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.
