Surviving Mars

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

Bottomline: Wait for a sale. Or get Planetbase instead.
"Out of the box", the game is a decent (if a bit shallow) builder. Its only sin (and its a big one) is that the developers chose PARADOX as its publisher.
And you know what that means. You pay for an incomplete game and have the rest of it sold to you in dozens of little pieces over several years. Its sold using the same greedy, miserable business model paradox uses in all their games. The reason i dont buy paradox games anymore.
I still think the base game is good, wich is why i gave it a thumbs up. But do be warned that there arent much things to build or stuff to do. If you want anything interesting besides the basic buildings & stuff, you have to pay extra. Several times!
You Want some new buildings (cosmetics) to add to the game´s short variety? PAID DLC
Would you like some new buildings that actually do some stuff (non cosmetic)? PAID DLC.
Want terraformation? PAID DLC.
Howbout some animals, pets? PAID DLC.
Can i at least get a few damn extra music tracks? PAID DLC.

First thing, this game is addictive. I shamefully admit that according to my stats and I spent just a few hours less playing this game the last two weeks than I have at my full time job.
Pros:
- The research tree is huge, which means the colony is evolving and changing for a long time. Most of my game time has been spent on a single colony and I'm only about 2/3 through the research.
- The random encounters are fun and sometimes funny. Usually the choices affect future game play.
- There are side story lines, in addition to the colony survival main event and the random encounters.
- The resource list is pretty big, and not only do some need to be crafted from others, there can be chains, such as crafting fuel which is in turn used to craft polymers.
- The colonists aren't cookie cutter. In addition to age, gender and specialization, there are also perks, flaws and quirks, and those last really do influence game play. Don't place the vegans in the same dome with the ranches.
- You aren't cookie cutter. At the start of the game you can have randomly assigned or choose a commander profile. That commander profile affects some of the choices in the random encounters.
- You don't get 100% recycling. While that may seem like a drawback, 100% recycling in other games has been boring, and it really makes you strategize and be careful in your placement of buildings.
- It's not just the planet itself that's trying to kill you, your people can be their own worst enemy. Suicide is possible for your colonists, and there's a reason you need a security force.
- While it is extra content, definitely get Green Planet and Project Laika. Nothing like planning the steps for a future where your colonists mine and farm outside without their suits and without dying. Plus, there is nothing cuter than seeing llamas and tortoises walking around in your domes, and you need Project Laika if you want to put your vegans in with the ranches.
- The graphics are beautiful. If you are careful with your camera angles and zoom in completely, you can look through the windows and open doors to see interior details, such as dressers and closets in the living quarters. You can't go inside buildings, but you can move through the tubes between domes.
- The drones are adorable when you zoom in on them. They also look up to you and will miss you.
Cons:
- Micromanaging is a requirement, not an option. Every time I get the colonists straight, I'll focus on nudging along resources or checking the mining and concrete production for just a little bit, check back on the colonists and at least some will have decided to do really stupid things, like move over one dome where there's no jobs instead of the dome one move in the opposite direction which does have jobs. And sometimes they just won't go when manually directed until repeated commands and 5 or so minutes have passed.
- Your stupid micromanaged colonists will stay in a dome that you want to get them out of, despite removing all buildings and food in an attempt to nudge them into moving to better domes. Trying to manually move around half of them, see 5 minute rule above. Don't turn off the dome, they will stay in there and die of cold and thirst, rather than move to the dome just a few hexes away with residences, jobs and a diner.
- The mouse clicks are crazy. Sometimes you need to left click. Sometimes you need to right click. There's really no logical layout, you have to just learn it, and while learning you are going to undo everything by clicking the wrong button several times.
- The developer did try to clarify the mouse clicks with the picture of a little mouse for many of the actions. BUT, if you are left handed or are right handed but battling an injury, it will not reverse. I think it will be a little harder for left handed folks, because the pictures did help me learn the clicks before the injury. However even with that practice the pictures are screwing with my brain now.
9 thumbs up, but 1 thumbs down for the mouse pictures and the lack of logical layout in the mouse clicks.

The Mars Sim I have been waiting well over 20 years for! I find it has just the right amount of micro/macro management, though much of this could be implemented in more efficient ways – such as the ability to cycle through building types or a more streamlined way to manually move groups of colonists.
The starting options allow for an incredibly large range of difficulty choices – from complete sandbox (yes, please!) to hardcore frustration guaranteed (no, thanks!). I have only glanced at some mods and I can see so many possibilities these add to the already enjoyable base game.
After about 20 hours on a single colony I have completed all of my tasks and I wish there were more I could do now, which means the terraforming DLC has my interest (of course, I will need to start all over again).
Additional Details

Operating System
Ubuntu Linux 18.04 x64


CPU
Ryzen 5 1500x


GPU
GTX 1050, nvidia-410.104


Game Saves
Automatically, manually whenever you want


Notes
Auto-detected graphics settings were “high” but performance was really bad (single digit FPS at times), manually adjusting to medium fixed this for most circumstances


Technical Notes
2 crashes when manually saving (save lost to boot)

~ DIFFICULTY ~
🔲 My 90 year old grandma could play it
🔲 Easy
✅ Normal
🔲 Hard
🔲 Dark Souls/Sekiro
~ GRAPHICS ~
🔲 MS Paint
🔲 Bad
🔲 Meh
🔲 Graphics dont matter in this game
✅ Good
🔲 Beautiful
🔲 Masterpiece
~ MUSIC ~
🔲 Bad
🔲 Not special
🔲 Good
✅ Beautiful
~ STORY ~
🔲 This game has no story
🔲 Like playing Temple Runners for the story
✅ It's there for the people who want it
🔲 Well written
🔲 Epic story
🔲 Imagine Kingdom Hearts but on crack
~ PRICE ~
🔲 Free
🔲 Underpriced
✅ Perfect Price (was on sale)
🔲 Could be cheaper
🔲 Overpriced
🔲 Complete waste of money
~ REQUIREMENTS ~
🔲 You can run it on a microwave
✅ Average
🔲 High end
🔲 NASA computer
~ LENGTH ~
🔲 Very Short (0 - 2 hours)
🔲 Short (2 - 15 hours)
🔲 Average (15-50 hours)
🔲 Long (50-90 hours)
🔲 Extremely long (90-110 hours)
✅ No ending
~ FUN ~
🔲 I'd rather watch paint dry
🔲 Hard to enjoy
🔲 Repetitive
🔲 Actually pretty amusing
✅ The kind of fun youll remember
🔲 Ride of your life
~ REPLAYABILITY~
🔲 It's a one-time experience
🔲 Only for achievements
🔲 If you wait a few months/years
✅ Definitely
🔲 Infinitely replayable
~ WORTH BUYING ~
🔲 No
✅ Wait for sale
🔲 Yes

--{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

Ambitious, fun, sophisticated, beautiful, engaging, deep, challenging. It is a step up from your other colony management games and really something we have been waiting for years without knowing it. There are some fairly big negatives but the positives seem to far outweigh the challenges, and the game clearly punches above the usual Paradox line.
I was building a new home for humanity on a cold, lifeless rock as the International Mars Mission. The food was almost never a problem, but boy... did we face a couple of challenges in other areas, from constant resource shortages to mental health issues to dome migration problems, you name it. For a good part of 90 hours we somehow survived, until we hit a very bad situation with metals and the life support systems started failing in the entire colony. Some hard decisions could still be made, not everyone would have understood them... but in the end, I decided to start over with Japan as the new sponsor. Very different capabilities from the IMM. I'm loving this faction so far, the early phase is making sound progress as a 100% unmanned mission. With my lessons learned from the Colony #1 which at times was utter hell, the experience has been quite serene and enjoyable so far.
The reviews have lots of complaints about colonist management, but the majority of those seem to be a misunderstandings of the game. Impatient perfectionists will be ruined with this game - there is lots of hair pulling early on, and a couple of things which are not very intuitive with the game. Then you get smart and start to READ UP. I can't really see how you'd enjoy the game without, unless you select a lot of crutches to make it just too plain easy. There are mechanisms to handle many of the big and small problems, but also this game is a lot about macromanagement, you should also tackle the big picture and not get hung over every small detail.
The developer also seems to have moved on, and there likely won't be new DLC. But they left a trail of 19 months of patches and upgrades behind them - the game feels pretty complete and many things are now polished to be very playable. Modding is well enabled in multiple areas and is likely to bring the game forward in years to come.
So what does the game have to offer? Some of the positives:
+MUCH more challenge than in Cities: Skylines, whether you are looking for just the fresh or the pure masochistic
+Friends of industry/economy/logistics management games will be glued to the screen for hours and hours. There's really a fair bit to see here and it takes a while to get a good grip of the structure.
+Several layers of automation vs decisions you can make at both micro and macro level
+There is a decent, stable player community
+Modding scene is active and the current selection of mods can really enhance the game, addressing many quality of life issues, bringing new buildings and gameplay, or adjusting your favourite nuisances in balance and difficulty
+Mods work smooth and really enhance the game (I slapped on 80 mods for the second game and so far, they work fine...)
+The game experience is highly configurable even in the vanilla version, for replayability. Many sides of a good sandbox game are there.
+Different sponsors, landing locations, game rules etc. require very different survival strategies and a new level of resourcefulness from the commander.
+Besides the juicy and robust colony simulation, there is some additional spice to the game in terms of diplomacy, trade, LOTS of different disasters, special events etc.
+The phases of the colony are varied and interesting, from unmanned exploration and preparations to the first manned landing, the early survival, the later management of a large colony and eventual terraforming of the planet
+Colonist management is an important part of the game and does a good job. It reminds you of other excellent titles in the area - at least Rimworld and Star Traders: Frontiers come to mind - and there is lots of personality and possibilities with the colonist traits and interests. Most of the times you will be more concerned about the macro level of specialization, sanity, comfort, morale, and of course having the right number of workers in all the right places.
+Resources make a very meaningful hierarchy. Start from producing the basics and don't dream of being an electronics mogul when all you have is 50 pioneers trying to keep the water supply running and survive to see the next morning. You need water before you can produce fuel, fuel is needed for polymers... Fail to grasp and cherish this aspect of the economy and your colony will be in ruin before long.
+The tech tree has a randomization model which is simple and highly workable. It's basically linear but you don't know the exact time a certain technology will be available. There are a few interdependencies too, and breakthrough tech, modded tech, or just configurable game rules also break off the linearity, too.
+The domes are a really unique aspect to the game. You'll add your very personal touch with your design, ie. what buildings you will put in the dome for each purpose, whether it's advanced industry or a retirement resort - and you'll probably fine tune your designs for a long time to come. Dome sizes also evolve as your colony grows.
+Overall, many mechanics are innovative and really bring out the hardships and challenges of living on a barren, remote planet. Being self-sufficient is a big challenge early on, you are dependent on the rockets coming from Earth, but you are supposed to send something back too...
They have done a solid job with this one.