Surviving Mars Reviews
The Tropico team plays it relatively straight on the red planet - but trouble is never far away.
Surviving Mars is a lot of hard work, but managing a burgeoning colony never stops being compelling.
Surviving Mars tasks you with leading humanity's first colonies on the Red Planet. But Mars is hardly forgiving, and it will fight you every step of the way.
All Surviving Mars' interlocking systems make for an arresting time-sink that merges logic, forethought, psychology and experimentation. If you're the sort of person who enjoys losing yourself in high stakes strategy, building and planning, Surviving Mars is worth a look.
Surviving Mars is a new twist on a classic game structure.
Though I sometimes grew weary of the donkey-work of cables and repairs, I definitely relish the new state of sustained fear Surviving Mars brings to city sims. It means that even small accomplishments feel so much bigger.
An addictive little colony sim held back by inconsistent difficulty and stingey tutorials.
Surviving Mars requires patience and experimentation that may be daunting to those new to the genre. The lack of detail on the game's many mechanics in conjunction with the intense micromanagement creates a challenging and frustrating experience. There are ways to make your colonization mission less difficult, but a well-planned strategy still needs to be in place to succeed. Despite this, once the mechanics click, the game is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. All of this is packaged with a simple aesthetic and decent soundtrack that are both stylish and fit its sci-fi theme. If you're a fan of city builders, Haemimont Games' latest is worth playing.
Fun and interesting, Surviving Mars is a kind-of-SimCity in the Mars surface that challenges the player to create his own civilization, buildings and survival system, adding some exploration mechanics.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
Haemimont Games delivers a Sci Fi RTS deep and original. But Surviving Mars is hard on the control side (al least console version) and we miss some more variety.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
My gripes aside, Surviving Mars might be the most fun I've had with a city-building game since SimCity 2000, and Haemimont has accomplished this feat by drilling down into the details, and zooming in on the kinds of small-scale community-building that I'd always felt the that city-builders with a grander scope lacked. The promise of robust modding support from launch could also ensure that the game has legs, or even that some of my complaints could be addressed by fans soon after they get their hands on the toolkit.
If we ever try to colonise our red neighbour, it's going to be one of the greatest challenges that mankind will ever undertake. Though Surviving Mars makes a game out of it, Haemimont have brilliantly kept that hard edge, as it constantly pushes and tests your ability to plan with survival in mind, especially with the unpredictability of the Mysteries of Mars. There's plenty of ways to improve it and put more colony control in the hands of the player, but the first landing is already off to a great start.
Surviving Mars is the best extra-terrestrial city builder currently on the market. Micromanagement-heavy and somewhat obscure, dedicated genre fans will nevertheless love it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Surviving Mars isn't simply SimCity set on our red neighbor Mars. It's a resource management game with a heavy emphasis on survival, involving lots of death and brutal mechanics. At the same time, its systems are designed to teach the player how best to strategize and learn from past mistakes. A potential play time of 100+ hours to see each mystery play out also ensures a ton of entertainment return on a meager investment of ~$40 USD. For those who love the city-sim genre, this is a no-brainer.
If you're a fan of city-building gameplay Surviving Mars is a must-buy title. Even if you prefer a more creative experience you can tailor the difficulty to that end, or ramp up the scarcity for a true survival experience, where battling the elements almost feels more like a real-time strategy.
For simulation game fanatics, Surviving Mars is an easy recommendation. For everyone else, if you are willing to sink in the time and the effort, you'll be happy in your new home on the red planet.
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
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
________________________ “Every action needs to be carefully considered in Surviving Mars