Per Aspera

I had a lot of fun with the campaign, playing as a sentient AI terraforming mars. Unlike in Surviving Mars, the game takes place on a planetary scale, as you unlock more sectors and spread your base across the continents like some giant mechanical amoeba. The effortless zoom (from individual buildings all the way up to a planetary view) reminded me a lot of Supreme Commander, although this game is (mostly) peaceful. There are a number of basic and processed resources to keep track of: You need to balance a lot things to both keep your economy going strong - and to prevent problems with your terraforming: There are some dangers (like letting the percentage of oxygen get too high, causing fires and damage to your buildings), while other stats (like temperature) will slowly go back down if you don't keep up the terraforming efforts. Speaking of which, most of these are special projects that require (at times absurdly high) resource payments, potentially taxing your economy and slowing down expansion. Balancing your resource needs to keep things running is the core gameplay. The colonists you take care of are (unlike in Surviving Mars, with their individual desires and quirks) also basically just a resource: Due to the large scale, the humans only need food, water, and power. If they have those, they will work on researching new technologies for you. If they are unhappy, they will head back to Earth. In practice, they are just a number that goes up or down, depending on how well you manage resource flow. The story, though, is very enjoyable, as you not only discover more about your own origins as an AI, but also navigate a post-collapse political climate back on Earth and a strange remnant threat on Mars. It's very well voice-acted, giving life to an otherwise very impersonal experience. There are three endings (based on a choice late in the campaign; just make a save beforehand) and numerous achievements, but not a lot of randomization, somewhat limiting replayability.

tl;dr It's fun & they're still updating it (as of Dec 2020), I've been playing it for hours on end & find it very engaging. Pros: - Visuals are top notch, zooming in & out is awesome, from close inspection all the way to viewing the entire planet. The symbolic tags the game shows you of your buildings when you're in between those two views makes you feel like you really have the ability to get the big picture & drill down - HIGH quality voice acting for the voices I've heard so far (3 or so), there is no immersion breaking conversations you hear as people talk to you the AI & you respond back - Great sound effects for the UI, events, & construction, the music is a bit (to me) monotonous so I have that off - I'm not that far into the campaign, the colonists are almost to mars to land at the spaceport I've built & I've been preparing the way, everything feels so epic. Elon should check this game out for tips - The learning curve for what to do is not unreasonably hard (on normal) because the campaign guides you, but you'll need to be smart & pay attention as you take the guidance on what to build next or be prepared to deconstruct to get components you needed first Cons: - If you're not paying attention, you might have to deconstruct a building to get back resources you need to make a different building & it's a minor hassle to do so but you get back what you spent (component wise) to make them - Without the campaign I'd be pretty clueless on what to do & I'm thinking a more ABC tutorial might be welcome especially if made optional rather than have the campaign be a bit of tutorial - I'd like to tap a resource (as listed in a row at the bottom of the main screen) & have it highlight the building(s) that produce it in a slightly more fluid way - The game's like maintaining spinning plates (what to build, what priority, etc). as such it's a challenge. Some might be upset if they're not prepared to plan before pulling the trigger on a building's erection

A great sim experience. Expect slow progress. This is a marathon game, not a sprint. The mechanics are intricate but it starts off slowly enough that the learning curve isn't anxious. The philosophy added to the game is an interesting and entertaining side perk. Note: Even at maximum speed, things develop slowly. Reminds me of a massive ant farm.

The main idea behind the game is quite interesting, the way the story is defined and planned to progress is quite innovative when compared to other games of the same genre. When you start to play, this perspective change, the game starts to throw you some random challenges that require a lot of effort for minimum payback. As you progress, you will find yourself playing the game at the fastest speed because everything takes forever to get done. Right when you finish the first era, you start to receive so many interruptions and phone calls from the characters in the game that you cannot play in peace. These characters don't really share any useful insight so after being interrupted 7 consecutive times, I decided to uninstall this and ask for a refund because I wanted a strategy game, not a chit-chat boring loop

Excellent game, makes you think about long term stratergies, has similarities with games like Anno and Stranded Alien dawn. If you like building games, I could recommend this one