We’re looking for a brand-new planet to crud up like our first, and everyone is competing to speedily gain the most reputation for their hard-work on the red planet. You take the role of a corporation that is charged with turning Mars into something habitable, ideally to a timetable compatible with the scale of ecological damage we’re doing to Earth. The name tells the story of what we’re doing. Buying Terraforming Mars is like taking possession of a pristine Ferrari only to find the manufacturer intentionally and malevolently dragged their keys along the bodywork. What makes it a cardinal sin here is that the poor component design genuinely takes the shine off of something that would otherwise have been beautiful. That’s almost forgivable – good aesthetics are a score multiplier, but not a foundation by themselves upon which to base a game. There’s a lot of fantastic design in here, let down what seems like aggressive indifference in the presentation. It’s really evocative even if it manages to make breathing life into a planet look as aesthetically appealing as designing the car park of a Tesco Extra in a rundown seaside town. It rewards creative play more than any game I’ve seen in a long time. It’s collegiate in its competition while also being cut-throat in its communality. I love this game – it’s fun, full of fascinating mechanisms and satisfying decisions. That’s unfortunate because every secondary emotion is positive. Frustration is by far the single most dominant emotion I associate with play. If I had only one single word to describe what it’s like to play Terraforming Mars it would be ‘Good God It’s Bloody Frustrating’. I usually try not to start off a review with complaints but it’s hard not to in this case. Terraforming Mars is a better game if you use as few of the components in the box as possible, and that’s not really on in this day and age. Every brief twitch of the fingers carries with it the risk of essentially randomising your entire player board. Instead you’re trying to work out if you really should have that much titanium or whether you may have committed the unforgiveable sin of nudging the table during a round of play. Within Terraforming Mars you should be focusing on the life you’re cultivating on a remote, dusty planet. The components in Terraforming Mars certainly succeed as abstractions, but they’re so successful in that respect that they’re often the only thing you actually remember to fret about. Their job is twofold – it’s to serve as an abstraction for some critical piece of game state, and to be so unobtrusive that we forget they’re even there. I’m a big believer in the immersive power of good component design – that nice, satisfying pieces help us suspend disbelief. Stronghold publish some lovely, clever games but both this and Pit Crew are dramatically let down by boderline shoddy component quality. TL DR: It's great! You should probably play it if you can!Ī review copy of Terraforming Mars was provided by Asmodee UK in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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