Saturday 20 / April / 2024
T Magazine may have been to ‘Mars’ few months back but that hasn’t influenced our decision to include this Martian simulation as this week’s recommended game.
The European Space Agency and the Austrian Space Forum had come to Oman to conduct experiments towards one goal — putting a man on Mars in the future — and if they (or indeed, anyone else) is curious about what life on Mars is actually like, all they’d need to do is step into the world of Surviving Mars.
Created by Bulgarian game developer Haemimont Games, the guys who created the amazing Tropico city-building series, and published by Paradox Interactive, Surviving Mars tells the tale of humanity’s first mission to colonise and settle on Mars. The world has pledged its resources towards a manned Martian mission for the collective good of its people, but whether or not it actually succeeds rests squarely on the shoulders of one person. You.
In the near future, the various nations of Earth’s governments decide to send a manned mission to the Red Planet. Various confederations, including the Americans, the Europeans, the Russians and the Chinese want to sign you up to lead their missions, with each faction providing its own benefits. The Yanks, for example, will provide you regular cash injections to fund your colony, while the Europeans will reward you for scientific discovery. Money as you will quickly discover is key to life on Mars. Setting up a colony from scratch is far from easy, and requires you to establish many basic services before your first colonists touch Martian soil.
For starters, your first rocket to Mars is likely to contain an assortment of raw materials that go into the construction of buildings ... whose purpose is to extract more raw materials so that you don’t have to call for resources from Earth very often. It can get quite expensive, you know. These resources, such as machine parts, polymers, fuel and metals form the foundations of your martian colony, and are key to your Mars rovers’ exploration and extraction of resources across the Red Planet. Once you’ve found them that is: Earth’s resources may be well mapped, but on Mars, you need to send out your rovers to find metal and rock deposits, and most importantly, water: Martian water deposits are located far beneath the planet’s surface, and require extensive extraction before they can be harnessed for human consumption.
The Martian atmosphere, surprisingly, is also a great source of resources. Because the Martian atmosphere is far thinner than the Earth’s it is able to harness a lot more solar energy, allowing for clean power to be sent to your buildings, while vapourators allow you to reclaim water directly from the atmosphere, and oxygen converters provide you with the most important resource of your colony — breathable air. Often, these resources are quite far-flung from your colony, requiring you to send out drones to build pipelines between these key deposits and your base. Nearly all of the automated work on Mars is done by drones: Earth’s humans are a rare resource here, and are vital to jobs required to keep your population alive and well.
Oxygen and water aside, food is the main prerogative of your population. Every passenger rocket you call for from Earth will bring with it a shipment of food, but as your colony grows and expands, you will need far more than what a single rocket can carry. Fortunately, as you spend more and more time on Mars, you gain access to technologies and new perspectives from your time on the Red Planet that allow you to gain more output out of fewer resources. Hydroponic farms and greenhouses — which are only located in domes, which house your human population — provide you food for your people, but do make sure you have enough. The last thing you want as the leader of Mars’ first space mission is to leave behind a legacy of starving colonists.
Take care of your people, therefore, and you should be okay. Oh, and do watch out for the big meteor.
The Short and Skinny
Name: Surviving Mars
Genre: Sci-fi/City building
What it’s about: One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Only this time, it’s destination Mars, and you have been chosen as the leader of the first colony on the Red Planet.
Produced by: Haemimont Games and Paradox Interactive
Where to buy: Microsoft Store, Paradox Plaza, Steam, GOG games, Amazon
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Mac, Microsoft Windows, Linux
IGN Rating: 7.8/10
