Into the breach - Pacific Rim meets chess

Few days ago I realized that I have not written about Into the breach. So I am here to fix this mistake.

In 2012 a small studio called Subset Games created their debut game - Faster than Light - FTL. Despite the small team and niche genre FTL was a hit and turned into classic, becoming benchmark for many people in the industry. In February 2018 Subset returned and on the market appeared Into the Breach.

Small piece of perfection

I usually like to separate my reviews into sub-sections about the different aspects of the game, but Into the Breach is too small and too simple of a game for such thing, so here comes everything.

In the game you take command of a special time traveling squad which goes into the distant feature attempting to prevent the end of humanity. Similar to  FTL Into the Breach is also roguelike where when you die you teleport back to the past, re-assemble your team and can try again. During the game by completing objectives you will unlock new mechs for your squad. 

When you choose from your mechs and you are ready to start, the game transports you to the future. The world consists of islands which consist of regions. Each island have its own climate which can lead to thunderstorms, earthquakes, sandstorms and erupting volcanoes. Each region have also different objectives, some with buildings which if you succeed to keep whole to the end of the battle will provide you with bonuses and sometimes even units. 

If in a run you cleaned an island next time you will be able to start from it. 

Speaking of battles...

When you choose an island you will have a choice between few regions on this island. Each region with different advantages and disadvantages for you. What is important about the island's regions is that you will not be able to save all, some of them will fall to the insects, so you will need to choose carefully what you want and what you need. When you choose a region it is time to squash some bugs.

The battlefield is a small 8x8 square and on it the whole battle takes place. Before the battle you will have the chance to deploy your troops and this can be crucial for the battle to develop in your favor. What was surprising to me was how simple the game is and what big variety of units ( both mechs and bugs) there is in the game. The first make the game really easy to pick up and the second make it tactical masterpiece. The two together make it the gem it is. Among the bugs and the mechs you will see melee, charging units, tanks shooting in straight line, flying bugs and aircrafts, siege cannons, units creating  lightning and dust storms, bugs which bind targets stopping them from moving and more and more. The combinations and tactics are enormous amount. You will unlock thematic squads of mechs, but you can freely combine mechs from the pre-made squads into a custom squad. 
But how do you win? ( or lose at that matter) A good question. In each region you have buildings and you have power grid stat. If your power grid reaches zero you lose the run. When a building is destroyed you lose one grid and it is not restored after the battle. To win a battle you must survive X number of turns only, even in the bossfights, BUT in most battles you will also have side objectives which in some cases will give you grid, stars for unlocks or upgrade cores for your units. 

Conclusion

Into the Breach is simple game with simple mechanics. What make it so good is how well the mechanics are picked and how well they work together. It is not overburdened with complicated stats, skills or units, it is clean, only what is necessary and at the same time the game will make you bang your head against the wall and carefully plan every click you make. 

Where to find:

GoG
Steam
Humble

Preview: Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest - Not Magic in Space

This is such well known fact on the blog that I do not know why I even bother to mention it, but I am big big CCG fan. When I hear CCG and I already want to try it. So imagine how I felt when from TokArts contacted me and asked if I am interested in checking their upcoming game Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest.


Multiverse is innovative card game where you and up to 5 more players will try to conquer the Galaxy or to take the home worlds of their opponents. The game heavily reminds me of Magic: The Gathering, but at the same time is so different that I am not sure how appropriate is this comparison.  But let me tell you more about the game and you will decide for yourself.

Factions  

In Multiverse you will be able to play with one of the six factions which are color based, each color with its own playstyle. This is one of the things which reminded me of MtG, some colors are even similar to the same colors in Magic. For example Red is aggressive, Green can swarm you, Blue is heavy control oriented etc. On the other hand the gameplay and the idea of the game is different enough to make it unique and worth it. Each faction produce resources from different types of planets(similar to Lands, again...). Unlike other CCG games in Multiverse the resource cards(Planets) are not part of your deck, instead the planets of all players are part of the board - the Galaxy. 

A Galaxy to Conquer

I keep saying that the game differs greatly from Magic, but let me prove it and tell you about the core gameplay of Multiverse. In this game there is a board and your units via ships move on the map, take new planets, build structures, fight, board enemy ships. This is already a whole new game.  On top of that you can build only on places where the necessary resources are present on the space itself, but you have cargo ships to make this easier. As you can see the game is a galaxy of possibilities on its own. Now that you know what you can do you can start working on a strategy how to win. I did not tell you how you win, did I? May bad. To win you should either conquer all your opponents home planets or conquer half the Galaxy. 

Conclusion

Multiverse: Cosmic Conquest mixes CCG with strategy 4X game, trying to make something very unique and truly interesting. In the game you will do everything you have ever dreamed for in a space strategy game. You will have battles between space armadas, you will board enemy ships, colonize planets and transport goods with cargo ships in order to expand your empire. 

The game is still under development and a lot is work in progress, but you can try it in OCTGN. You will have the stunning 225 cards to experiment with and over at TokArts you can see when testing sessions are happening and play with other people too. 

In case you have no experience with OCTGN you can find full tutorial here. 

When Multiverse is complete it will run on its own engine like every other digital CCG, so if you do not like it now, give it time, this game has huge potential and for I will follow it closely.

Where to find: 

Official site

Torment: Tides of Numenera - A World to behold

You are falling from the sky...You do not know who you are, where are you or why you are falling. Faint memories flutter through your mind.

This is how Torments starts and if you are wondering, yes you can die in the first forty or so seconds of the game. Or you can live and unveil the unbelievable world of Torment.

Few things I want to say before continuing with the game. This is more of a first impressions than a review as I have not finished the game, but I have played around twelve or so hours. Second I will try to go without any major spoilers, but if you want to experience the whole game without any knowledge better not read this. Here it comes!

Who am I?

You just fell from the sky. You have no idea who you are, where are you or what happened. When I played for the first two hours I felt so confused I barely knew what to do. The game overwhelmed me. And this is how it should be, this confusion you feel together with your character is obviously intended and greatly woven in the story. When you learn more about the world you will be faced with the choice to be who you want to be or try and pretend to be the one who everyone think you are, which is decisive choice and the world will react to it. While we are on the topic of the main character something which appears to confuse people is the character creation. While making your character you will make few choices which are vague and is not clear to what exactly they lead. Some people tend to not find such way of building character fun and to them I can say only...you can choose whatever you want at the end of the "Memories segment" (where you initially build your character) so do not fret. 

World and Exploration

 Sadly, the part of Torment's world you will see is not much. Actually it is just one city(well and the endless plains of your mind, but I will let you find this on your own). But if you want to learn more about the world, yourself and what has happened you can talk with the people of the city. No I will actually go further and say that you must talk to the people of the city. The least you will get from the conversations are items, skills and side quests, but what is more important you will get knowledge for the world, for yourself and for the man you are looking for. Each dialogue choice you make shifts the Tides which are the game mechanic determining how people react to your words and to you in general.  Speaking about this, probably here is the place to say that Torment is precisely targeted game. The developers had clear idea what audience they target and because of this it is a special piece of a game. You need to be one of these gamers who are genuinely interested in the world of the games they play. If you are not you will not only miss a lot of the game but it will probably be a bit of a boring slow experience. The driving force of the game(at least for me) is the will to know more.

And while we are on the topic of talking to people and before we continue to the world I want to mention something which annoyed me a little - people are too talkative. You will rarely be denied the opportunity to talk to someone about pretty much everything. This breaks more than few characters. True, later in the game you might be able to talk about more things with certain NPCs than when you met them for the first time, but this does not really neglects the will of everyone to talk with you about everything. BUT this also does not mean you should not choose your words wisely, as I said you will talk a lot and this is what will progress you in the game. One wrong word may cost a lot. One seemingly wrong word can bring you more fortune than you imagine.

Returning on the topic about knowledge and the world - it is a world worth knowing more about, but it is not only words. You are part of this world and while you are limited in only one city mainly it is a huge city. See it, explore it, watch it. Torment looks old, but the level of details is amazing, everything around you moves, shines, works. The city pulses with life. Dive in and be part of it.

How the world works

Knowing all this, let me tell you about some actual game mechanics. Torment is squad based RPG with (small in number) turn-based battles. Each dire situation being battle or not is called a crisis and each crisis can always be resolved without killing everyone or even without fighting at all. But if things go bad during battle your characters will have two types of actions - attack action and movement action. Each of these can be spend for what it is or it can be used to activate skills. Often in battle( and almost always out of one) you will need to invest your stats in different skill checks. Each point invested this way is lost effectively reducing the stat, until the character does not rest. This system brings very interesting resource management aspect into the game, because you do not know what you will need and when also you are not able to rest just anywhere, no you can rest only on specific places and while resting some quests may progress, situations may change. 

Conclusion

Torment: Tides of Numenera is squad based RPG with turn based battles, but you will almost never be pressured to fight as there are numerous ways to resolve a crisis. Torment is a game focused on talking and learning about the world in which you have fallen(you literally fall from the sky). It is a game targeted at people who like long dialogues, hard choices, intriguing world and exploration. Oh and have a lot of free time. Torment: Tides of Numenera as most games of the genre is between 25 and 30+ hours of gameplay. But every hour invested is worth it, even if you do not finish it play it if not for another thing then for the rich palette of characters you will meet. Torment is like a how-to to anyone who is in the business of creating characters.

Where to find: 

Official site

GoG

Steam

Bug Butcher - When you cannot squash them you shoot them

Before I start this review I want to say that Triangle Studios were so nice to give me a key for Bug Butcher after I approached them. I did my best to stay objective but I believe it is good practice to state if you gotten a game from the developer/publisher for free.

Bug Butcher is 2D scrolling shoot em up with enemies coming(mostly) from above. In the game you get in the role of Harry, your friendly (badass) neighbourhood bug exterminator. You are hired by a group of desperate scientists who are almost over run by giants insects. The game is composed of 30 levels with 5 bossfights each of which will test your ability to adapt, kill and survive to the maximum in the dangers which Bug Butcher has prepared for you. 

The Beauty of the small things

The sentence above pretty much sums up the whole Bug Butcher, but here I want to mention few things beside game mechanics and gameplay. First of all the look of the game. I have never imagined that something so cartoony can be so horrifying. Graphically Awfully Nice have achieved great combination between funny and cartoony and bizarre and gruesome.
And only one more thing between continuing with the fun stuff. Bug Butcher is action/chaos packed game in which you will run left and right non-stop and in such games controls are really important. Thankfully they are not overlooked and are tight and responsive. The game supports game pads and while I am not fan of them most of the time here I will suggest you to use one as it is simply more comfortable than the keyboard.  

"I am defenseless, you must protect me..."

On each level you are accompanied by a scientist from the base and while he is not involved directly in combat, he will spawn power ups for you and in co-op he is even more important as you will be able to buy powers up from him. The problem is that there is this one kind of spiders who reaaally likes smart brains and will go always after the scientist. And if he dies you will soon follow. Managing to keep him save is the smaller problem though, the bigger one is that...

They bounce in from all sides!

Usually in shoot em up enemies come always from one side and do not have complicated movement patterns(there are some exceptions). This is not true with the case of Bug Butcher. At the start the insects will always drop from the ceiling but with levels passing they will start appearing from the floor and walls. And they will not only fly in, they will start to bounce all around the place! This will force you to be on the move constantly calculating where they will drop if you do not want to be the one who is squashed. The problem won't be the huge amount of enemy projectiles, but the amount of enemies on the screen. Speaking about the enemies Bug Butcher offers ridiculous amount of different all horrible bugs which try to kill you. They split in smaller ones, puke smaller bugs, shoot lasers, follow you around, stomp you, burn you and many more horrible things. Each new bug has its own unique design and model. I personally quickly started to give them names and hate most of them for in different combinations they are absurdly deadly and unleash unspeakable chaos on the screen. This combined with the ever becoming more hazardous levels will test your skills to the maximum.

Oh yeah!

Now that you know how horrible are the enemies it is time to see how awesome are the weapons. Harry(you) like two things the most - killing bugs and killing bugs with devastating guns! After every few levels you will unlock new power ups for the scientist to spawn for you including mini guns, rocket launchers, devastating, zapping guns and more. Aside from those the bugs will occasionally drop life, bonus damage or movement speed buffs which will often give the little you need to survive the last two or three nasty hoppers.

Conclusion

Behind Awfully Nice Studios and Bug Butcher stand two veterans from the industry and this is obvious from the start. Bug Butcher stinks of finished and polished product. The developers did not only had great idea what they want to make but they also executed it perfectly! If you are into shoot em ups then Bug Butcher is a 100% for you. It has everything you might be looking for from the nasty enemies through the chaos caused by huge amounts of enemies and hazards to the badass, over the top weapons and cheeky humour. And if you think its not chaotic and crazy enough when you play alone you can jump in the co-op and enjoy double the amount of bugs!

Where to find:

Awfully Nice Studios 

Steam

Triangle Studios

Quick Opinion - Eisenhorn: XENOS; Reigns; Inside; Mandagon

Because you read it before I decided to do it again. This is a post in which I will write short reviews of the games mentioned in the title. The point of this is to tell you about more games in shorter time, because I do not have the time to write about all of them or some of them are too short and there is not much to say about. Writing for a game in this format does not mean the game is bad or I did not like it. SPOILER: One of these games even may be in the TOP REVIEWED GAMES for this year so yeah... Let us begin:

Eisenhorn: XENOS

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY OPINION ABOUT THE PC VERSION

As you may already guessed the first title is set in the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40 000. Unlike most 40k games here you are not commanding a great army or squad of marines but instead you take on the role of Gregor Eisinhorn. Young Inquisitor at the time of the game Eisenhorn finds himself  knee deep in a conspiracy which endangers the Emperium so as every loyal subject of the Emperor he jumps head first into it trying to get to its roots and punish all the heretics who stand there. 

The world of Warhammer is rich and vast setting in which you have a lot of freedom but you should also be careful as it has very zealous community and if you screw up your game you will be destroyed by them. Sadly the case with Eisenhorn is exactly this. The game has only one strong side and it’s the story but that is probably because the game is made following the newly published book having the same title. But even this is hardly doing any good to the game as it is literally on rails and you have no saying in what is happening. Everything else is basic and hardly capable of grabbing your interest for long. The battle system is taken from the Arkham games but you barely will do anything else than chop people with your sword and roll aside from time to time. For a game set in universe where everything is massive and glorious Eisenhorn looks a bit dull as when it is ported to PC someone has forgotten to upgrade its graphics. It looks aged, like it’s made in 2005. The voice-acting is generic, animations are low quality, the battle and stealth systems are generic and basic at best. It is just another bad port sadly...as it could have been amazing game. Better go and read the book.

Official Site

Steam

Reigns

I have not reviewed mobile games in really long time, but this is mainly because I have not found anything really worth mentioning( Yeah, yeah there was Clash Royal but I did not managed to get into it for some reason). Until recently when Reigns came out. It easily was crowned as a hit and conquered everyone who played it. The simple and clean design combined with the hidden depth of the game easily made it a must try if you are wondering what new to get on your phone for those long trips to work.
In Reigns you are a king who wants to rule for as long as he can. To achieve this you should carefully balance between the four forces - nobles(money), church, army and the people. Any of this may lead to your end or you yourself may find it...in the dungeon for example. As the King you will have to cope with all kind of questions and requests from your subjects, advisors and enemies. You will go on crusades, meet the Devil, marry, have affairs, wage war...and everything else you can think of. All that you will do only by swiping left or right when presented with a choice. But when you die this is not the end. If you have ruled well you will leave something for the Kings after you, with time you will also meet new characters which will unlock new cards and make even harder for you to survive for long. In this game...your decisions really matter.

Official site

Steam

Google Play

iTunes Store

Inside

Have you played Limbo? Did you like it? But didn't you feel there is something missing, that it still can be better? If the answer to all those questions is "yes" then this is the game for you.

Inside is the straight upgrade of Limbo. In every aspect. It looks better, the story is better, it is more creepy, more intriguing, better atmosphere. It is the next logical step in the genre, after Limbo.

If somehow you have missed all the noise around Inside and you have not played Limbo (where do you live?!) then let me explain. Inside is atmospheric adventure game where you are boy who witnesses strange experiments with animals and human bodies. Why you are there, what experiments, who, how you got there - all those are questions to which you will find answers while progressing through the game, but you should be observent as the story is passively told to you in the background while you are solving jump and logical puzzles.

But this game is not for the faint of heart as you will often get shot down, eaten by dogs, electrocuted to death or fall to your end. Death is waiting behind every corner.

Very creepy and grim game, but excellently done!

Official site

Steam

Mandagon

And last for a finish I want to present you this little platformer called Mandagon. It’s a little adventure of a little stone totem. Inspired by Tibetan theology and philosophy the game tries to show you what means to make a true sacrifice. In it you are in Limbo (or Barbo if you prefer the Tibetan term) but to learn what and why brought you there you will have to ascend the mountain. Mandagon is small but surprisingly atmospheric game with some interesting philosophical ideas. A little adventure made with a lot of love by the small studio Blind Sky. I recommend it to you as it is short, but amazing!

Official site

Steam


That's it! Four games and my quick opinion about them. Sorry for the short post but time is something I did not have in last few days. Should return to normal reviews for the next time. 

Steamworld: Heist - Welcome to the Wild Wild Galaxy

Have you played Steamworld: Dig by Image & Form Games? I have not, but I played their latest creation which it seems to be taking place in the same universe. Yes, I am talking about Steamworld: Heist.

In distant future our Galaxy is inhabited by robots driven by steam. Among those one pirate stands out - Captain Piper! You will take control over her and her crew as they fight their way through evil invaders made from the scraps of other robots, and trying to take over the pirating in this part of the Universe.

That is pretty much the story of the game. Of course it develops a little with playing the game. You will learn why Piper has become pirate and such, but the story is not anything impressive and it will not be the reason for which you will pick this game. The reason you will pick Steamworld and not leave it for days to come is the gameplay. Oh yes!

When I talked to a friend about the game I compared it to X-COM but it’s actually a lot more like a mix between Worms and X-COM. You have a team of robots and you fight against other robots in tactical turn based battles. During the fight you will have to take in account the diversion of the shots, surrounding floors, covers, types of enemies, weapons you use etc. The X-COM resemblance comes from the different robot classes, cover system, special abilities, skill shots, equipment system...oh and your base of operation and ship where all your robots are stationed. The difference here is that you manually aim each shot which allow you to perform amazing skillshots and ricochets. The best part? All this is really simple and easy to grasp, but at the same time immensely fun. If I have to go into more details - the game consists of galaxy map ridden with mission spots, beating one unlocks you the next one. Each mission takes place at the enemy ship and you have certain objectives which you should complete. They can vary but are mostly loot the ship, save someone or kill/destroy something. When you complete the objectives you will have to go to the evacuation point where when your whole team gathers the mission will be counted for complete. There is no other way to win a mission. If someone dies in mission but you complete it he/she will not get experience but you will be able to use them next time. If you lose a mission it will cost you water which is the main currency in the game. From the enemy ships you can loot water, weapons, bombs, med kits and of course hats. The last are just for visuals but believe me or not you will find yourself risking whole missions just to get that one hat which you do not own. Speaking about visuals...

This is something else which together with the excellent gameplay and music will not let you leave the game. Steamworld is somehow at the same time both futuristic and retro with its black and white intro and everything being steam powered, but sentient robots ruling the Galaxy. The game is also surprisingly atmospheric for such light title. The robots are really steampunky and each one of them has its own unique visuals and character. I was surprised how much out of their way they have gone to make all those characters being unique, with background story and all.  But its great because it adds a lot to the game giving it this feeling of finished and well-polished product.

Sadly as much as I want to say that this is a perfectly executed game there are some flaws, the biggest probably being the variety of missions. More specifically the objectives which are too repetitive and even when the battles are fun the whole thing become a bit boring when you have to do the same thing again and again. The work around this (in case you really want to finish the game and like me have grown attached to Piper and her crew) is to play it in short sessions this way not burning yourself. 

Other than that I cannot say the game has any serious flaws. Image and Form Games have had very clean idea what they wanted to create and they have succeeded. Steamworld is light, fun turn based shooter implementing in itself ideas from classics like X-COM and Worms, so if you like these two you will love Steamworld Heist.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

Crashlands - Return of the survival

I think I have never mentioned it before but I used to be into Minecraft a lot! I loved it! Later Terraria came by and liked this one even more, I even still play it from time to time. Since then I have tried a few games of this type more famous of which are Don't Starve by Klei and Starbound by Chucklefish. But why I'm telling you this? Isn't this whole genre thing of the past with the market being overflown with such games? Well, I don't know honestly, but I'm mentioning these games because today I'm about to tell you more about one new game which fits perfectly among the mentioned above. This is Crashlands by Butterscotch Shenanigans. I still have not beaten it, so this is just first impressions after around ten hours of gameplay.

Fluxed with Hewgodooko and Juice

In Crashlands you take on the role of Flux who together with his robot friend Juicebox are working for intergalactic delivery company and are in the middle of important delivery when their ship is destroyed by the alien Hewgodooko. Flux and Juicebox manage to save the cargo before crashing on unexplored planet but now they are stuck there and their boss won't be happy if they are late with the delivery.

From here the story continues with you helping a lot of locals who have different problems some related and some not with your quest which is only to get the parts needed for you to build a device with which to call for help.

Roaming Woanope

From all of the mentioned in the beginning games Crashlands reminds me mostly of  Don't Starve, but with the strong equipment crafting element of Terraria. Similar to those two you will go into the wild to gather materials, craft tools and weapons also you will learn more and more about the strange world in which you have dropped. Butterscotch have managed to create vast, colorful world for you to explore. World filled with bizarre but unfriendly wild animals as well as strange nature worshiping locals. The art style of Crashlands is one thing that sets it aside from Don't Starve and Terraria. I mean both of those games look very well in their respective art styles, but neither is so bright and in both there is feeling of loneliness, even in Terraria where NPCs will come join you through the game. Here you're accompanied by Juicebox everywhere, talking with him all the time exchanging jokes, receiving advises. Also the locals will speak with you and give you quests. The game sets a totally different mood while you play it. Its more...lively! Mentioning the quests...

The biggest thing that separates Crashlands from the others are the quests. In the game as I already mentioned you will get quests and they are from what I have seen so far(around 10 hours into the game) the main progress mechanism of the game. You are free to explore the world without doing your quests but there are recipes which you won't be able to find. Interesting thing is the elaborate fighting system. Here unlike Don't Starve and Terraria or even Minecraft you won't be able to kill anything if you just stand there and mash the attack button. Every enemy that you meet will telegraph his attack in a way similar to the monsters in Wild Star for example and if you don't dodge you will be quickly stomped, bitten, electrocuted or poisoned to death. The fun starts when you aggro more than one enemy and your whole screen becomes ridden with attack patterns...

The crafting system is the same as the one in the two others - you gather materials, use the appropriate crafting station and voila you have a new item. Here you will also find the same random chance to craft different rarity of items as in Terraria. But unlike there here you get better and better when you craft one and the same item again and again.

I have not finished the game, but from what I heard it is pretty long so be prepared for some serious roaming, crafting and fighting - a charmingly bizarre world is waiting for you. But don't worry Juicebox will be there with you, not to mention that you can even tame pets who will fight for you. 

Conclusion

Crashlands is great addition to the genre even if you think that there are too many games like it. The game is colorful, lively and challenging, introducing some new and clever mechanics. With one of these it solves the biggest problem people usually have with the genre - they cannot find what to do. In Crashlands there are quests...and humor, a lot of it, not always good quality but in big quantities. Crashlands is great for those who enjoy the genre and are not tired of it and it is also great intro game with quests to help you progress when you are tired of farming ores or slaughtering nasty bugs. Crashlands - definitely charming.

Where to find it:

Official site

On Steam

iTunes Store

Google Store

Butterscotch shenanigans

Tharsis - Rolling dice and eating people on the road to Mars

Tharsis is a small game made by Choice Provisions and it's about the first manned mission to Mars. From the Tharsis region on Mars is received a mysterious signal. Quickly a crew is gathered and sent to investigate. On millions miles away from home their ship is struck by a meteor storm and it is severely damaged and two crewmates are dead. Now it’s all in your hands.

Or at least this is what the game wants you to believe. Actually you control very little in the game. Tharsis on its own is very simple. You have four crewmen each with its own special ability and number of dice. That's right you are rolling dice in this game, but let me continue. Tharsis is turn based game in which every turn your ship is struck by different misfortunes (events), to fix those you will have to complete their dice threshold. If you don't manage to do this there will be negative effects which can vary from minus dice for your crew to minus food, more stress, direct damage to the ship or to your people. 

Other important thing to know is that every section of the ship is different and important. There is a medical bay; there is a garden which produces food, flight control, and life support and operations room. Each of those sections can give you some bonuses if you send someone there to roll. This will force you to choose do you want to repair something or do you want to get something. And this I like, its a strong strategy element which can really change your game. 

Let me go back to the damage and fixing it. When a section of the ship is damaged, there, depending on the section will be some negative effect which will affect your dice and make them...malfunction. For example they may get in stasis and you will not be able to re-roll them or even be directly voided and disapear, other effects include things like wounds which equal the rolled number. When all of your astronouts have spent their dice and all unsloved events are resolved you will be given choices regarding the dispensation of resources like food, dice, stress and hull integrity.

It’s a lot like a boardgame honestly. And it really well manages to create the feeling of desperation and doom with things getting harder and harder, more crew dying and in the end...even eating some of them if things get extreme. There is also a solid dose of mystery with the signal from Mars and with advancing in the game you will receive more messages from the Red Planet. Definitely creates its own atmosphere. 

But..

Tharsis doesn't really know what it wants to be. It gives you hard strategic options and in the end the only thing you can do is rolling dice, which you cannot really manipulate. True when you see the dice almost getting the number you need but in the end failing its really frustrating and it creates the feeling of desperation that I mentioned but relaying only on luck to get you through this voyage is...optimistic at best. 

If you like space games and the travel to Mars interests you Tharsis definitely have something to offer, but only if you can endure the sheer randomness of the game.

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam Store

Humble Store