Waking Mars

I bought "Waking Mars" on a lark during a sale some time back, based on the reviews here on GOG. I did not regret it for a second. You play as an astronaut, one of the first to reach Mars following over a century of probe exploration. After your camp collapses, you are tasked with finding your way through an ancient cave system in search of a means of reaching your base camp, and if you have the chance of finding a lost probe. Of course, as one is wont to do in strange, ancient places, you quickly find that not everything is what it seems. The puzzle mechanics--i.e. cultivating certain environments to maximize the biological potential of a room--are riveting, especially as you are learning about the different flora and fauna to be found. The graphics make it clear that this was developed as a mobile game, but they work well, even on PC, and several rooms are veritable feasts for the eyes. "Waking Mars" is a somewhat slow paced game, as (so long as you watch yourself) your character is rarely in serious danger. Nonetheless, although it only took me about seven hours to finish, I had fun the entire time.

Waking Mars is an easy game with around 10 hours of gameplay if you are taking your time to get full completion. While it is not something very special it is fun in its own way - a story with light puzzle and platforming elements.

I had fun and the exploration was really interesting. However it does get quite tedious to complete every single level at 100%, so I'm not sure I'll finish it (it's not too hard but takes time repeating similar actions). Good point: runs perfectly on a Win8 tablet (Atom Z2760)

Waking Mars was an excellent game, and it is obvious that a lot of research went into its creation. The environment and how the various creatures interact with each other and with the environment were certainly well thought out! If you do not mind the paradigm that evolution is fact, there is not much else to find fault with in the game.

As many one states, this game is very similar (and opposite in same time) to well known Aquaria. No need to tell the plot, its quite direct with just minor plot twists, but plot is not main thing in WM. So, WM and Aquaria. To cut in short, Aquaria have water and Mars is Dry as hell (mostly). In Aquaria you fight hordes of enemies, and in WM you plant life (but still can be hurt). Aquaria is bright and colourful, Mars is monotone, relatively dark. Aquria is full of life and Mars is...oh well, thats up to you. In term of mechanics they have a lot of common in some ways. You fly in caverns, do stuff. Hardly can be called platformer. There is some puzzles and quests to complete and lot of space to explore, albeit in term of exploration Aquaria is more to offer. Metroidvania element is present in both games, but in Mars backtracking (and revisiting as well) is just minor. There is no new abilities, except new seeds, but usually when you done with area - you done. OFC WM is not perfect. Graphically its fine, but most caverns looks little too simplistic. Keep in mind, that WM was naturally MOBILE game, later ported to PC, while Aquaria is opposite. There is too much of grind in some areas, when you just feel little too high number of flesh mass, so you get seeds, feed them to bugs, repeat. Boring. There is some problems in game design like "spore infestation" - spores can grow in fungi which fill whole area with new spores killing all ecosystem in result. Its hard and tedious to get rid of that infestation and i never understood is it was flaw in design or challenge? But, to tell truth whole time i played i never felt urge ti rage-quite or drop game. It wasnt ideal, but it was fun enough for me.