Surviving Mars

 PC
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 218 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 120 out of 218
  2. Mixed: 57 out of 218
  3. Negative: 41 out of 218

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  1. akarnokd
    Mar 23, 2018
    7
    I've enjoyed the game quite a bit. It has great replay value as you can select a "Mystery" per new game that provides some extra story, tasks, goals or research options.

    Pros: + Great graphics + Attention to many details + Fantastic soundtrack + Mars setting + Interesting story-like elements + Mod support, helping with a bunch of cons below Cons: - Difficult to micro-manage    I've enjoyed the game quite a bit. It has great replay value as you can select a "Mystery" per new game that provides some extra story, tasks, goals or research options.

    Pros:
    + Great graphics
    + Attention to many details
    + Fantastic soundtrack
    + Mars setting
    + Interesting story-like elements
    + Mod support, helping with a bunch of cons below

    Cons:
    - Difficult to micro-manage resources, colonists and drones
    - Vanilla: slow gameplay, even on [>>]
    - It appears the game runs on 60 FPS (smooth scrolling) but the moving drones start to "warp" after certain amount of objects in-game
    - Vanilla: storage capacities are too low
    - Vanilla: some products require factory operated by human    … Expand
  2. Jrdp
    Mar 16, 2018
    6
    When this game was announced i found several interesting themes on it, a surviving game, the mysteries, random tech tree, etc...

    With only 3 or 4 hours played it is soon to make a deep review, but my first thoughts: The base building seems a mixed bag, it's pretty and have enought options but the layout it's confusing, adyacent elements sometimes seems to not connect with energy and    When this game was announced i found several interesting themes on it, a surviving game, the mysteries, random tech tree, etc...

    With only 3 or 4 hours played it is soon to make a deep review, but my first thoughts:

    The base building seems a mixed bag, it's pretty and have enought options but the layout it's confusing, adyacent elements sometimes seems to not connect with energy and ask for 1 title power lines, it's dificult to say sometimes if the terrain would allow to plant anything at first sight, the domes are independent and people seems to avoid going from one place to another.

    The game seems to ask for a deep micromanagement but dont have the tools to allow you make it easily, it's very dificult and time consuming to for example review each colonist characteristics and set him in the correct dome/work but the game seems to ask for it, its like to be playing at Cities, have the need to organize the trafic layout but dont have any tool to see the densiity, flow, jams, etc...

    I choose one low dificulty (not the easier, but relatively close) and the game is too easy, the events till the moment are not problematic nor give any challenge and even one "catastrofic event" that was a massive meteor shower have almost zero impact on the buildings.

    The tech tree is ok, but i found the investigation too fast (at least on this dificulty) and dont makes you feel the need to have hard choices of what tech research, you could allways stack 4 investigations and have zero need to prioritize one over another, there is too strong favour to advance the investigations almost in order top-down left to right....

    Another issue is the depleting resources deposits, it's not a bad system by itself, but if in 4 hours i have depleted a concrete deposit and a water one and need to move to the next i have terrible fears that it would become an issue in mid to late game, needing to move whole base parts to another part of the map just to repeat the same that i made the first time but over a new deposit.
    If it would only happend over "strange" resources like rare minerals, it would be a okis feature, but when it happend with all the resources (water, concrete, etc..) i found ii not very desirable (It's the first thing i would seek to mod with the workshop).

    Another thing is the need of materials micromanagement on the mid-late game, as soon as the base grow you need to manually move the materials from one part to another as the drones have a limited radious, for example, repair parts that you are building on a factory need to be moved (manually) to cover all the base if the drones that need then are not in radious of where it's stored, and it happend to a lot of resources, on the short term it's not a problem but 4 hours into the game already started to be, it's the second thing that need to be modded, automatic routes.

    Visually is okish, but not great but is good enougth from a base building game.

    The UI is really terrible, lacks basic features, i still have to found how to monitor and extrapolate power, oxigen and water consumption graphs, visual layouts of wind generator output to place new ones, when crop fails i need to known why it does and why previous ones don't, etc...

    As previously noted the building choices are not bad and have several building types, but from the first hours i have the strange feeling that what it's short its not the building types but the choices whithin them, you one one building type of each, one point, and if you want a larger one, or another harder to withstand meteors, or another with less maintenance, or another more efficient or automated that need less manpower to functions you are out of luck. It's really a shame because the game is asking for it for example automated plants that need less manpower at the cost of a lot more energy and maintenance or a hundreds more options allow the player to build the base that they want, but it's not currently present on the game and it's missed a lot because that way the game is made just ask to define a bunch "perfect" layouts and just use them till the hell freeze.

    Ok, till now i have pointed all the negative, from my review you could ask why the hell with all the points being negative he gave the game a six? The short answer for it it's the potential of the game and that could be modded into a very fun and rewarding game.

    The long answer is that the game have a wonderfull basement that with DLC's and specially with user mods from the steam workshop could make it the definitive base building game (and from facts like that even mysteries could be added with mods lend me to belive that it's possible), it's like have a wonderfull terrain that allow you to bring into realliity the house of your dreams but the house it's currently a rusted caravan, the posibilitites are there but the reallity is a rusted caravan    … Expand
  3. Lewis12
    Mar 18, 2018
    5
    Surviving Mars doesn't live up to it's promises. It's pretty enjoyable until you build your first dome, that is for first 2 hours. Quickly becomes tedious and monotonous, with lack of any strategic or management depth (I've been digging management and city-building games for years). Overall, it clearly looks unfinished with a plenty of room left for add-later content.

    The game is rather    Surviving Mars doesn't live up to it's promises. It's pretty enjoyable until you build your first dome, that is for first 2 hours. Quickly becomes tedious and monotonous, with lack of any strategic or management depth (I've been digging management and city-building games for years). Overall, it clearly looks unfinished with a plenty of room left for add-later content.

    The game is rather unique for today's standards for not leading the player by the hand in discovering it's mechanics, which can explain some of clamor on Steam reviews. Nevertheless, it feels blatantly incomplete even on higher difficulty settings.    … Expand
  4. Widden
    Dec 3, 2018
    9
    Brilliant builder game, very interesting, reasonably complex mechanics, beautiful graphics & pretty good usability.

    I reckon the really negative older reviews were mostly due to a lot of things not completely polished at that point - but now the game is really well playable, bug-free, and the interface is user-friendly. And on top, there's some mysteries to uncover. :) The game    Brilliant builder game, very interesting, reasonably complex mechanics, beautiful graphics & pretty good usability.

    I reckon the really negative older reviews were mostly due to a lot of things not completely polished at that point - but now the game is really well playable, bug-free, and the interface is user-friendly.

    And on top, there's some mysteries to uncover. :)

    The game is tons of fun, with only some slight nags, nothing worth crying about.

    The main points that could improve IMO are the in the controls area, eg somewhat sluggish camera handling with mouse.

    Oh, and I think they've missed an opportunity by not having a game 'ending' of some sort.    … Expand
  5. Gabryells42
    Mar 24, 2018
    9
    A beautiful game with interesting dynamics. The tutorial that needs to be something, which makes the game a bit confusing at first. However, on afterwards it becomes very creative, mysterious and challenging.
  6. alexaltair
    Mar 27, 2018
    9
    Perfect game. A long waiting strategy/simulator/building game. Worth playing.
  7. mhunke
    Mar 20, 2018
    4
    This game is basically an ALPHA release. It is clearly incomplete, and missing many basic features. It's actually quite mind-blowing.

    For example: - You can barely zoom out - You cannot select more than one unit at once - You cannot queue multiple commands whatsoever The biggest flaw, however, is the fact that you cannot connect your domes (settlements) in ANY MEANINGFUL    This game is basically an ALPHA release. It is clearly incomplete, and missing many basic features. It's actually quite mind-blowing.

    For example:

    - You can barely zoom out

    - You cannot select more than one unit at once

    - You cannot queue multiple commands whatsoever

    The biggest flaw, however, is the fact that you cannot connect your domes (settlements) in ANY MEANINGFUL WAY. They can share resources. That is all.

    You cannot have citizens living in one dome, and working in another. No matter how closer together they are. A citizen cannot take even one step outside to use a neighboring domes services (like a medical clinic).

    Once you realize this, GOOD LUCK enjoying the game. It completely ruined it and I stopped playing altogether. I wish I knew this before I wasted my weekend.

    I give it a 4 because beyond these core issues, the game shows great promise. I can't wait til it is actually a finished game.    … Expand
  8. Eleiren
    Apr 11, 2018
    4
    The first thing you realize once you start Surviving Mars for the first time is that there is no tutorial. Some may see this as a negative, I kind of liked it though.

    You are the first expedition to the red planet, figuring a lot of things out on the go via the tech tree and in a way it makes sense not to have a tutorial. You will make some mistakes and restart and eventually figure    The first thing you realize once you start Surviving Mars for the first time is that there is no tutorial. Some may see this as a negative, I kind of liked it though.

    You are the first expedition to the red planet, figuring a lot of things out on the go via the tech tree and in a way it makes sense not to have a tutorial.

    You will make some mistakes and restart and eventually figure out the basics. Easy to learn hard t master.

    The radio stations are enjoyable and have a lot of great music, feels a bit like the Sims with their own catchy tunes.
    The graphics are pretty and performance wise the game runs 100% fine for me, only in the late game lag becomes an issue, but that is expected.

    The tech-tree is randomized each play through giving you a new experience each time.

    Up until now the game sounds great and some may wonder why I rated it 3/10... Well buckle up:

    The most annoying issue is the fact that your domes do not interact with each other. You cant just build one residential dome, one for entertainment and one for work. Everything has to be in one dome, so each dome needs a residential building, some sort of food source and some form of entertainment.

    This completely destroys the colony feeling (at least for me) and makes micromanagement far less fun. It's plain annoying and makes dome building feel like a chore ("Did I place a Diner in this Dome already? Got Shops? Got work?") instead of being able to manage the colony at a greater scale....

    The UI is clunky and feels like its working against you at times with the way the mouse buttons are bound (Rover control).
    It just feels basic and not well thought out, you don't have an actual overview allowing you to see all colonists and their work (or lack of thereof).

    Talking about colonists... The Trait system is a nice touch, doesn't matter to much though at the end of the day. It was really hyped up that you had individuals that you had to take care of and not just a mass of anonymous little minions but at the end of the day that's what they feel like.

    I feel like these are symptoms of a greater underlying issue. The game feels like and early release title. And is certainly not worth it's 40$ price tag. Not yet at least.    … Expand
  9. adrenilinmatt
    Apr 11, 2020
    10
    amazing game, sunk so many hours into this already. dont understand the low user score here, only complaint i have with this game is too much micro management, visuals are gorgeous, it runs like a dream, well made overall.
  10. Sandro86
    May 17, 2020
    10
    I friggin love this game. No action, no violence and yet it is so immersive.
  11. Octomort
    Mar 18, 2018
    0
    There is potential for this game. However at the moment it should be called survive the tutorial rather than survive Mars. I am a gamer of some thirty years experience. I want to like this game. The graphics are reasonable for an Indie, the premise is good. but at the state of development I am writing about, it is user off putting. if you can borrow the game give it a try but do not buyThere is potential for this game. However at the moment it should be called survive the tutorial rather than survive Mars. I am a gamer of some thirty years experience. I want to like this game. The graphics are reasonable for an Indie, the premise is good. but at the state of development I am writing about, it is user off putting. if you can borrow the game give it a try but do not buy it, not yet. The interface can be annoying and more of a problem than actually living on Mars!… Expand
  12. Jrud05
    Mar 15, 2018
    3
    I’m not digging the fact that domes can’t be connected.
    The game should also have an in-depth tutorial available since it has a bit of a learning curve. Luckily there are plenty of YouTube videos that help figure things out.
    My biggest concern so far though is the level of challenge, it just doesn’t seem to be very difficult. It would seem as if the game would need to be tough especially    I’m not digging the fact that domes can’t be connected.
    The game should also have an in-depth tutorial available since it has a bit of a learning curve. Luckily there are plenty of YouTube videos that help figure things out.
    My biggest concern so far though is the level of challenge, it just doesn’t seem to be very difficult. It would seem as if the game would need to be tough especially right at the beginning instead of the challenge only increasing as you play.
    The game seems to be mostly focused on logistics. It’s annoying to have to spend most of your time moving materials around.
    Hopefully with some updates, this game can be all it’s cracked up to be.    … Expand
  13. Janherbergh
    Mar 18, 2018
    2
    The games lacks a tutorial and the control layout on PS4 is confusing and complicated. But the worst thing (and the one makes de game totally unplayable) is the small text font they use on screen. Maybe it works on Pc, but not on the normal installation of a game console. The support is awful and there's no answer on the multiple complaints on Paradox forum. It's a. absolute waste of my money.
  14. yosa1
    Apr 7, 2018
    4
    This is a mars colonization simulation that aims to add discovery, tight management with a sandbox feel. I find its various systems to be a mess; the overall feel of the game is mediocre.

    Game play - you start with automated builders to set up a supply chain before you can colonize, those drones are controlled by various control stations, drone rovers and the rockets that you use for    This is a mars colonization simulation that aims to add discovery, tight management with a sandbox feel. I find its various systems to be a mess; the overall feel of the game is mediocre.

    Game play - you start with automated builders to set up a supply chain before you can colonize, those drones are controlled by various control stations, drone rovers and the rockets that you use for supply; the problem I noticed right away is not all drones are active across command areas when there is enough free space at a command. Time management in this game is a mess, structures will wear down by the time time you unload a cargo rocket full of the material it needs for maintenance,
    resource producing buildings will stop working or produce slowly at this point impacting any functional resource chain. Hex based assets and main grid do no work with a managed area, never have; the inability to make a pipe line in the direction that is needed ruins layout design. Time is handled in an asinine manner in whereby the tasks you take do not represent a believable in game disbelief, instead it feels fine tuned to make resources thin.

    Graphics - there great, they are detailed, there is an adequate zoom; no bugs nor lack thereof.

    Sound - adequate, not the best not the worst, and in a game like this, a looping soundtrack is about the norm.

    I would say the game play and shallow feel of this game weigh it down heavily; play it if your a fan of the genre, otherwise you will be disappointed.    … Expand
  15. Kedar89
    Apr 2, 2018
    10
    Very interesting game. I play a total of 30+ hours. The idea itself is very exciting, and the implementation is quite good.
  16. telefoonboek
    Mar 24, 2018
    0
    I am writing a bad review sadly. Paradox does have an excellent marketing department, they are really active on social media and other gaming media. They know their advertising and they got me really hyped about the game.

    However the hype is bigger then the game itself. The graphics themselves look good, but it does a very poor job explaining itself. A turtorial is almost non existant.    I am writing a bad review sadly. Paradox does have an excellent marketing department, they are really active on social media and other gaming media. They know their advertising and they got me really hyped about the game.

    However the hype is bigger then the game itself. The graphics themselves look good, but it does a very poor job explaining itself. A turtorial is almost non existant. And thats where it ends for me.    … Expand
  17. speedpitch
    Mar 18, 2018
    10
    Zum Glück gibt es kein Tutorial. - Da wir das erste Mal auf dem Mars sind und uns durchkämpfen müssen eine Zivilisation zu gründen. Ist dies genau der richtige Weg das Spiel mit Trial and Error zu beginnen.

    Grafik 9.5 - schöne Atmosphäre, viele liebevolle Details Musik 10 - mehrere Radiostationen zum Auswählen (ähnlich Fallout) Spiel 10 - Es gibt viele Perks, unendliche Variationen    Zum Glück gibt es kein Tutorial. - Da wir das erste Mal auf dem Mars sind und uns durchkämpfen müssen eine Zivilisation zu gründen. Ist dies genau der richtige Weg das Spiel mit Trial and Error zu beginnen.

    Grafik 9.5 - schöne Atmosphäre, viele liebevolle Details
    Musik 10 - mehrere Radiostationen zum Auswählen (ähnlich Fallout)
    Spiel 10 - Es gibt viele Perks, unendliche Variationen wie man voran kommt.
    Wiederspielwert 9,5 - viele Geheminisse zu entdecken

    Für mich nach Jahren, endlich eine wunderschöne Marssimulation.    … Expand
  18. Latviga
    Mar 19, 2018
    0
    Worse game I've ever played. It gets so boring so fast so fast. PlanetBase was a much better game.
  19. TitaniumDragon
    Nov 18, 2018
    3
    Surviving Mars is a 2X game. I say 2X because it is about half of a 4X game – it has the explore and expand parts down, but you’re just colonizing a dead planet, rather than competing with anyone else. The “risk” is that of a natural disaster of some sort or other striking your fledging Martian colony, but without anything really pushing back against you, it ends up feeling like you’reSurviving Mars is a 2X game. I say 2X because it is about half of a 4X game – it has the explore and expand parts down, but you’re just colonizing a dead planet, rather than competing with anyone else. The “risk” is that of a natural disaster of some sort or other striking your fledging Martian colony, but without anything really pushing back against you, it ends up feeling like you’re going through the motions.

    The game tries to differentiate itself from other, similar games – as a game with real-time building and development going on, it tries to create some time pressures, and you have to lay out electrical lines and pipes to transport life-giving water and air, as well as use autonomous drones to explore the surface and build stuff. But in the end, it all ends up falling a bit flat.

    You are in charge of overseeing the colonization of Mars. You aren’t an actual character, but the standard impersonal RTS commander. The game starts with you deploying a rocket to Mars full of the stuff you’re going to need to set up your colony. Rather than starting you off with people on the planet, instead you start off with a bunch of drones and some prefab structures to help set up your first colony. You must set up some water condensers, some oxygen refiners, set up some fuel manufacture (so you can send your reusable rocket back home), and eventually build a glass dome for you to build your colony inside, using metal you’ve scrounged from the surface and cement you’ve refined using an autonomous factory.

    This is all pretty rote; while you get the chance to slowly learn how the game works, this part is pretty challenge-free, and is mostly just going through the motions.

    Only once you’ve got that glass dome built – and some buildings inside that – is it wise for you to summon another rocket, this one full of people. Each of these rockets can contain up to 12 colonists. You get to pick from a list of colonists of various professions, with various perks and flaws – some might be religious and thus have higher morale and never commit suicide, while others might be gluttonous, eating twice as much food. Some of these perks and flaws are better than others, and as you don’t have fine control over who the volunteers are, you have to go over a list of a few hundred people to find the ones you actually want, using some filters to find ones with particular traits or professions you want.

    This sets you into the next phase of the game, where you must keep these colonists alive for 10 sols (the game’s year-equivalent, though it treats each one as if it were a day). This is not really challenging if you’ve set yourself up properly, as all you really have to do is make sure people don’t starve to death and have something to do, like research technologies, grow food, or serve it to other people in the diner.

    Once you manage to keep those 12 alive, you can start requesting more colonists from Earth.

    Over the rest of the game, you research more advanced technologies, giving you access to new, better buildings, as well as various passive perks. Meanwhile, you work on expanding your base, building more domes, and eventually dealing with the offspring of colonists, working to train them up to be your next generation of colonists, while still bringing over more people from Earth.

    Unfortunately, the game as a whole is kind of mediocre. If you aren’t paying attention, your stuff can break down, but once you build up a decent enough supply line, it basically becomes impossible to fail and you just gradually steamroll your way over the surface of Mars. The game has a ton of micromanagement to pay attention to, but it also feels like a lot of it is outside of your direct control, as the little builder drones you have zip around and do their thing without your direct input most of the time. It’s a bit annoying to watch them not build something you want them to build, or to let something accumulate somewhere until the building can’t produce any more until a drone comes by, but even that can be circumvented by building or importing more drones.

    In the end, it all felt kind of tedious. Gradually building out your stuff without having any opposing force or faction is just kind of dull; it’s like a game of civilization where you never have to interact with any opponent and can just keep building up your cities and never react to anything. I encountered no serious setbacks, with the worst thing I faced being a broken water chip which cost me a bit of money to replace. While I intellectually appreciated that the game tried to be a bit simulationist in order to make it feel like you were colonizing a lifeless planet, it didn’t translate into fun gameplay.

    All in all, Surviving Mars is mostly a game of surviving tedium. It just doesn’t ever excel in any way, and the game struggles to engage you more than passively.    … Expand
  20. Hyperswede
    Mar 22, 2018
    6
    Bugs need to be fixed. AI needs to be fixed. Also it needs more engaging content and an end game. Otherwise it's very beautiful, fun and could easily advance to a score of 8-9 if what i mentioned above is delivered in a future patch.
  21. umbershap
    Apr 24, 2018
    9
    Great game, It was the most clean launch I've ever seen. Played it over 70 hours and never faced with a bug. Soundtracks are also masterpiece specially quantum sonic radio. I hope they continue to support to this game. I don't know why meta score of this game is low.
  22. TopHatTortoise
    Apr 4, 2018
    10
    Surviving Mars captures the feel of managing a Martian colony, and cares enough about getting the science right enough to pass a nerd's basic immersion checks. It fills exactly the gaming niche you would hope it does

    More than that, the survival aspect maintains player engagement --- screw up and everyone dies --- with sufficient tools in place that such deaths occur fairly, caused by    Surviving Mars captures the feel of managing a Martian colony, and cares enough about getting the science right enough to pass a nerd's basic immersion checks. It fills exactly the gaming niche you would hope it does

    More than that, the survival aspect maintains player engagement --- screw up and everyone dies --- with sufficient tools in place that such deaths occur fairly, caused by player error or mismanagement of risk.

    The game's "mysteries" system add good story vignettes that provide mid-late game direction and enjoyment where other city builders can become dull.

    Finally, the strong mod support means that the game's sub-optimal UI has already been fixed, and signals a high likelihood of excellent mod content in the future    … Expand
  23. PinkusPaekus
    Dec 12, 2020
    10
    Чудесная игра. Очень атмосферная. Всё потрясающе проработано. Потенциал для многократного прохождения с различными настройками сложности и изменяемыми условиями - присутствует :)
  24. Elysium82
    Mar 26, 2021
    0
    This game gets 0 for sure. It feels like a lame beta release. The colonists do whatever the hell they wish to. That is the only realistic thing...I assume on Mars that would mean death, but whatever. So, in a nutshell: this game is the perfect example of how a lame AI should work.
  25. KevLooney
    May 12, 2021
    6
    Game sucks, it has very little depth and no drive to do anything. :P I did not enjoy the game.
  26. Jenne
    Jul 10, 2021
    10
    I wasn't impressed with Surviving Mars at launch. In just two hours I found a lot of bugs and a mountain of features and systems that clearly needed a bit more time in the oven. When I saw it in a bundle with Aven Colony and Stellaris for 18 euro though I gave it another shot. And boy has this game grown. I immediately bought the season pass and with all the content the game is simplyI wasn't impressed with Surviving Mars at launch. In just two hours I found a lot of bugs and a mountain of features and systems that clearly needed a bit more time in the oven. When I saw it in a bundle with Aven Colony and Stellaris for 18 euro though I gave it another shot. And boy has this game grown. I immediately bought the season pass and with all the content the game is simply amazing. It already swallowed 30 hours of my time and I still feel haven't seen anything yet. A minor gripe - too bad the visuals are not nearly as sexy as the Tropico games, especially the UI looks cheap and old. I think it's a mistake for strategy/building game devs to underestimate visuals, it's what sells. But the rest of the game is phenomenal. The depth and complexity is absolutely spot on for my tastes, it's one of my favourite games of the last decade.… Expand
  27. Klewer
    Jul 27, 2021
    8
    A great little sim city style game about developing a colony on Mars. Plenty of depth and replay ability. Well worth your time and has different challenges and scenarios to keep you interested.
  28. nahuelst
    Sep 15, 2021
    0
    Y tuvieron que arruinar todas mis partidas guardadas, ya no sirven más, para poner el parche DLC que yo ni siquiera compré. Una absoluta falta de respeto hacia los jugadores de este juego. Lo tendré muy en cuenta en mis futuras compras, en las cuales dudo mucho que incluya a estos desarrolladores tan cínicos.
  29. OverdriveA
    Nov 1, 2018
    5
    I would say that the game is fundamentally flawed because of the mechanic that does not allow the player to assign certain colonists to certain buildings. I thought that it actually worked quite well for one dome, or for a few domes connected together at the early stages when the system assigned colonists to buildings based on their best specialisation automatically. But if you built domesI would say that the game is fundamentally flawed because of the mechanic that does not allow the player to assign certain colonists to certain buildings. I thought that it actually worked quite well for one dome, or for a few domes connected together at the early stages when the system assigned colonists to buildings based on their best specialisation automatically. But if you built domes that are on the other side of the map, then everything broke down. For example, at some point the number of colonists rose so much, that the food delivery system that I had in place wasn't able to meet the demand. I figured I would just use the space in a dome that was built on the other side of the map, where resources were much more abundant, and build a new farms there. I had plenty of time before the amount of food that I had stockpiled run out. I had the shuttles built. To my surprise the system didn't relocate the colonists to a new dome, or didn't even assign botanists available in abundance at the first dome location, to work in the farms at the second location. Spare botanists were working at the factories instead. It goes even further, the system didn't assign ANY colonists to work at the second location farms for a long time, preferring to send them to factories and mines instead. When I tried to increase the priority in the farms, then the system reassigned engineers from factories, instead of moving botanists from the first location. The logic behind this setting is beyond me. It should be possible to assign certain people to certain jobs, or at least force the system to look for best application of the colonists skills first and move them if needed. Aside from this botched logic, the game has a high replayability and is interesting resource management simulator.… Expand
  30. Spartan91
    Jun 19, 2018
    9
    This is a fun, game that's relaxing and stressful at the same time. It's not for you if you don't have the patience, it's not that easy to get into and takes it's time. You have to constantly deal with your colonys problems and make sure that you're planning for the long term. It also brutally punishes any mistakes you make, you might spend hours on a colony and by the time you realize youThis is a fun, game that's relaxing and stressful at the same time. It's not for you if you don't have the patience, it's not that easy to get into and takes it's time. You have to constantly deal with your colonys problems and make sure that you're planning for the long term. It also brutally punishes any mistakes you make, you might spend hours on a colony and by the time you realize you did something wrong it might be entirely too late to do anything about. With you desperately and hopelessly struggling to safe it.
    I liked the graphics and design of the game, the whole look really adds to the experience. Controls are simple and easy to learn. I would have liked some more statistics to help plan my production and figure out my colonys consumption of resources. I guess it adds to the challenge, forcing you to do more planning yourself.
    The story elements are a fun addition to the game, really adding to the replay value.    … Expand
  31. Leviax
    Nov 22, 2018
    10
    Игра получилась хорошей. Неплохая графика как для стратегий. Интересное взаимодействия между НПС.
  32. Tomaso
    Jan 28, 2019
    2
    Replayability is not meant to be reached only with some randomized events - the gameplay should feel good at first.
    Here, the gameplay is feeling bad - not enough management options, no proper aim to add drive to the game.
    The game is about setting the colony, but you can't even connect your domes in any sensible way. If you are into economic simulators/city builders/tycoon, avoid at    Replayability is not meant to be reached only with some randomized events - the gameplay should feel good at first.
    Here, the gameplay is feeling bad - not enough management options, no proper aim to add drive to the game.

    The game is about setting the colony, but you can't even connect your domes in any sensible way.
    If you are into economic simulators/city builders/tycoon, avoid at all costs - it will only make you mad because you will not be able to get things done in the colony, like they should be done.

    The first couple of hours may feel interesting but only because you have to learn basic operations... Then you find out there's nothing more left, and you can't even optimize these simple actions.

    It feels like an ALPHA version with basic features set up, but no one ever taken time to think about how to connect these features into satisfying and deep gameplay.
    Quite a potential, but... wel... maybe they will reach ~60% of it with DLCs, as always with Paradox.

    All this stupid pace of the game could appeal to somebody who haven't ever played a well designed game like this. For all the others - it will get tedious faster than you'd expect.    … Expand
  33. Psiraphim
    Mar 21, 2019
    8
    Отличный градостроительный симулятор другой планеты. Интересные события, хорошо продуманная экономическая составляющая. С точки зрения реализма есть некоторые проблемы (куполы бессмысленные, потому как проще отдельные здания связывать трубами-переходами, питание только растениями и быстрый полет) но все перекрывает юмор. Don't Panic!Отличный градостроительный симулятор другой планеты. Интересные события, хорошо продуманная экономическая составляющая. С точки зрения реализма есть некоторые проблемы (куполы бессмысленные, потому как проще отдельные здания связывать трубами-переходами, питание только растениями и быстрый полет) но все перекрывает юмор. Don't Panic!
  34. Mattyc96
    Mar 18, 2022
    5
    The level of micro management needed is excessive. Colonists starving to death because they wont use a passage way. Endlessly transporting resources from one area to the next. It's not fun past a certain point. The foundation is here for a fun city builder, but the game wont get out of its own way to be enjoyable for me.
  35. Genek13
    Feb 10, 2022
    9
    One of the best sim-economy-strategy games I played in recent years. The atmosphere and mechanics are driving you in to hours with this game.
  36. Ryhley
    Dec 27, 2019
    9
    I played it on Mac. It counts as PC game ? I absolutely loved it. The graphics was great, the tempo of a game was good, sometimes the amount of disasters at same time, same region was a bit too much. But Definitely a game worth several hours per level. And few dozens in general (so far :) ).
  37. Sepherim
    Jul 21, 2021
    7
    Surviving Mars probablemente, por sus mecánicas, sea un juego relativamente fácil para aquellos avezados gestores. Sin embargo, para los que no lo somos (es un género que siempre se me ha dado mal), tiene una serie de mecánicas que hacen que la colonia vaya creciendo progresivamente, de modo que es relativamente fácil mantener controlada la situación, saber lo que hace falta y avanzar. NoSurviving Mars probablemente, por sus mecánicas, sea un juego relativamente fácil para aquellos avezados gestores. Sin embargo, para los que no lo somos (es un género que siempre se me ha dado mal), tiene una serie de mecánicas que hacen que la colonia vaya creciendo progresivamente, de modo que es relativamente fácil mantener controlada la situación, saber lo que hace falta y avanzar. No tiene una campaña como tal (como sí tiene Tropico, por ejemplo), pero tiene una variedad de historias que puedes escoger en cada partida (una cada vez) que le dan ese rollo de trama, junto con el desarrollo de la colonia desde el primer dron hasta el final. Me hubiera gustado que hubiera una mayor variedad de edificios que construir en la colonia y más tecnologías, incluso con los DLCs se acaban haciendo un poco escasos. Pero en general el juego está guay, te enfrenta a las hostilidades de Marte pero sin resultar abrumador.

    Gráficamente el juego cumple, aunque no es ningún portento. La música es discreta, lo suficiente como para no llamar la atención y no aburrir, aunque no tan variada como podría ser. Y, al menos en mi experiencia, no me he encontrado con bugs (salvo que consideremos un bug la tendencia de la tierra a no ser plana aunque la aplanemos).

    Por todo ello, sin duda Surviving Mars probablemente no sea el mejor exponente de su género, pero si resulta un juego muy entretenido y con la suficiente progresividad como para no ser abrumador. Un 6,5.    … Expand
  38. Malah
    Apr 9, 2021
    2
    I really like the game. There is a lot of planning involved in building your base since you can fail quickly. I enjoyed playing the game even when my first few days were just failures because I was forgetting about something. Music is really well composed. However, I have never finished any scenario, it took ages to upload the saved game to Epic store and in most cases it didn't work atI really like the game. There is a lot of planning involved in building your base since you can fail quickly. I enjoyed playing the game even when my first few days were just failures because I was forgetting about something. Music is really well composed. However, I have never finished any scenario, it took ages to upload the saved game to Epic store and in most cases it didn't work at the firs attempt. Each time I tried to play I needed to wait ages for the synchronisation with a cloud so at some point I just give up. Which is a shame because the game seams is great. I regreat that i get it on epic store.… Expand
  39. Gorbunov2004
    Jul 18, 2021
    9
    Игра прикольная но через пару часов быстро надоедает и больше в неё играть не хочется. Как стратегия игра хорошая, меню отвратительное и кривое. Но все равно колонистом быть прикольно!
  40. CompleteIdiot
    Mar 17, 2021
    8
    I thoroughly enjoyed the game overall. It has plenty of fun mechanics, and seeing your colony grow is very pleasing visually. Great concept and overall solid execution. But unfortunately the end game is quite lacking for me. You build all the wonders, see a pretty colony and feel happy for a while. But having an additional run with different difficulty settings seems unnecessary, as thereI thoroughly enjoyed the game overall. It has plenty of fun mechanics, and seeing your colony grow is very pleasing visually. Great concept and overall solid execution. But unfortunately the end game is quite lacking for me. You build all the wonders, see a pretty colony and feel happy for a while. But having an additional run with different difficulty settings seems unnecessary, as there is little incentive to do so. The variations between runs is not there, you will gain the same tech and focus on the same economic points. I recommend the game for anyone who wants to play something strategic for 10-15 hours.… Expand
  41. Rekbond
    Jan 23, 2021
    6
    A pretty good city building game with a good "core gameplay". But the Insane micro-management that comes mid-late game (4+ hours into the game) ruins the experience of having fun playing "Surviving mars". NPCs just go from dome to dome with no plan at all and after a while, it just goes into a mess and there is almost nothing you can do unless you want to micro-manage for 20 hours.A pretty good city building game with a good "core gameplay". But the Insane micro-management that comes mid-late game (4+ hours into the game) ruins the experience of having fun playing "Surviving mars". NPCs just go from dome to dome with no plan at all and after a while, it just goes into a mess and there is almost nothing you can do unless you want to micro-manage for 20 hours. furthermore, in late-game all of your resources are gonna run out which is really annoying to deal with. plus the planet transformation, although it's a nice mechanic and fun at first, is taking way too long to complete and it's becoming kinda boring after a while.
    In conclusion, 6/10, buy after-sale.    … Expand
  42. Demiurge11
    Feb 25, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Surviving Mars is a city-building simulation game, but on Mars!

    The Good:
    - It's visually stunning when it comes to the surface of Mars and the objects you're building on it. This is particularly true for the blast marks for space ships and meteor impacts. Amazing! This really helped put me in the mood of "I'm on Mars!"
    - I really enjoyed the sound track.
    - The tutorials do a decent job of showing you how to play the game without over-explaining.
    - The early game is a really interesting mix of exploration, resource management, difficult choices, and the struggle for survival. You have to carefully balance producing resources locally, bringing in resources from Earth, becoming independent, and protecting yourself from potential disasters or accidents. You decide what to build and research. Really stressful and freaky natural disasters can happen that add a lot of tension. Each decision feels meaningful and impactful.
    - Decent game design in the early game, where annoying chores can be automated and you move on to bigger and better things.

    The Bad:
    - Surviving Mars transitions really poorly into the late game. The boredom started to set in for me once the colony became self-sufficient. Natural disasters that are a huge deal in the early game are just an annoying chore in the late game. The game transitions from the joy of exploration and the struggle for survival into the drudgery of manually moving colonists around between domes because they are too stupid to move themselves. You get warnings that your clinics are not functioning because no one is working in them and when you look around you find all your doctors working in random buildings. It's possible to automate some of this, by creating specialized industrial or farming domes for example, however, jobs that are needed in every dome, like doctors, can't be automated! You have to manually tell each doctor where to go and then impatiently wait a really long time for them to go. Sometimes, they decide they don't want to leave and you have to tell them three or four times. As your population increases, the micro-management problem only gets worse.

    The Ugly:
    - your colony, of say 500 people, is on a hostile planet. Everyone is living in domes. You desperately depend on each other for survival. Despite your best efforts, some colonists become permanently angry. If you don't set up a substantial security force perhaps they'll start blowing up buildings and stealing supplies. What would the normal reaction be to this? You throw them out of an airlock without a space suit. Obviously. If you're feeling humane you put them in prison. Why does the game have no option for capturing, killing, or reforming renegades? The only way to do this is to attract them to a particular dome and turn off the power, which seems really awkward to me.

    MINOR SPOILER: I don't want to give any serious spoilers, but there's something called Mysteries, I don't know if there are different kinds of them, but the one I got was really dumb. It involved some kind of telepathic powers, dreams, and a previously populated Mars with trees! It's just ridiculous and somewhat hurts the premise of the game, which otherwise has a very hard science feel to it.    … Expand
  43. Bushido95
    Sep 28, 2021
    4
    Игра кажется не завершена и довольно таки скучная, но если это реально финальная версия, то это печально.
  44. Rnoviok
    Dec 4, 2021
    4
    A game with an interesting idea but for me monotonous and quickly boring .
  45. ErixKing
    May 12, 2022
    5
    El juego se ve bien y es entretenido, pero siento que siempre le falta algo
  46. Hensin
    May 4, 2022
    9
    Очень атмосферная игра с возможностью создавать свою колонию, развивать ее, как тебе хочется, что построить в первую очередь, а что во вторую. При этом люблю усложненные варианты игры, где побольше метеоритов, песчаных бурь и торнадо. Нравится огромное количество модов к игре и обновления до сих пор выходят, т.е. разработчики игру не бросили. Но при этом хотелось бы побольше разныхОчень атмосферная игра с возможностью создавать свою колонию, развивать ее, как тебе хочется, что построить в первую очередь, а что во вторую. При этом люблю усложненные варианты игры, где побольше метеоритов, песчаных бурь и торнадо. Нравится огромное количество модов к игре и обновления до сих пор выходят, т.е. разработчики игру не бросили. Но при этом хотелось бы побольше разных рельефов, которые можно было бы выбрать в начале игры. Хочется увидеть более сложные ландшафты, где построить базу было бы вообще очень сложно.… Expand
  47. MaxBouncer
    Feb 26, 2023
    0
    Se você está pensando em comprar esse jogo é possuiu um macOS com o sistema Ventura não compre porque o jogo não funciona desde a atualização e o suporte pouco se importa com isso. Eles continuam vendendo o jogo em diversas plataforma informando que ele funciona em macOS na versão atualizada mas o fato é outro. Você pode entrar no site deles e procurar a area de suporte que vai terSe você está pensando em comprar esse jogo é possuiu um macOS com o sistema Ventura não compre porque o jogo não funciona desde a atualização e o suporte pouco se importa com isso. Eles continuam vendendo o jogo em diversas plataforma informando que ele funciona em macOS na versão atualizada mas o fato é outro. Você pode entrar no site deles e procurar a area de suporte que vai ter comprovado a minha informação.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

67
#67 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
52
#52 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 39
  3. Negative: 0 out of 39
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 13, 2018
    80
    Slow but hypnotically absorbing building strategy game. You will feel great while conquering the inhospitable planet, pity for designer’s mistake in not being able to connect the domes. [Issue#285]
  2. Jeuxvideo.com
    Jun 23, 2018
    65
    Surviving Mars surely doesn't lack charm and depth. Dedicated gamers will be pleased to establish a massive colony. Others will probably look for a more structured and organized game.
    Read full review
  3. CD-Action
    Jun 5, 2018
    70
    The depth of systems overseeing gameplay is commendable. It’s a shame though that few players will find enough patience to endure poorly balanced pace and experience Surviving Mars’ biggest strength – its inventive endgame. [05/2018, p.82]
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