Surviving Mars

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This article is about a videogame. For the dangers for humans in Mars, see Human mission to Mars and Colonization of Mars.
Surviving Mars
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Paradox Interactive
Director(s)
  • Gabriel DobrevH
  • Tiberius LazarA
Producer(s)
  • Bisser DyankovH
  • Jay EgasA
  • Lisa BurgesA
  • Maurice KroesA
Designer(s)
  • Boyan "Chimera IvanovH
  • Boian "Blizzard" SpasovH
  • Ivan GrozevH
  • Bart VossenA
Programmer(s)
  • Ivan-Assen IvanovH
  • Svetoslav GenchevH
  • Wouter van DongenA
Artist(s)
  • ChromH
  • Scott DavidsonA
Composer(s)
  • George Strezov
  • Jonatan Palmgren
Platform(s)Windows
macOS
Linux
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
ReleaseMarch 15, 2018
Genre(s)City-building, survival[1][2]
Mode(s)Single-player

Surviving Mars is a city building survival video game initially developed by the Bulgarian studio Haemimont Games, and later by Abstraction Games, and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 15, 2018. The player serves as an overseer who must build a colony on Mars and ensure the survival of the colonists. A spiritual successor, Surviving the Aftermath, was released in 2021.[3][not verified in body]

Gameplay[edit]

Screenshot of the game, showing a dome and its buildings.

Surviving Mars is a city-building survival game that takes place on Mars and is modeled after real Martian data.[4] The player chooses a sponsoring nation and a commander profile, each conferring slightly different benefits, a unique building and vehicle. Possible sponsors include an International Mars Mission, the United States, Europe, India, China, Russia, and fictional organizations such as the Blue Sun Corporation, SpaceY, the Church of the New Ark, and even Paradox Interactive. A rocket filled with resources, drones, prefabricated buildings, and Mars rovers lands on a selected location and prepare the basic infrastructure. The only resources that may be found on the surface or extracted from underground are metals, rare metals, concrete, water and sometimes polymers, all other resources (food, fuel, machine parts, electronics, power, oxygen) must be manufactured or imported.[5] Money is only used for transactions between the colony and the sponsor, and is generated mainly from exports of rare metals. There is a technology tree divided in five categories: physics, engineering, social, biotechnology, and robotics. The game can generate natural disasters such as dust storms, meteor storms, cold waves, and dust devils.[6][7]

To create a Mars colony the player must build a dome with buildings inside, provide power, water, and oxygen, and bring colonists from Earth. Each individual colonist has traits, flaws and a specialization, making them fit to work at certain buildings and unfit for others. They also have stats on morale, comfort, sanity, and health, which vary according to gameplay. Happy colonists may father martian-born colonists. Unhappy colonists may become Earthsick and leave back to Earth, or become rebels. People may also live in the domes as tourists, who do not work and stay for a limited time, and pay money if their comfort is high enough.

The game also has storylines called mysteries, which add various events to the colony,[8] including plagues, war, rival corporations, AI revolt, alien contact, and others.

Development[edit]

Haemimont Games, developers of the Tropico 5 game, initially led the game's development.[9] The initial idea was to make a game set in outer space, and they soon realized that the setting and gameplay would be very different if the game was set on Mars, the Moon or Venus. Eventually the decided to use Mars as a result of the Mars race.[7] The team studied the real-world challenges that scientists consider when thinking about colonizing Mars. These challenges were then translated into gameplay elements for the game. To do so, the developers sought to find a balance between the complexity of the real-world science and the more simplified nature of gameplay. CEO Gabriel Dobrev cited as an example the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment, or "MOXIE", a device that can generate breathable oxygen from the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere. Regardless of its internal working, when it was adapted into gameplay it became just a box that, once plugged, generates an in-game resource. And to avoid making it too simple, they generated situations where the MOXIE would not work, and others where it would break.[7] Similarily, the game incorporates into its gameplay simplified versions of the problems an actual colonization effort would face, such as the Martian dust, the low temperatures and the constant need of food.[7]

The game's aesthetics were inspired by The Jetsons and Futurama.[7] Describing the game as a "hardcore survival city-builder, where players will be tasked with creating a livable colony in the harsh, hostile environs of Mars", publisher Paradox Interactive announced the game in May 2017.[10] The game was released for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 15, 2018. The game included mod support from the start.[11]

About a year after release, in June 2019, Haemimont signed on with Frontier Developments for development of a new property for Frontier's publishing label.[12] In March 2021, Paradox announced that development of Surviving Mars has moved from Haemimont Games to Abstraction Games, a studios that have helped the development of the game Mass Effect Legendary Edition.[13]

Downloadable content[edit]

Surviving Mars has several DLCs, available either separately or as part of the digital season pass available in the game's "First Colony Edition". Space Race, the game's first expansion, was released on November 15, 2018. It introduces rival colonies competing to achieve milestones on Mars, and two new sponsor nations, Japan and Brazil.[14] The second, Green Planet, was released on May 16, 2019, and introduces the concept of terraforming Mars into a planet that can sustain human life. Gabriel Dobrev reported that this was the highest user-requested feature since game launch.[15] Several content packs were also released, including a building pack and the "Marsvision Song Contest" radio station (with the release of Space Race)[16] and "Project Laika", which introduced ranching on Mars as well as pets in the colony (with the release of Green Planet).[17]

In March 2021, Dutch studio Abstraction Games took over the development from Haemimont, and released a free update patch that expanded the gameplay options regarding tourism.[18] The patch also released buildings created by Silva, a renowned modder of the game.[13] On August 31, 2021, the paid expansion was announced as Below and Beyond, which includes underground facilities and the ability to build mining bases on asteroids. It was released on September 7.[19]On August 28, 2022 was released a new paid expansion: "Martian Express", which includes a new means of transport: the train.[20]

Reception[edit]

The game received generally favorable reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic,[21] scoring 80% on PC Gamer, and 78/100 on IGN.[4][5]

Alongside Cities: Skylines and Frostpunk, the game helped to gain new popularity for the city-building game genre, which was in decline since the failure of SimCity in 2013. With the SimCity franchise no longer producing new games, smaller developers had a chance to provide more creative games. Shams Jorjani from Paradox Interactive said "Things that aren’t big enough for the biggest publishers, are big enough for us, and Cities [Skylines] is an example of that. Those publishers find greener pastures, and that leaves space for us to grow."[28] In particular, Surviving Mars provided an increased complexity to the genre, as unlike previous games bad decisions of the player can cause to lost the game.[28]

The city-builder game Cities: Skylines, also published by Paradox, received a free update themed around Surviving Mars.[29]

Notes[edit]

  • ^H This person worked on Surviving Mars while it was being developed by Haemimont Games from 2018–2021.
  • ^A This person has worked on Surviving Mars since Abstraction Games took over development in 2021.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Brown, Fraser (15 March 2018). "Surviving Mars review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b Hafer, TJ (15 March 2018). "Surviving Mars Review". IGN. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  3. ^ Parijat, Shubhankar (25 November 2021). "Surviving the Aftermath Review – The Last of Us". GamingBolt. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Surviving Mars Review". IGN. March 15, 2018. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2018 – via Youtube.
  5. ^ a b Shchelochkov, Daniel (15 March 2018). ""Surviving Mars review A city-builder with a killer streak"". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  6. ^ Campbell, Colin (March 15, 2018). "Surviving Mars is tough, smart and very dusty". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 31, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d e Hafer, T.J. (October 31, 2017). "Surviving Mars wants to inspire the next generation of astronauts". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on March 19, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  8. ^ Lathi, Evan (February 3, 2018). "Here's what a late-game colony looks like in Surviving Mars". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on March 19, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  9. ^ Osborn, Alex (May 12, 2017). "Paradox Interactive Announces New Space Sim Surviving Mars". IGN. Archived from the original on May 12, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
  10. ^ Plunkett, Luke (May 14, 2017). "Paradox Publishing A "Hardcore" Strategy Game About Mars". Kotaku. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  11. ^ Kim, Matt (January 2, 2018). "Surviving Mars Launches on March 15, Features Day One Mod Support". USgamer. Archived from the original on August 7, 2021. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  12. ^ Barton, Seth (June 12, 2019). "Frontier signs up Surviving Mars developer Haemimont Games as its first publishing partner". MCVUK. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  13. ^ a b March 2021, Vikki Blake 13 (13 March 2021). "Surviving Mars is back with a new update, DLC, and a different developer". gamesradar. Archived from the original on 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2021-03-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ O'Connor, Alice (November 5, 2018). "Surviving Mars: Space Race expansion blasts off next week". Rock Paper Shotgun. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  15. ^ Boudreau, Ian (April 9, 2018). "Surviving Mars' next expansion introduces terraforming". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on April 14, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  16. ^ "On Your Marks! Surviving Mars: Space Race Commences Today". Paradox Interactive. November 15, 2018. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  17. ^ "Surviving Mars: Green Planet and Project Laika Now Available". Paradox Interactive. May 16, 2019. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  18. ^ McGlynn, Anthony (March 13, 2021). "Surviving Mars is back with free tourism update". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on March 13, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  19. ^ Bailey, Dustin (August 31, 2021). "Surviving Mars: Below & Beyond takes the Martian city builder underground". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on August 31, 2021. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  20. ^ https://www.pcgamesn.com/surviving-mars/train-dlc
  21. ^ a b "Surviving Mars for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 13, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  22. ^ "Surviving Mars for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on August 29, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  23. ^ "Surviving Mars for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  24. ^ Donlan, Christian (19 March 2018). "Surviving Mars review - offworld, things are just itching to go awry". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  25. ^ "Surviving Mars Review (PS4) |". Push Square. 15 March 2018. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  26. ^ Tolentino, Josh (15 March 2018). "Review: Surviving Mars". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  27. ^ Starkey, Daniel (15 March 2018). "Surviving Mars Review: Building The Final Frontier". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 27 August 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  28. ^ a b MCV staff (July 26, 2018). "Are city-builders having a renaissance?". MCV. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  29. ^ Hood, Vic (March 8, 2018). "Cities Skylines hits five million sales, celebrates with free Surviving Mars DLC". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved May 16, 2019.

External links[edit]

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