Occupy Mars: The Game

Almost nothing is explained, nothing is intuitive, Click to pick it up. Click again it vanishes. Did you drop it? Is it in the inventory? Who knows? Does it fit? Maybe. What do these levers do? Just play with them until it works. Arbitrary. Random. Unexplained.

It can be laggy in some parts, it's overly complicated, it's strangely realistic in some ways but unrealistic in others, and it's generally just not very fun in my opinion. If they would have simplified things in some ways for quality of life reasons and streamlined a lot of the basic mechanics then it could have been better.

Previously I would have given this a good review. But a recent playthrough has exposed some concerning game progression bottlenecks. Add to that some game stopping bugs and high potential for soft locking, and it all adds up to a pretty poor experience for new players. Tech progression now not only requires unlocking tech through discovering tablets, but now also through doing specific chemical reactions in the chemistry lab as well. These reactions require specific chemicals, and these are only accessible by complete chance from certain ore bearing rocks. The game doesn't tell you this, nor which rocks contain what you need to progress. An upgraded scanner can help, as can the crusher, but you can't get either of these without the chemicals to begin with, so you're stuck going into it blind. Additionally, if you happen to misplace water bottles, or CO2 cannisters near the beginning of the game, you might be better off starting a new game. You can't make water bottles until late in the game, and you need 4 of those to do one hydrolysis reaction. The chemistry lab wont use water provided to the habitat by wells. As for game stopping bugs, I quite often get one that stops me fro…

WHY WOULD YOU GO TO SLEEP ON THE BED IN YOUR SPACESUIT, PLEASE MAKE IT MORE REALISTIC AND FOR GOODNESS SAKE HAVE MORE DOWN TIME WITH CHATTING AND EATING AND DRINKINGWITH COLLEGES

I’ve been playing since day one of the Steam release, and there are still a lot of bugs. I haven’t touched the campaign since the early days. Back then it was basically a sequence that dumped you into sandbox. I’ve read that it’s been expanded since, but I’m only really interested in sandbox. In sandbox, you land in a pod that’s indestructible, has infinite power, and slowly generates oxygen. It has chairs you can sleep in to pass time, plus starting supplies based on your settings. Early game is fun: mine for a few tech points, salvage nearby ruins for materials, build your first well, and set up a solar panel to charge your suit and the damaged ATV that always spawns at the local ruined base. Ruins also have MREs and other useful loot. All of this happens on a timer, because night cold and weather events will kill you if you’re not ready. Dust devils are annoying and can hurt you; solar storms, tornadoes, sandstorms, lightning, and meteors are a death sentence early on. Getting your first workshop built, powered, and fully kitted out actually feels like an achievement. Later ruins are worth hunting for food, bottles, building materials, and especially tablets that unlock new te…

I LIKE GOOD GAME