I liked the concept of Mars Underground but not so much the execution. This is a game where you have to repeat the same actions over and over again in order to have the items and knowledge to progress further next cycle. Such an idea makes a fun movie like Edge of Tomorrow but that’s partly because the movie skips the parts we have already done and seen for the most part where MarsI liked the concept of Mars Underground but not so much the execution. This is a game where you have to repeat the same actions over and over again in order to have the items and knowledge to progress further next cycle. Such an idea makes a fun movie like Edge of Tomorrow but that’s partly because the movie skips the parts we have already done and seen for the most part where Mars Undergrounds does not which means it can get on the annoying side very fast. Also while I found many more questions to think of each play through I received little in the way of story progress or answers to any of the questions the game gives me. The movie can also be very rigid in some ways such as if you accidentally pick up feces (how Mars mistakes that for a rock I don’t know) the only way you can get rid of it is by flushing it down the toilet. Why can’t I just throw it away ? Another logic issue is that I retain items like keys or coffee from cycle to cycle but even after getting rid of the feces why don’t I retain the smell everyone originally complains about, I mean I don’t wash the clothes and the game refuses to allow me to bathe. The game seemed to just want excuses to delve off into weird territory without making a cohesive story or reason to keep going. The music is nice and the graphics are alright as far as pixel graphics go.
I played Mars Underground on Linux. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any spelling mistakes. Alt-Tab didn’t work. On the Steam version achievements didn’t work, which means that issue hasn’t been fixed even though it was initially reported over two years ago. Below I mention that the frame rate dipped to 24 FPS, this was literally a single dip that lasted a second or two. It typically ran at 60 FPS. There is an option to save the game but regardless of where I saved it only ever loaded the beginning of the cycle I was on.
Game Engine: RPG Maker
Graphics API: OpenGL
Disk Space Used: 332 MB
GPU Usage: 0-60 %
VRAM Usage: 807-1114 MB
CPU Usage: 4-7 %
RAM Usage: 3.0-3.2 GB
Frame Rate: 24-64 FPS
I can see some people liking this game but myself, even though I enjoy weird games, was too much of a grind to be enjoyable. I paid $8.99 USD for it and can’t recommend it overall.
My Score: 5/10
My System:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.1.2 | Manjaro 21.0.7 | Mate 1.24.1 | Kernel 5.12.9-1-MANJARO… Expand