Surviving Mars

At times, with a sim like this, success can seem kind of disgusting, as unfettered wilderness is buried alive beneath factories. Here, though, it genuinely seems to say something positive about spirit. This is a game that manages to remain optimistic about human can-do while never forgetting that Mars looks like a bit of a dive and it's going to be properly awful trying to live there. Awful, but interesting. We will go to Mars to find out who we actually are.

Surviving Mars is a new twist on a classic game structure. Haemimont have outdone themselves taking everything they learned from Tropico and expanding upon it. Surviving Mars isn’t just a fun city builder, but a nod to a different age of sci-fi when aliens were weird and the universe seemed limitless. Unfortunately, some might be turned off by lack of tutorial, as it can be confusing in the early hours as to what everything does due to a rich structure.

If you can stick it out through an unforgiving and poorly explained learning phase, there’s a lot of excitement, challenge, and customization to enjoy beneath and beyond the grand, glass habitation domes of Surviving Mars. I wish I’d had more reasons to care about the people in my colony than just the balance sheets for synthetic polymers and microchips...

By T.J. Hafer March 15, 20187.8I stopped asking the question, “How can you make a survival city builder?” when my metal mine ran dry. That left me without materials to repair malfunctioning power cables, which caused my oxygen generators to go offline,...

Surviving Mars is an utterly incredible game that easily ascends into my personal top list of best Xbox One games of all time. The abundance of emergent gameplay mechanics, the ability to build, create, and customize your personal colony, and indulge in...

Surviving Mars is a lot of hard work, but managing a burgeoning colony never stops being...

Surviving Mars is a challenging yet engaging city builder that makes me want to colonize Mars again and...

It's been said that city simulators are best thought of as a series of stocks and flows. You have essential buildings that supply resources, which are then distributed in a grand pattern etched by your design. Your success, then, depends on how artfully...