Surviving Mars

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]

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

Gameplay

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, each conferring slightly different benefits and a unique building and vehicle, and then lands on Mars with robotic drones and rovers. These rovers and drones prepare the colony for humans on the red planet by setting up power and water infrastructure, domes, resource depots, oxygen generators, and landing pads. The player's goal is to create a thriving colony on Mars with occasional rockets from Earth, which have limited cargo or passenger space, forcing the player to balance paying to import resources from Earth and producing resources on the planet. For example, the first human colonists will bring limited food with them on their rocket, so farms are crucial to a thriving colony on Mars.

The player can bring electronics, machine parts, food, concrete, metal, prefab (pre-fabricated) buildings, rovers and drones from Earth, or research technologies to manufacture them on Mars.[5] After successfully creating and managing for basic resources on Mars, players can have the option to progress by building domes suitable for human life and advanced resources production. Players must balance expanding the colony by managing oxygen, food, water, electricity and replacement parts while progressing through unlocking technologies by researches. Through the 5 fields of research (Physics, Engineering, Social, Biotechnology, Robotics), players can unlock technologies that will eventually lead them to different wonders.[6] The game also has storylines called mysteries, which add various events to the colony,[7] including plagues, war, rival corporations, AI revolt, alien contact, and others. Rare metals can be exported back to Earth for funds. Landing sites also have various natural disasters like dust storms, meteor storms, cold waves, and dust devils to increase difficulty.[8][9]

Development

Haemimont Games, the developer of the Tropico series, initially led the game's development.[10] 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. The game's aesthetics were inspired by The Jetsons and Futurama.[9] Describing the game as a "hardcore survival city-builder", publisher Paradox Interactive announced the game in May 2017.[11] The game was released for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 15, 2018 with mod support.[12]

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.[13] In March 2021, Paradox revealed that development of Surviving Mars has moved from Haemimont Games to Abstraction Games.[14]

Downloadable content

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, and introduces rival colonies competing to achieve milestones on Mars.[15] 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.[16] Several content packs were also released, including a building pack and the "Marsvision Song Contest" radio station (with the release of Space Race)[17] and "Project Laika", which introduced ranching on Mars as well as pets in the colony (with the release of Green Planet).[18]

In March 2021, Dutch studio Abstraction Games took over the development from Haemimont, and released a free update adding space tourism features; a full paid DLC expansion was announced for later in the year.[19] 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.[20]

The city-builder game Cities: Skylines, also published by Paradox, received a free update themed around Surviving Mars.[21]

Reception

The game received generally favorable reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic,[22] scoring 80% on PC Gamer, and 78/100 on IGN.[4][5]

Notes
  • ^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
  1. Brown, Fraser (15 March 2018). "Surviving Mars review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  2. 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. "Surviving Mars Review". IGN. March 15, 2018. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2018 – via Youtube.
  5. 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. "Surviving Mars - Dev Diary 7: For Science! By Boyan Ivanov from Haemimont Games - Steam News". store.steampowered.com. 2018-03-14. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. "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.
  18. "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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. "Surviving Mars for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 13, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  23. "Surviving Mars for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on August 29, 2020. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  24. "Surviving Mars for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  25. Tolentino, Josh (15 March 2018). "Review: Surviving Mars". Destructoid. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  26. 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.
  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. "Surviving Mars Review (PS4) |". Push Square. 15 March 2018. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
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