About game:

Mars, after Earth, is the best explored planet in Solar System – the expeditions of  Curiosity, Pathfindera or Phoenixa not only brought a lot of information but also ignited imagination. Based on this interest and information buzz, below game was created. It takes place in XXIV century when Earth Government took decision to finally terraform Mars.

In order to achieve it, couple of things need to happen: average temperature should rise from -30 Celsius to +8, amount of oxygen in atmosphere from 0% to 14% as well as 9% percent of Mars surface has to be covered by oceans. Players manage large corporations, which are specialized in particular areas of Mars transformation and together work on increasing critical parameters.

The whole mechanic is based on over 200 of cards: immediate events, additional actions and improvements – when combined with initial characteristics of corporations you can build very powerful combos.

Also, there are many paths to victory, to get the points and income, and the amount of cards is so huge that rarely ever we will encounter the same card twice (you really need to play 2-3 times for this to happen).
Number of players: 1-5 (for me the best is 4)
Playing time: Initially 3 hours, then can be decreased to 2 (for four players). A lot depends not only on number of players, but also their style, i.e. they may tend to get rich before fully terraforming the planet.
Complication: This is medium complexity game, which requires long-term planning as well as using your corporation abilities to your own benefit.
What I like:
  • A lot of ways to achieve the victory – I do not see one dominant
  • Those beautiful cubes to mark one, five and ten resources – they are just great!
  • Specialized corporations – your games will really look different depending with which you start
  • Over 200 unique cards – which contributes to great game replayability
  • Many expansions to the game – it increases replay-ability even more
  • That thrill at the beginning of the turn when you draw 4 cards – would I have some fantastic ones?
  • The Titles and Awards – really nice mechanics to make you concentrate on some specific aspects of game
  • Climate!
What I do not like:
  • Corporation Cards – beautiful colors but the are very thin
  • It is very easy to accidentally move your corporation card and then all the cubes are in disarray – which can be very problematic to restore to previous situation
  • I like negative interaction – and thus would like to see some more here 🙂
For whom? This is definitely game for more experienced players – definitely not for the beginners, who might be overwhelmed by amount of possibilities and paths to victory. However, gamers who have already some medium-complexity games played should enjoy the game.
More about the game:

And now couple of the pictures – source: Rebel.pl.

Players/corporations card as well as titles:

terra1

Main board:

terra2

VERDICT:

ocena_4_5

I can honestly say that I was taken by this game – it is very thematic, nicely made and I still have two more main boards to play (from expansion) plus Venus. I am also very fond of the fact the game was published by Polish company, Rebel, and the way it was developed do not differ from other, mainstream products.

See you in another game review!

PS. If you would like to read other session reports from my blog in English, just click on Category: In English