Tharsis

Tharsis is a time-waster. Nonetheless it is a time-waster that's thoroughly recommended wasting time on - particularly good for fans of strategy and decision-based titles. The difficulty will occasionally peak unfairly, as chance dice requirements can cripple a play-through, even on the lowest difficulty setting, often, though, and probably intentionally, requiring one to make a lose-lose decision to progress. Dice physics may also seem to be working against the player on re-rolls, though it's a small niggle. Whether it's despite or because of this, Tharsis kept this reviewer coming back for more. It is compelling attempting to make it to week 10 and the planet Mars - with just enough variance and those difficult choices that it doesn't get boring seeing the same story beats over and over. It's probable that this will stay loaded, on console, for return visits for quite some time to come.

As unique and entertaining as this game is, I felt too much of it was left to sadism and luck. The difficulty level is high, not because the strategizing part was hard to do but because Tharsis seems to insult you when you’re doing too well. While I must commend the overall gameplay to be novel and actually enjoyable, the chances of you winning, even with good odds, is very slim. But on the missions where events don’t feel randomly generated to kill you, that’s when the appeal of Tharsis comes to life. It’s a great concept for a turn-based strategy game but be prepared for its unforgiving nature because you’re definitely going to die more than you survive.

Tharsis would be a game I would enjoy playing on a tabletop with some buddies, while drinking some beers, and enjoying our repeated failures. However, as a single-player video game, with only a few extra missions to take you out of the basic gameplay loop that is consistently frustrating, the overall experience has all the right parts but just leaves too much up to chance to be enjoyable.

Tharsis captures the ethos of a tabletop game perfectly, with layered, easy-to-learn mechanics and dynamic presentation. But with too much emphasis on luck, losses often feel unfair, making this a recommendation for intrigued tabletop gaming fans only.

There would be a good story to be had if Tharsis was developed to involve more than just trying to survive a few rounds. The theme of surviving on a spaceship and figuring out how to keep everything—and everyone—together should make for a good game. Unfortunately, Tharsis fails on too many points to be really worth playing.