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. 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
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. Leviax
    Nov 22, 2018
    10
    Игра получилась хорошей. Неплохая графика как для стратегий. Интересное взаимодействия между НПС.
  7. Sandro86
    May 17, 2020
    10
    I friggin love this game. No action, no violence and yet it is so immersive.
  8. PinkusPaekus
    Dec 12, 2020
    10
    Чудесная игра. Очень атмосферная. Всё потрясающе проработано. Потенциал для многократного прохождения с различными настройками сложности и изменяемыми условиями - присутствует :)
  9. 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
  10. alexaltair
    Mar 27, 2018
    9
    Perfect game. A long waiting strategy/simulator/building game. Worth playing.
  11. 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
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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 :) ).
  16. 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!
  17. 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
  18. 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.
  19. 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!
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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.
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. 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.
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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.
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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]
See all critic reviews »