Mars: War Logs

 PlayStation 3
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Gaming Age
    Aug 23, 2013
    58
    If you can embrace the silliness — and, more importantly, overlook lots and lots and lots of glaring flaws — then you'll find that Mars: War Logs is, in it's own way, more fun than you could ever imagine.
  2. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    Jul 12, 2013
    50
    Spiders has been ambitious here but the team’s budget restraints and questionable writing hold Mars: War Logs back. Even with one’s ‘go underdogs!’ hat on, this Martian sand-fest offers less true grit than it does constant chafing. [August 2013, p75]
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 18 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 18
  3. Negative: 2 out of 18
  1. dino-grandi
    Mar 24, 2017
    8
    From what I remember this was a pretty cheap game and following an addiction to the technomancer I rather enjoyed it. There's alot ofFrom what I remember this was a pretty cheap game and following an addiction to the technomancer I rather enjoyed it. There's alot of glitches, the most notable one is in combat when you either go the character menu or try to use a skill, when you comeback it locks your movement. Another less obvious one is opening doors, you might think the game is freezing but it's actually just a delay when you reach higher levels. The environments are pretty basic compared to other rpg's but the story is compelling. Decent budget title.… Full Review »
  2. smelly
    Nov 13, 2013
    5
    For the price and considering this is a downloadable game, it's quite good...but nonetheless, this game makes me ANGRY. You see, I'm the kindFor the price and considering this is a downloadable game, it's quite good...but nonetheless, this game makes me ANGRY. You see, I'm the kind of person who always plays games on the hardest difficulty, and in this case, you don't want to do that. The "extreme" difficulty brings to light all of the games flaws in the most glaring way possible...all of them in the combat system.

    At first blush, the combat seems straightforward and responsive. You can hit, block, shoot, use powers and items (kinda like Batman or The Witcher 2). You can cancel any animation into a defensive roll or block, which I wish ALL melee-combat games did. It's great. So great, I bought this game for both PC and PS3 before getting very far into it. However, as you progress through the game, you will come across numerous situations that will leave you fumed (as in, pissed off).

    Mostly, you will be in small areas with a large group of 5 enemies around you. YES, 5 enemies is a lot, considering this is a game where all enemies take multiple hits to kill. Imagine in real life you were surrounded by a gang of 5 people armed with pipes in an alleyway. Enemies will swarm you. They will dominate you. And most of all, they will kill you. And it's all thanks to this following list of things that can and will go wrong during a battle:

    - The camera will screw you over. It will position itself at the worst possible angle. You will not see enemies rush up behind you and deliver the final blow. Even in open areas, the camera is too close and you will often get blindsided if you're not careful.

    - The lock-on system will screw you over. When you are locked onto an enemy, using the right-stick to change the camera angle DOESN'T change the camera angle, it changes which enemy you're locked onto. Accidentally switching target in a heated battle often means swinging at thin air as the camera spins to face the new target, all the while giving an easy hit opportunity to the enemy right next to you who you were previously attacking. Just don't lock-on.

    - You will get stuck on the environment. This is mostly prevalent in the underground cave levels. Nothing is worse than getting stuck on a little rock or a rod that is pointlessly sticking out into the pathway...especially when a pack of 5-7 enemies is chasing you. When they catch up to you, prepare to lose half of your health.

    - The tactical pause menu will screw you over. During the battles, you can pause the game to use weapons and powers (kinda like in Mass Effect or Dragon Age). However, when you unpause the game, there is a small chance you will get a glich and NOT be able to move forward and backward for several seconds. During this time, if any enemies are nearby, they will kill you.

    Also, sometimes, when you select a power from the pause menu, you may end up rolling forward instead of using the power. Not generally a good thing, especially when you roll straight into the pack of enemies you meant to throw a grenade at.

    Luckily, instead of using the pause menu, you can map powers to L2, R1, and R2 for quick use in battle. HOWEVER, L2 and R2 only work like 25% of the time. LITERALLY. You will have to jam on them repeatedly to work. Either that or my controller is messed up (but since it works perfectly fine for all other games...no).

    - Your squadmates will screw you over. Until very late in the game, your companions will usually go down within several seconds of starting a fight. Especially the character "Innocence." I thought he was a pretty good character until I saw him fight. Completely useless. Also, the commands you can give them are not very useful, especially "defend yourself."

    Most of these issues seem like they could be fixed given more testing, but alas, they remain, and only serve to deliver you cheap-death after cheap-death. It's why I died...a lot. I hear this game takes 6-8 hours to finish on wimp difficulty, but my final playtime was 21.5 hrs. Probably 95% of the countless deaths I had were just from cheap garbage like what was listed above, which is a shame. As I mentioned, the other elements of this game are quite good considering the price and scope.

    For the good, the game looks spectacular on console. The art design is hit or miss, depending on your tastes, but technically it looks sharp and runs great. Very impressive. The story...has potential, is quite good at times and quite bad at others. There love interests in the game, but the pacing is very rushed considering how late partners come into the game, and how quickly the game ends.

    All in all, I would recommend this game to the kind of person who plays the demo and likes it. There were many, MANY times where I hated this game and wanted to come on here and give it "0 out of 10" since it pissed me off so bad, but I'm looking forward to the next game from this developer (Spiders) and hope they can refine the Action RPG formula they seem to be honing.

    Finally...don't play this game on "Extreme" difficulty.    … Full Review »
  3. Gregiorp
    Oct 11, 2013
    7
    I knew nothing about this game browsed the demos on PSN and tried it out. The story is interesting humans have colonized Mars in the futureI knew nothing about this game browsed the demos on PSN and tried it out. The story is interesting humans have colonized Mars in the future and due to a catastrophic event have been stranded there. The descendants of those colonists (those not mutated by the event) have formed different groups and are fighting each other.

    The Good: I enjoyed the story its nothing special but its fun. Combat is decent you have attack, block guard break and evasive roll. As for ranged combat you have a gun and after a point in the story you gain access to the "magic" powers of the Techromancers (control electricity.) As you level up you gain perks and skill points. The skill trees are good nothing overly complicated. There is a crafting systems allowing you to mod your weapons/armor or create health/mana packs and explosives/ammo. After a fight you may notice your enemy still writhing on the ground you don't actually kill them you are given the choice to "finish them" giving yourself serum (in game currency and crafting material) which was a interesting concept.

    The Bad: Combat can be annoying at times enemies can hit you even after you have rolled away from them or are behind an object and not in their line of sight. You AI companions are nearly useless usually only good for distracting some baddies before they die, giving you time to kill their comrades. The areas are linear giving you maybe two paths through an area and both paths are the same group of baddies between you and the objective.
    The Neutral: The environment is bland while everything is worn rusty metal or red martian sand. The colors match what you would expect of a martian wasteland so I let that slide. The voice acting is okay although sometimes the subtitles didn't match what was said. You have the option to be good or bad aside from a few conversations its really didn't seem to matter. If you're good you get a discount from merchants who sold items that you will either find in the world or given as a reward anyway. While I didn't play evil its seems you don't get the discount but can intimidate some NPC's which seemed unnecessary. Mars: War Logs is a very short game and can easily be finished in a few hours even doing the side quests but if you take your time read from the in game codex it will be an enjoyable time.    … Full Review »
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