Per Aspera

I'll start by saying that I do enjoy the game. I love the concept and so far the story elements. It has good visuals and sound design. The voice acting is good and the writing as well. That said, there are many issues I have with the game that I hope will be resolved with future updates. Starting out with a minor grapichal note, the roads sometimes have bad overlapping, crossing over each other at intersections and ending by a fade out a bit off. But going into some issues that I think needs to fixed, there is sadly much more. However since I'm limited by the review system, I'll pick the most pressing. First, it seems that the game calles out/triggers finished research voice ques and/or game ques before the research is actually done. I'm not too sure if it's intended to be like that but from my experience it seems to be tripped early. For example AMI starts talking about a new building like it has become available but the reasearch is only at 75% done. Likewise an event started in a similar way before a key tech was finished, which I wonder if I had been on hard difficulty would have ended the game without me having a chance to counter it. Second issue is that there is no way to cancel an upgrade to buildings, which has crippled the production line multiple times. Third, there is also no warning when a resource is running out, which has given the same problem but even worse since I found myself without any basic material to build another mine with. A sort of solution was to scrap the now empty mine, but at the cost of the road connetion, which potentially disconnects parts of the network. Fourth, there needs to be a way to expand the base, especially the reach of the power supply, without having to build new power plants. At one time I had a surplus of power reaching 150 because I had to build new power plants to make new mines work, because they were just outside reach of the nearest source. If these issues are dealt with, this game will be a delight.

This is one of the most innovative and unique city builders I've played - the fact that it has a strong narrative driving the Mars terraforming project makes it into a unique experience. It's hard to talk about the story without spoilers, but it's certanly not without twists and turns. All that is connected with a enjoyable building engine. It's not perfect - there are some minor bugs and late game does start to drag on a bit with high terraforming requirements. But this does not diminish the uniqueness of the experience.

Really fun gameplay and interesting story, but the game is hard in ways that will probably piss you off. I started the game on medium and failed to make good progress because of enemy attacks and lack of the right resources to rebuild. The game doesn't really give you enough instruction (almost none) on how to defend your base. On a second try (on easy) I littered my base with defense towers and many of my buildings continue to be destroyed with each attack. I still do not know how to use my assault drones. I also have traffic jams on my base that I can't seem to clear up. Additionally, doing certain tasks like upgrading roads or finding a certain type of building is a huge chore.

Started fresh with this game (and all DLCs) in late 2023. I was a little leery, having read complaints about worker drone idiocy, resource balance, and slooooow gameplay. I needn't have worried. The game gives you all the tools you need to succeed, even at the hardest level (I am currently in Terraforming Stage 5 playing at "Aspera" or whatever it is the highest difficulty is called). If you don't take the time to understand those tools -- all of which are well explained in-game -- you may fail, as many reviewers obviously did. The only time I felt I had to google something was to figure out how to "merge" districts, which ended up being a single click. The choice to have the player take the role of an AI was genius -- you can't ever really trust your senses (sensors?) or even your own mind. The events that unfold throughout the game and your exploration of the planet I would consider "sci-fi" lite, but they are well crafted, voiced nicely, and integrate nicely with the story. The graphics, UI, and overall game performance were quite good. I'm running a pretty beefy rig (RTX 4070) so YMMV, but for me the transition between orbital view, zoomed in view, and the various (very helpful!) overlays is 100% seamless. I never feel like I am fighting the UI. Finally, I never once found the game tedious or felt the need to kick the speed up past 2x. Once I had several colonies going (which takes very little time), there was enough going on at all times to keep me engaged. The terraforming model is nowhere even close to a "real-world" simulation, but it's one of the higher fidelity ones out there. It means you are soon paying attention to several interconnected variables and trying to make sure they're all moving in the right direction. TL;DR this is a unique gem of a game that every fan of the genre should try out.

I played the story through in about 18.5 h. It was nice while it lasted. I never had any serious issues or bugs. Story was good and I found the playthrough challenging enough. Unfortunately, there is no point in playing it again. Maybe after a while with some new DLCs. I will follow that game and see if they can make it a bit more interesting in the long run.