Tharsis

Tharsis is a turn-based science fiction strategy game for PC and PS4 developed by Choice Provisions studio.

Plot

We are part of the first manned mission to the “Red Planet”. According to the plan, the journey to Mars should take about 300 days. In the beginning the astronauts are filled with high hopes and optimism. They expect this mission to make them famous heroes, as they hope to find something on Mars that will save human civilization from extinction. A few days after the launch, the spaceship gets severely damaged and the situation only becomes worse – there is a strange signal emitted from Mars suggesting the astronauts might not be the first people there.

Gameplay

The crew consists of four members, which you choose in the gallery of characters. Each of them has a unique character, biography, and skills. Gameplay is turn-based, and the player spends most of the time managing the ship via a 3D model. The craft itself is composed of many independent modules performing different functions, and having specific on-board systems. The authors have drawn inspiration from roguelike genre. Gameplay is unpredictable and dynamic – crew has to overcome randomly generated obstacles, such as micro meteoroid storms, or technical failures. All on-board systems are dependent upon each other, and the events on the outside of the ship influence the crew’s mental condition and behavior. Fatigue, fear, or envy often turn out to be as dangerous as the actual damage of the ship. Apart from giving orders, skillful resource management is also required. Each serious mistake reduces the chance of accomplishing the objective, and the ever dwindling resources have a dramatic impact on gameplay. Even a corpse of a dead crew member might be useful, as it can serve as food for the remaining astronauts.

In Tharsis for PC and PS4, even failures bring a lot of fun, and randomly occurring events allow playing the game again and again without getting bored. Interestingly, many calculations can be seen on the screen in a form of a dice roll, of which outcome may be manipulated in numerous ways. The dice themselves can interact with the ship – for example, they might fall out of a hole in the hull.

Last updated on 15 January 2016