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
Tharsis is basically a board game. It's very similar to the Battlestar Galactica board game and to FTL (another indie rogue-like). In all three games you play as the crew of a ship and you have to survive various random events. I love BSG. I quite liked FTL. But Tharsis just doesn't do it for me.
Luck is far too big a factor and you don't have people sitting next to you to bemoan your bad luck. The game is also simply too hard, even on Easy, even compared to FTL. These two elements combined just lead to a lot of frustration for most people.
Tharsis is by no means a bad game, but it has a very specific audience and doesn't try enough to cater to those who aren't part of that audience.
I bought Tharsis for PS4 a long time ago then got it again on sale here, put a lot more hours into it on PS4 than on PC where I've yet to unlock the Cannibal and Commander (the best classes).
Guess I'll start with the most controversial element, the RNG and general difficulty. The game is well balanced for play on Easy and Normal, Hard is almost unplayable and I'd be surprised to learn anybody other than myself got the true ending (all 4 astronauts survive 10 turns) on Hard. Having played it on all 3 difficulties the game does not seem purely random, in fact it seems the game has enormous control over your dice rolls in the background as Hard mode seems to function not only by making events worse but your dice rolls terrible.
The thing with the difficulty (outside of Hard) is while there is a lot of RNG and bad luck can screw you over, with good strategy and knowledge of the game you can pretty consistently win, even pretty consistently get the true ending. Ditch the terrible Specialist as soon as you unlock a different, much better class. Realize that the Doctor needing a roll of 5 or more to heal 1 hp and only in the same room they're in is kind of bad compared to the Commander being able to turn bad dice rolls into higher ones without rerolling. Realize that 3 of the 'end' points of the ship, Flight Control, Operations, and to a lesser extent the Laboratory are not useful and can be ignored if they have a 1 Hull Damage or ESPECIALLY a SysFail event.
Presentation is pretty great, the diorama aspect of the ship looks great (on PC you can even click on things and get little sounds and animations) and all the different events have fun visuals to go with them. The models for the astronauts are goofy but expressive and it's fun to watch them go insane from eating human meat. The soundtrack, instrumental versions of a Kid A-esque EP on Bandcamp is pretty great and fits the rhythm of the game well. The atmosphere is also spot on in its intensity for the situation.
As the game has pretty basic graphics as complexity (no 3D, movement, etc.), I expected it would run well even on macbook, but it drains the battery in less than two hours and the fans are constantly at max speed. I wanted to be able to play it during a flight, but unfortunately I cannot.
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