Surviving Mars

After 230 hours playing this game, I strongly recommend it!
I've been reading other negative comments and I'll say this: the more you play this game the better you'll get. These kind of games have that, you cannot make a perfect colony on your first try.. gaining game experience will help you out to solve colony issues more efficiently.
Some people complain about the colonists making a mess: Yes, for example, new births need more free housing in a space tight colony bubble. Elder people do not work so you need to create space for younger people who work etc... Empty job spaces are not filled up by unemployed colonists. These issues are totally realistic, they might create a mess if you don't know what to do, but can totally be solved if you put your mind into it....that's how the game is. A lot of micromanagement!
Other than that, it is a brilliant game! Everything works well together. The game plan on the development part is great! And it is totally realistic, who knows? what you see it makes sense and it could actually happen for real...
It's an addictive game, you'll spend a lot of hours on it.
Terraforming the planet, makes Mars beautiful!

Apparently, I have over 575 hours in this game, so I guess I should review it. I suppose you can guess that I enjoyed it and that it has re-playability. They give you so many options and scenarios that you can play out that I am amazed at the depth of this game. The game is both one where resource management is important and challenging at times without being so difficult that you feel like the game is work. As far as colony-games, this is by far my favorite.
Two points of advice on playing the game:
You don't have to populate the planet right away. Feel free to have some robots do a little resource building before sending actual humans to build your infrastructure just a bit.
Invest in buildings and technologies that require less ongoing maintenance, even if that means buying more expensive buildings. The long term maintenance can be a choke point on development. If you invest with that in mind from the beginning, you will find that you are more adaptable later in the game.

This is one of those games where you think that it looks fun and you'll play for a little bit but then it's 4 in the morning and you're on sol 328 and you can't tell where the past 36 hours of your life walked off too

WARNING: Surviving Mars is bad for your health.
After spending about 90 minutes playing through the tutorial, the following evening I started my first game. Before I knew it, it was almost 1am in the morning! The next evening the exact same thing happened again!
Ridiculously addictive, 10 hours in two evenings. Hope I don’t lose my job.
I don’t know if I will survive Mars, but I’m having a blast trying.
(More detailed review to follow)

--{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Paint.exe
---{Gameplay}---
☐ Addictive like heroin
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Starring at walls is better
☐ Just don‘t
---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ Earrape
---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boiiiiii
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press ‚A‘
☐ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{Story}---
☐ There is none
☑ Text or Audio floating around
☐ Average depends an DLC
☐ Good
☐ Lovley
☐ It‘ll replace your life
---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of tea
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{Price}---
☐ There is no „price“
☑ Worth the price
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ Burning your money is better
---{Bugs}---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Assassin‘s Creed: Unity
☐ Get a nuke full of bug spray
---{hackers}---
☑ there is none
☐ not much
☐ there is few
☐ there is one every game
☐ unplayable

I don't know if the developers did this on purpose, but this is basically a remake of 1994's Outpost. The good news is that I loved that game and I've spent the last 10 years hoping someone would remake it! It's not much to look at, but it is a challenging little base building and resource management sim.
Gameplay 9/10
Graphics 5/10

Surviving Mars blends formulae from strategy games and city builders alike to create something that feels a little different and yet, familiar at the same time.
If you've played other Paradox grand strategy games, you may recognize some similarities with say, Stellaris, in the way it unfolds new discoveries, and makes exploration an important part of progress.
If you've played more "survival" style city builders, such as Cliff Empire, Frost Punk, or They Are Billions, you may recognize a similar expectation of you to plan ahead when it comes to resource management and keeping your citizens alive.
It is a hard game, however, but it's challenge lies mostly in resource management and timing. While, it never quite wants you to feel like you're fighting off the claws of death, it also doesn't want you to experience a completely safe city building experience. It seems to find the line between between both. You have rivals on the map, competing to see who can make the most progress, but no one is out to "get" you. There's no tower defence, or warring with other factions, but your rivals may try to slow you down, economically.
it also has some nice QoL features compared to other similar games, such as being able to queue research choices, and the UI is fairly uncomplicated.
Because it splits the seams of several genres at once, I can see how it might not scratch the itch for everyone, but I am definitely enjoying this little mix of RTS/4X/city-builder!