- Standard difficulty means that the game is just pure boredom
-> activate some extra challenges like "Winter is coming", Frequent duststorms and so on
The game starts to be difficult with 500% difficulty
The Green Mars DLC is absolutely needed, the others are not worth mentioning.
The game is open end, but I do mostly try to reach a green mars and be happy with that.
There are some good mods, which can easily be installed with the ingame mod manager.
The one helping connecting domes is useful, and perhaps those two mods which let you see the design and breakthroughs of your starting region when selecting where to land on the planet.
The game is not well defined on how to play. The help option shows exactly what you see in game, but in a larger font. No Help! It took my 3rd start to figure out even how to rotate an item. The overlay for the help feature is way to obtrusive. Now then, The game. It is a marathon game. It is slow paced. It has a different feel from other city build games as you are really limited on resources and the things you add to your domes affect your civilization attempts. I truly find it a delight to not have to fight my way through anything. Its a strategic builder. Managing everything and keeping it all going is more difficult then you would think. With custom landing locations, the game will be as easy or as difficult as you would like.
The in game radio adds a lot to the game. The musical score is really well done. The announcer/DJ voices make is seem like you are listening to a live broadcast.
A city builder on mars. It starts with an interesting idea and a lot of problems to solve. In the early game you have to prepare for the first colonists on mars, here you have to find resources and build up the infrastructure. In the mid game it become more a surviving game. The colonist want food, air and water and not having enough can end the game quick. In the late game it is just a city builder where you build a pretty, self-sustaining colony. To spice things up there are mysteries (scenarios) to tie in a little story. While the game is mostly based on science (or Scifi) the mysteries can go wild. While I started with random mysteries I now pick one I havn't played at the start.
While the easy start is too easy and just for the first steps or for people who want reach the city builder without to much trouble, the normal game can be tweaked in many ways to change the difficulty to your liking. While a hazardous landings area with low resources make the start very difficult it is not impossible to mess up the mid game on an easy starting point.
Bugs and flaws: I might be lucky but I havn't encounter any serious problem, the worst I manage to do is get a rover stuck in a dome, but he got out again the next day. While you can but shouldn't have to move you colonists around, I had one dome where I want my specialist to go and they were very stubborn because the dome was full and my shuttles busy. It just took a long long time. But other then that I don't feel the need to micro manage, it works on its own when it is configured right from the start, and manual transfer works too if the shuttle not to busy.
My conclusion, definitely check it out when it is on sale, you will get the opportune to spent more money on DLCs if you want to. As a Paradox game you can expect more content to come, some for free some for money to pay the people who are working on it.
I like the game, played a few games of it over the last few days. Until I realised that this game can't last...
I always prefer sandbox/freeplay so I can do what I want, and not follow some silly mission narrative. Or fix some pointless problem I don't care about.
But what's the point if every water well runs out and all mines bottoming out at some point mean I can't continue my game - Sigh...
The AI/personal placement is lacking too. One colony failed because I couldn't get metals. Fine, place a better dome, right? Wrong!
It didn't work, because workers refused to live in the dome for mining. So no jobs would get filled there. Resulting in the whole thing failing. Why wouldn't they live there to save their lives? Because I had a bunch of empty residences elsewhere... You know, upcoming expansion.
In the spirit of survival stuff, just like with games like Banished and Planetbase, this is a game breaking flaw. Why is it allowed to NOT operate a mine that is so super vital for the entire base (and thus my games enjoyment) to fail JUST because people prefer to life in housing elsewhere, too far from said mine. C'mon AI. Screw you :(
The mysteries are weird, uninteresting, and more annoying than anything else. I dealt with the cube one, which kept breaking buildings in my base without notification. Or purpose other than to make it more difficult for the player.
Random events are more annoying than anything else, too... Spend billions on a rocket with all kinds of stuff to save a colony and it explodes on landing... Fine, shit happens... but 2-3 times in a row? Moxies randomly exploding/disappearing without warning? Running out of applicants (on earth) just because the game thinks that's ok? Geez...
How can one progress like that...
So yea, I'm sure for a whole bunch of people this is a really fun game. And I'll try it again in a few weeks I think.
I think it's a good enough game overall. But some flaws and bad luck that ruined it for me this time around.
Purchased the First Colony Edition during the Summer Sale 2020.
I like computer games, but as a rule I have no patience to play them. Surviving Mars earns a 5-star rating from me for being one of a handful of games to break this mould.
I very much enjoy the game, starting from the theme, through the gameplay and design. I especially enjoy playing through the various mysteries. I am delighted by the Green Planet expansion, as it plays to my favourite subgenre of sci-fi.
I have palyed less than 100 hours, so I'm not even a novice at the game; yet I feel that I will be playing this one for a long time to come, due to the variation in Mystery and Commander profiles that really add flavour to the game.
I can't wait to see what expansions they come up with next.
