A mysterious signal originating from the Tharsis region of Mars set us on a frantic mission. Who sent it? And why? Impossible questions, but in them lie the key to humanity’s survival.
Now, millions of miles away from home, a micrometeoroid storm has left us with a severely damaged ship, two deceas...
A mysterious signal originating from the Tharsis region of Mars set us on a frantic mission. Who sent it? And why? Impossible questions, but in them lie the key to humanity’s survival.
Now, millions of miles away from home, a micrometeoroid storm has left us with a severely damaged ship, two deceased crew, and the sneaking suspicion this trip was doomed from the start.
Tharsis is a turn-based space strategy game. With dice. And cannibalism. It puts you in control of humanity’s first mission to Mars, just as it’s struck by a micrometeoroid storm. You must guide your crew through disasters, food shortages, and the unforgiving nature of space — all while maintaining your sanity amidst cryptic signals and warnings from Mars.
Defy the odds, make the difficult decisions, and embark on the most important mission in human history.
Command humanity's first mission to Mars in a unique turn-based strategy experience
A dynamic events system that ensures no two games of Tharsis are alike
A hard mode for those of you who want your trip to Mars to be a little more... death-filled
I bought this game on another platform years ago and it is one of the games I keep getting back to.
First, and I can't stress this enough, it's a rogue like. You will die - a lot.
Second I found it highly addictive:)
The rogue like part comes from the dice rolls and the random problems you get in each turn.
I'm a bit surprised by some of the low star reviews here. For what it is the game is done well.
You can unlock new crewmembers with new skills trough gameplay, making the game sometimes a bit
easier and sometimes simply let you play in a different way.
There also is a storyline which is told to you between missions, one that I liked.
If you like rogue likes and like space - try it ! I think you will like it, after a time :)
Absolute gem of a game! At first I thought this game was nothing but random luck. But with repeat playthroughs the need for strategy and planning began to shine through. You have to weigh benefits and penalties with nearly every action you take. Utilize personnel properly, tilt the odds in your favor every chance you get. Beautifully designed game!
Yes, the randomness can be frustrating. Yes, you can seriously be unlucky.
However to a great extend it is a very cool new way of gaming.
Up to now I only survived 6 weeks or so on easy level, but it does matter how you make decisions.
That said, the punishment in the game is severe.
I also feel it's a bit too hard the way the die go down, especially if stasis AND void AND injury drop your options to impossible.
If things go your way, you'll have full die and extra for research, if things go bad, you can't recover from it. And that's the biggest flaw: not only a bad decision will kill your game, but a round of bad luck will too.
That's why I gave it a 3, because i'm pretty sure a lot of people will just give up out of frustration after too many rounds of bad luck.
This game is comparable to co-op board games like Ghost Stories in design and scope. If you are familiar with those and enjoy them, this is great game to pick up. If not, you definitely need to do your research first before buying, because it's very different from your usual video game.
So how does it stack up to games like Ghost Stories? It feels very similar in that everything keeps falling apart while you are trying to fix things, and the game is very much about prioritizing and luck management (never take risks. Except you'll lose if you never take risks. Figure it out!). The events lack some flavor and visual impact compared to the colorful ghosts of Ghost Stories or the spreading fires and collapsing walls in Flash Point. The fact that you need to bring down a sometimes pretty big repair number by assigning several dice of several characters to it makes a single dice roll a bit less exciting. Oh, and I don't like that Assist (a resource that let's you cancel negative effects some events have when you roll certain numbers) is used automatically instead of by choice.
Because of it's board game style design, Tharsis is pretty much entirely built to provide the full experience every playthrough, and doesn't take more than an hour or so. Compared to most video games that feels short and light on content.
It's not supposed to be won every playthrough, even if you know what you are doing, though it will always present you with interesting decisions. Learn how to make those decisions and you will win much more often. I win the vast majority of my games (like 4 out of 5), but the first game you'll probably feel it's almost unwinnable and completely down to luck. Speaking of unwinnable, compared to most video games it's more willing to give you an almost unwinnable run once in a while. The fun part of the game is trying to deal with those odds anyway, whether you win or not in the end. Laugh as your ship catches fire and collapses. Next game you might fare better.
In this game every decision is taken rolling dice. The entire game is based on chance. The problem is that I am really getting the impression that chance in this game is rigged.
I don't think all numbers have the same probability of occurring. I've been noticing that in the runs where the player is doing well, the AI will suddenly yank the chain and kill off your character. I've had characters taking 5 points of damage and dying (the maximum possible) in a single roll.
My main issue with the game is that there are plenty of run-ending moments that you can do absolutely nothing about. If I loose the game it should be because of errors I could have predicted/anticipated, or at the very least contain. I shouldn't be losing due to something that was completely unpredictable and that I had zero chance of recovering from.
This is a feeling that accompanies you the whole game, to the extent that when you are doing well it feels like you are just being lucky, rather than feeling like you are good at the game.
If you want to base your game on chance, it should be more like XCOM. The player should be aware of the probabilities, should have multiple solutions available to a problem and the chance to contain some of his/her mistakes.
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