Tharsis, while a game with well crafted art and an interesting story, is a frustrating game at its core. I have played quite a few 'survive against the odds' games like 'This war of mine' and 'Frostpunk' which pulled off the sense of desperation perfectly, and whenever you screw up there it always feels like your failure is based on your inability to predict or react to a certain aspect of the game under increasingly difficult circumstances. Tharsis does all of this to a point. If I were to give it a quick description, it's like those games but a 'lite' version. Tharsis is not a complex game. You are on a mission to reach Mars when disaster strikes and your food stocks get blown up by a meteor. The game is turnbased and every turn you are hit with a number of disasters or systemerrors that you need to clear up during the round or risk getting overwhelmed as the turns progress. The way you fix these disasters is by rolling dice, subtract the numbers you get from a fixed number on the disaster you're trying to fix and hopefully don't roll so badly that you have to send all your crewmates to one room to fix one disaster when you have three active. This is where the game is at it's most unforgiving and frustrating. While there is a learning curve as to what crewmembers to place on a task and in what order, if the dice rolls don't add up then you are screwed. And no tactics or planning in advance can mend this completely. If you are plain unlucky then your game ends quickly and without mercy because of something outside of your control. Tharsis is also a very short game. The main campaign lasts for about nine turns while you try to keep the ship together. Aside from this you have a set of challenges that you can complete. The game can be completed in half a day and despite it's intruiging story and art I do not think it's worth it's original asking price of almost 12 dollars. A short, visually interesting games with simple mechanics that is best enjoyed on sale.
