessary. Still, maybe there is somebody out there that appreciates the extremely fine details. All in all, there's little stopping everyone from spending many sleepless nights attempting to conquer the planet.

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 27, 2018

Surviving Mars is an interesting, rewarding and fun to play experience. It represents a new "city builder" that allows you to create a colony in the red planet. A 360-degrees zoomable view that allows you to view the colonies from far away and your citizens in close up makes the difference: it seems like to play Sim City and The Sims at the same time. On PS4, unfortunately, the games suffers the limitations of an imperfect conversion from the PC edition: the on-screen texts are too small even on a 55-inches TV. If you consider buying the computer version (available on Windows, Linux or Mac) the game will be much more comfortable to play with mouse and keyboard.

Review in Italian | Read full review

7 / 10.0
Mar 26, 2018

An addictive little colony sim held back by inconsistent difficulty and stingey tutorials.

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7 / 10.0
Mar 26, 2018

I'm in a weird place because I know that Surviving Mars is probably excellent for someone who is not me. If you enjoy Paradox games like Crusader Kings II but not city builders, then this is probably a great bridge for you to relax and play. If you like managing numbers, resources, and people, then this is the game for you. What I wanted was a more freeform experience that allowed me to design and fiddle with Martian landscapes to my heart's content, and this is not the game for that.

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9 / 10
Mar 22, 2018

Surviving Mars is a fulfilling successor to the franchises of its developers and publishers. It offers a fantastic balance of city building, resource management, exploration, research and frequent challenges along the way, encapsulated in the delightful aesthetics of the red planet.

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8 / 10.0
Mar 21, 2018

Red Planet is good place for your new life. You just have to be patient. There will be challenges to overcome. Take your time.

Review in Slovak | Read full review

Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
7 / 10
Mar 21, 2018

An enjoyable twist on the usual city building formula, that simulates the dangers of planetary colonisation impressively well – although it could have done with a slightly lighter touch.

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M3
Top Critic
8 / 10
Mar 20, 2018

Surviving Mars is a bit frustrating at times, and should communicate the mechanics better, but it's still a great strategy game that combine a sincere theme with involving mechanics.

Review in Swedish | Read full review

6.9 / 10.0
Mar 20, 2018

I can say that Surviving Mars should be expressing itself more clearly in the beginning since it is already a hard experience. If you are up to a high-pressure experience on the Red Planet, I recommend you to take a look at Surviving Mars.

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8 / 10.0
Mar 20, 2018

In addition to offering up a rewarding and enjoyable sci-fi city-building experience, Surviving Mars is rife with detail.

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65 / 100
Mar 20, 2018

Surviving Mars has the interplanetary foundations of a good strategy game, but it gets bogged down in its own complexity, micromanagement, and a surprisingly bland setting.

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