This game's even better than I remember, and plays great. Tip - You can find the official strategy guide on EBay for around 5 bucks, if you want the full "gaming before the internet" experience.
But it never showed up. Unless the silly D&D story grabs you, give this one a pass. The combat is very repetitive, and the whole game's built around that.
I forgot how slow the game plays - moving around in a 3D scene was beautiful and novel at the time, but now that we're past the Myst era it's hard to wait through an animation of walking across a room the 10th time. The UI feels somewhat unresponsive / buggy. Not sure if that's introduced by the remake; I remember it working nicer than this on the original. It was a good nostalgia trip, but I won't be back.
The game gives you very powerful tools right away. This lowers the difficulty a lot; if you're used to other Zachtronics fare, you'll blow through this without needing to think much. It would be a great game for kids to play, though. It's a very nice polished, finished product.
Playthroughs are very short, and if you've played one, you've played them all. It's a neat concept, but it needs a lot more depth. Imagine if FTL was just moving crew members around to put out fires, and... nothing else. Tharsis is part of a game I would really want to play. But it's missing the rest.
