Waking Mars

A strange, thoughtful game. Metroid with plants is one way to describe it, but that doesn't capture the feeling of life that emerges as you manipulate alien flora. You travel through caverns covered with microbial mats that can host a variety of seeds. Your goal is to balance the ecosystem of each room to make the bio-density as high as possible. At first this is as simple as planting a seed on every mat, but later in the game you will need to switch mats from acidic to watery and back, herd mobile life to predators, create routes for seed gatherers, or help airborne seeds find a resting place. Few spots require reflexes. An infinite-fuel jetpack prevents jumping difficulties. This is a puzzle game disguised as a Sim, and it strikes the right balance. The presentation is serious but laid back. Threats to your character take a back seat to the thrill of exploration. The voice actors fit their roles, helping the main characters come across as dedicated researchers rather than action heroes. If there's a flaw, it's that the writing and voice direction try too hard to make the characters ordinary humans, turning a monumental expedition into an interesting day at work. Magically powerful AI analysis strains credibility. But out of all the directions the game could have gone, this is not a bad one. Recommended for anyone who enjoys puzzle platformers, exploration, and virtual life, and doesn't mind the absence of combat.

I really liked Waking Mars; it ended up being what I wanted Aquaria to be (before that turned into a shooter instead of exploration). HOWEVER. Waking Mars comes to a screeching halt close to the end: you have to go back and get 5 stars on every level in order to progress. I like optional 100% completion, not obligatory, so missing this mark by only one or two levels kind of rankles me. I want to see where the story goes and I won't be able to because I couldn't perfect a few difficult or annoying stages.

This game was nothing like I expected (not that I did much research on it). I read the description and thought it would be a sort of sandboxy type game where I learn about the environment and grow plants. I started it up and just couldn't stop playing. The visuals are excellent and the soundtrack is good. It is not a fast-paced game, and I found that I just enjoyed sitting back and relaxing while exploring Mars and the fauna therein. In this game you grow different plants to raise biomass in order to proceed to the next section. There are variety of ways to do this (especially mid-to-end game) as there are plenty of plants to choose from and they all have different effects on the environment. Explore and experiment! The story is nothing fantastic, but is instead a means for character development through dialogue with some humour thrown in. The focus is on the exploration and discovery of the planet, which is a story on its own. Usually I look for good story in games, but this one is great despite the dry story because the exploration and discovery aspects are so top notch that it allows you to role-play a little bit while going around "saving the planet." My only complaint about this game is that the controller support in the menus is bad. I played the whole game with my PS3 controller, and the game-play was excellent, but I found myself switching to the mouse in menus and on the map, because the controller did not translate well in these scenarios.

I got this game with a Humble Bundle & it was a toss up between this & Skyrim for the most entertaining game I played in 2012. Skyrim was longer but Waking Mars had a lot more soul.