Posted on: April 2, 2023

Rincemind

Games: Reviews: 2

Terraforming Mars on 3X steroids

This game certainly took some good inspiration from the well-known, successful board game Terraforming Mars. However, this game in particular is much more complex and challenging - especially on higher difficulty levels. Turn by turn, you eXplore, eXpand, eXploit on Mars by founding new cities, building mines and other projects (in one of your cities or on the planetary surface). There is no eXterminate because there are no competitors/opponents: Thus this not a typical 4X game but rather 3X. :) Each turn there is only a limited number of projects available that you can choose from. Each project demands a specific amount of special ressources, which are hard to to come by - especially in the beginning of the mission. Anticipating which projects might be useful and planning ahead accordingly is the challenge. Every few turns you also have to choose a new governor with some specific special abilities; each one likely redefining your strategy for attaining the mission goals. You fail the mission if the living conditions - attained by structures and terraforming - don't keep up with the Mars colonist's ever increasing needs. Quite an atmospheric game (pun intended) with somewhat limited yet pleasing graphics and a nice soundtrack. Great replay value due to randomly generated missions with varying environmental parameters. If you are fond of turn-based strategy/optimization games then this one might be for you. Highly addictive game!

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Posted on: July 7, 2023

Magnitus

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 94

Terraforming Mars' Better Sibling

Spiritually, this game feels very similar to the board game Terraforming Mars, but it has an important things that sets it apart: It takes full advantage of the fact that it is running on a computer in terms of gameplay mechanics and I think it makes for a superior single-player experience on a computer. You'd expect that terraforming mars would be challenging enough that there wouldn't be competing factions doing it, just a struggling civilization trying to make it and this game is about that. While it goes in more depth than Terraforming Mars (you have to deal with things like temperature, O2 levels, humidity and planing ecosystems at a deeper level than Terraforming Mars does), it is still a pretty high level very gamified experience (if you expect to go into a lot of the lower level details to get a pseudo realistic simulation, you should move on, this is not the game for you). The game doesn't really convey all the deadly complications a Marsian civilization would encounter. It gives you the occasional disaster, but they are fairly mild. Rather, the game gives you one major impediment: Malcontent. Basically, you accumulate a pool of goodwill from your citizen (which at first is positively increasing), your citizens become more than more demanding and your goodwill goes deeper and deeper into the red. Once your pool reach zero, it is game over and you have to complete your objectives before then. The objectives of the games are actually pretty varied (you have a lot of different modes that accommodate different play styles). You start with the basic diversified goal (accumulating goal points from all kinds of objectives) and then you unlock other kinds of goals (and more leaders, buildings, techs and difficulty levels) as you win games (increasing the replay value and you want to play more to experience all those things you unlocked). Overall, I think this is a good experience for people who wanted Terraforming Mars to go deeper and be less competitive.

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Posted on: October 28, 2024

freyelise

Verified owner

Games: 63 Reviews: 1

Chill solo management time

I had no idea I would like this game so much. From a fairly unassuming appearance I found a very addicting turn based management game, where you never have enough resources to do everything you want, so every turn involves a good helping of forwawrd planning and tough decisions. There's enough mechanics involved to minmax things, but not too much to choke the player with unforeseen consequences. And the undo button is a great feature in a game like this (it's close to the end turn button so don't miss it after misclicking like I did a bunch of times..) There's no conflict or warfare, so totally safe to play with the family. You can choose if you're playing for popular support, resource extraction, terraforming or other goals, which isn't a dramatic difference in gameplay but does affect your priorities. So happy that games like these are still made, and would recommend to anyone who enjoys strategy, management and building games.

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Posted on: October 5, 2023

vittorioviegas

Verified owner

Games: 228 Reviews: 9

I'm speechless of how good this is!

If you are remotely interested in this game, just do yourself a favor and get it, you won't regret it. With that out of the way, let's go a little deeper. Teerraformers is a mix of colony/city builder. Pretty much a 4X game without the war. I think the thing that makes this game so good is just how well everything works together. Every mechanic balances each other very well, so you can mix and match strategies and they complement each other but this while always keeping the Mars colonizing theme. Gameplay: Easy to learn, hard to master. I honestly believe this phrase is appropriate to describe the gameplay of the game. In the early scenarios you can just kind go with the flow but as you pick harder scenarios to play you do have to plan a few steps ahead. Thee game also has a very nice tutorial. Somethings you will have to grasp on your own (terraforming is kind of complicated) but nothing that some patience can't help you grasp it. Graphics: I love how the game looks. The game feels like it's all hand drawn but with a gorgeous art. This not only boosts the visuals but performance as well. Even on my mid to low range PC I can run the game at 4K resolution while doing other stuff and it runs smooth like butter. The art for the cities, the leaders, and honestly, pretty much everything look simply fantastic. Sure, art is highly subjective but for my tastes it looks great. Sound: The music is soothing and relaxing. It really gives that space exploration vibe many of us like so much. If you play this at the end of a long day of work/study I'm sure the music alone will make you feel better. Overall this game is one of the biggest surprises I've had this year. I got it on a whim and in less then 3 days I already have more then 10 hours.

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Posted on: July 30, 2024

DonWallace3

Verified owner

Games: 106 Reviews: 85

Really Enjoying It

It's not a typical terraforming game, and I think that's why its gotten some negative reviews. It's meant to be played over and over again at increasing diffciuly levels and many different win conditions as you progress. Each game is ~2-3 hours. There is a lot of strategy in the choices you make. Each turn you get a random offering of cards that you use to build things with. If you don't get what you need then it can get risky but thats part of the strategy. As you win more scenariois you get better card offerings to help at the next levels. To win a game you have to satify the win condition before your population gets unhappy. And what people want apparently and unrealistically is more people. So every game requires prmary focus on growth in the form of water/nitrates - farms - housing. With those as my primary choices I have never lost a scenario.

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