Not at all a spoiler: I don’t get to Mars in my most recent playthrough of Tharsis, the extremely difficult and very fun dice-based strategy game coming to PC and PS4 on Tuesday. This is not a spoiler, because getting to Mars is very hard. Players will fail. A lot. Count on it.
In the video here, you’ll see me play through one game of Tharsis. In it, I’m faced with many decisions, such as:
- Should I repair the maintenance bay or the greenhouse?
- Should I worry if the flight control module is broken?
- Should I heal my crew’s wounds at the cost of stressing everyone out?
- Should I have my crew eat their deceased fellow astronaut?
- Should I kill one of my crew so the others can eat him?
These are important space decisions! And they must be made in this turn-based game as catastrophe after calamity hits en route to Mars.
I don’t make it to the Red Planet, but I have fun along the way. Take a look and consider checking this game out when it hits tomorrow. It’s from the folks at Choice Provisions and will cost $15, but will likely be discounted for launch week. It works well as game you play solo or with friends nearby, as you debate which terrible choice to face up to next.
To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.