Tharsis

 PC
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 58 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 58
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 58
  3. Negative: 28 out of 58

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  1. Rtheom
    Jan 12, 2016
    4
    I really like the premise of this game, but this would be MUCH better as a tabletop game. Its almost weird that they made it a PC game. Unfortunately I have a very bad feeling that the reason the game is so difficult is not because they meant it to be, but because they're trying to cover up the fact there there is very little to it. If you like strategy games, pick it up if it drops toI really like the premise of this game, but this would be MUCH better as a tabletop game. Its almost weird that they made it a PC game. Unfortunately I have a very bad feeling that the reason the game is so difficult is not because they meant it to be, but because they're trying to cover up the fact there there is very little to it. If you like strategy games, pick it up if it drops to about $2 or less. Otherwise, this wasn't worth the $10 I paid (which was on sale from $15).… Expand
  2. GrizzledGamer
    Jan 15, 2016
    4
    I was wooed by this game's premise, but, after giving it a long enough whirl to beat it, I'm pretty sure this particular game has no business existing in either digital or board game form. The game's like 10% skill, 90% randomness. What sucks is that while the skill is ABSOLUTELY necessary, randomness will kick in the balls every time. There are so many things in this game that shouldn'tI was wooed by this game's premise, but, after giving it a long enough whirl to beat it, I'm pretty sure this particular game has no business existing in either digital or board game form. The game's like 10% skill, 90% randomness. What sucks is that while the skill is ABSOLUTELY necessary, randomness will kick in the balls every time. There are so many things in this game that shouldn't be randomized. Why are the starting states and locations of all characters random? There's no need for that. You can be pretty much hosed from luck of the draw in starting position.

    This wouldn't be any better as a board game because, setting this all up and then putting it back in the box would be a pain in the ass. Getting 4 people together to roll dice and discuss whether or not you're screwed and should just restart the game isn't my idea of a fun time, either. So, so many things to work on.

    To top it all off, the ending is a big eff you to the player. If this drops below $5, maybe give it a shot.    … Expand
  3. hootis
    Jan 17, 2016
    3
    It took me 4 tried to beat this game or about 30 minutes. The cut scenes get really repetitive, they play every time you go through, which is about 5 times a play through minimally.

    I have unlocked two of the extra characters and they are really meaningless. They don't help you beat the game on hard. I don't know about the others though. There are a lot of people getting frustrated    It took me 4 tried to beat this game or about 30 minutes. The cut scenes get really repetitive, they play every time you go through, which is about 5 times a play through minimally.

    I have unlocked two of the extra characters and they are really meaningless. They don't help you beat the game on hard. I don't know about the others though.

    There are a lot of people getting frustrated with this game. I didn't feel that. I only got frustrated when I had realized I lost, there was no way to win. And you can't easily quit the game.

    Also sometimes you can lose right on the first week, depending on where the disasters strike.
    I think there is too much randomness in the start that can make or break the game. So you're kind of tempted to just roll starts until you get a good one. Which is not how the game should be played.

    There is really no point to play this game more than 30 minutes once you beat it, the game play is too repetitive. Some people compare this game to FTL which you can play for 40 hours easily, that's a joke.

    The plot is also pretty dumb, because it doesn't go anywhere, it feels like the game is 20% complete.    … Expand
  4. Mikimax
    Jan 16, 2016
    3
    Damn man. This must be the least time spend in-game before giving a score.
    All in all, this game...well...if you don't like dice and randomness and INSANE amount of stupid **** happening and breaking across your ship for no apparent reason than yeah....it sucks, bad.
  5. Alessi0
    Aug 13, 2016
    3
    F..k this game. Really. From the bottom of my heart.

    Having said that... as a concept, its really interesting. You lead a spaceship, and each "round" problems occur which reduce either crew health, or the health of the ship itself. To eliminate the problems, the player uses dices: for each of the 4 main characters one has a number of throws of the dices (max 5, 1 min), whose score you    F..k this game. Really. From the bottom of my heart.

    Having said that... as a concept, its really interesting. You lead a spaceship, and each "round" problems occur which reduce either crew health, or the health of the ship itself. To eliminate the problems, the player uses dices: for each of the 4 main characters one has a number of throws of the dices (max 5, 1 min), whose score you can deduct from the number set for the "problem" to be addressed; once brought that number to zero, the problem is solved. In addition, each section of the ship and each character can use dices to obtain other resources or bonus.
    Cool! Interesting, isn't it? Sounds like fun, right? In the early rounds, it is. Handling worktime (namely, dices) of the crew, playing, having fun. Luck has a limited effect, and if you make right choices it's okay even if the dices were a little hostile during the turn.
    Towards the 4th, 5th turns though... and beware, i'm talking about the game on easy difficulty, try to think how it is in normal or hard, the game goes heavy with a terribly frustating concept: for each roll of the dices, to certain numbers are activated very heavy penalties. Stuff that can make you lose a character almost at 100% health on a single unlucky roll. Stuff that make you want to throw your keyboard against the wall and jump all over the wreckage. Good time management remain essential, but if the dices do not give a result almost perfect, you end up annihilated anyway. A bit like those games where if you jump sideway a millimeter you fall and die instantly, except that here it's not up to you... it all depends on random luck. Usually, in these situations, developers make those negative consequences are reduced so that they can occur multiple times without that whole game being ruined by mere bad luck. Not here. Remember the "penalties"? They means that a roll of the dice went really bad can make it clear that the whole game is lost, and you might as well start all over again as there is no hope. What the heck they were thinking? Anyway, this is how the game works. It is worth to buy it, to spend money on it? I refer you to the first line of my review. Don't hurt yourself, and stay away from this stuff.    … Expand
  6. mugen_is_here
    Jun 12, 2022
    0
    A piece of hot garbage! Imagine this. Suppose you have 3 players. They're losing health / action points constantly. You need to spend action points ("dice") to regain action points. Yes! It is indeed that reta****! That's the first layer of gameplay.

    Now lets add the second layer. You have a ship that is so dysfunctional that you wonder how on earth did it ever reach space. At every    A piece of hot garbage! Imagine this. Suppose you have 3 players. They're losing health / action points constantly. You need to spend action points ("dice") to regain action points. Yes! It is indeed that reta****! That's the first layer of gameplay.

    Now lets add the second layer. You have a ship that is so dysfunctional that you wonder how on earth did it ever reach space. At every turn the ship undergoes damage. What does that mean? You see your ship is composed of many elements. Any 2-3 of those elements can stop working and undergo a damage of 9-24 points. You need to heal these otherwise it's game over. And how do you heal them? Well, each player you own can heal a part by approx 6-11 points.

    In other words the game is extremely infuriating where every turn multiple parts get damaged while you play catch up. You can never catch up because your players are losing action points + health + insanity as well! You need to catch up on those as well!

    An absolute piece of garbage this game.    … Expand
  7. Kristoff_PL
    Dec 22, 2021
    0
    hi all its in polish:
    Tharsis = gówno , nie kupujemy , nie gramy :
    szansa wyrzucenia 6= 5%, szansa wyrzucenia 1 czy 2 czy 3 = 20 %
  8. Broyax
    Dec 29, 2016
    1
    Voici un jeu qui donne une illusion très temporaire de stratégie alors qu'il est aussi aléatoire qu'une grille de Loto... ou que quelques lancers de dés au casino...

    Et comme au casino, vous ressortez lessivé après avoir tout perdu. Evidemment. On peut donc excuser les graphismes chers au genre indé, lesquels ne sont pas si horribles ma foi, on peut trouver la musique sympathique et    Voici un jeu qui donne une illusion très temporaire de stratégie alors qu'il est aussi aléatoire qu'une grille de Loto... ou que quelques lancers de dés au casino...

    Et comme au casino, vous ressortez lessivé après avoir tout perdu. Evidemment. On peut donc excuser les graphismes chers au genre indé, lesquels ne sont pas si horribles ma foi, on peut trouver la musique sympathique et l'interface générale correcte...

    Mais on ne peut certainement pas cautionner ni défendre un jeu aussi aléatoirement mal foutu, même en "facile" ! Il faut bien entendu recommencer à l'envi (si l'envie masochiste vous en prend) puisque le jeu sauvegarde uniquement lorsqu'on le quitte -ce qui ne change pas grand'chose puisqu'inévitablement une cascade d'évènements malencontreux vous tombent sur le coin de la gueule et le vaisseau finit par exploser.

    Jouer à Tharsis équivaut à jouer à colin-maillard sur l'autoroute en espérant éviter les bagnoles aux coups de klaxons.    … Expand
  9. Laer
    Mar 14, 2017
    3
    Sin duda no es un mal juego, pero esperaba algo más de él que una simple diversión momentánea.

    Es un juego de dados donde la nave es nuestro tablero y las distintas estancias de ésta, son zonas que tenemos que salvar de ciertos peligros que nos vendrán por turnos con nuestra tripulación, la cual tiene que mantener una buena salud, estado anímico y comer para recuperar dados. No tiene    Sin duda no es un mal juego, pero esperaba algo más de él que una simple diversión momentánea.

    Es un juego de dados donde la nave es nuestro tablero y las distintas estancias de ésta, son zonas que tenemos que salvar de ciertos peligros que nos vendrán por turnos con nuestra tripulación, la cual tiene que mantener una buena salud, estado anímico y comer para recuperar dados.

    No tiene mucho misterio, surge un problema, llevas a un tripulante, lanzas los dados, esperas a tener un buen resultado y con lo que te salga intentas hacer algo.

    A grandes rasgos esto es el juego, y no está mal, pero creo que tiene ciertas cosas mal planteadas. Cuando vas a tirar dados, el peligro te da inconvenientes con ciertos resultados (ejemplo: si sale un 1 tu personaje pierde 1 de vida), y esto te puede tirar una partida entera, en algo que realmente tu no tienes control. Por no decir, que para solucionar los problemas necesitar invertir puntos, y para ello seguramente necesites cifras altas (por encima prácticamente del 5 o 4) para ser efectivo.

    Por otra parte, han intentado solucionar el problema de que los números bajos no sirvan para nada con un sistema, donde puedes invertir los dados con mal resultado para conseguir ciencia, que puedes utilizar para cambiar por ciertas recompensas, como más comida o recuperar puntos de vida. Y digo han intentado, porque a pesar de que sirve, es algo que igualmente depende de la suerte.

    En definitiva, creo que es un juego de depende mucho del azar, y si, se que los juegos de dados suelen ser asi, pero la mayoría tiener un factor de estrategia donde, a pesar de numeros bajos, puedas darles un buen uso.    … Expand
  10. chusoman
    Aug 1, 2023
    1
    I want to say it is a piece of hot pile of garbage, but I'm not going to say that, the game is aggressive towards the player, you expect some degree of difficulty but not so high, D6 dices singles are very random, and the game sometimes screws you with random results as accidents, and you need those dice results because the event has an elevated random number to fulfill, that makes theI want to say it is a piece of hot pile of garbage, but I'm not going to say that, the game is aggressive towards the player, you expect some degree of difficulty but not so high, D6 dices singles are very random, and the game sometimes screws you with random results as accidents, and you need those dice results because the event has an elevated random number to fulfill, that makes the game super unfair. The tutorial is crap, they explain everything, but you can't jump over it.… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
61

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 23
  3. Negative: 3 out of 23
  1. games(TM)
    Apr 14, 2016
    50
    An interesting but frustrating space oddity. [Issue#172, p.94]
  2. CD-Action
    Mar 30, 2016
    50
    A tiny drop of satisfaction provided by a happy ending does not compensate for the frustration brought by earlier failures. [03/2016, p.61]
  3. Eurogamer Italy
    Mar 4, 2016
    60
    Tharsis is a well constructed dice-game with an interesting theme. Too bad that luck has too much a say in the player’s destiny; this can inflict frustration and anger which, in my book, are the opposite of entertainment.
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