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.
