Deep resource and logistics challenge
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews
“this game allows multiple paths to get to the goal and you can keep optimising how fast you can get there”
Steam review · 881.7 h played ↗
Surviving Mars
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Mostly Positive · 79%Mostly Positive · 79%Haemimont Games, Abstraction2018Colony Sim · City Builder · Strategy
The verdict
A deep, relaxing Mars colony builder with strong replayability and mods, but this original version is delisted and abandoned for a paid Relaunch. Skip if you resent the repurchase or dislike micromanagement.
Great for
Players who enjoy slow, planning-heavy colony sims, terraforming and modding
Main risk
The game is delisted and abandoned, so updates and DLC require buying Relaunched
What changed in the last 30 days
77 recent reviews
Recent negative reviews are mostly about the delisting and forced Relaunch repurchase, plus a wave of complaints over Paradox's Discord moderation of Atatürk avatars. Few concern gameplay, so this reflects publisher anger rather than game changes.
77 recent reviews
What players love
Relaxing, atmospheric colony building
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“I love this game because I love having a low stress way to explore the world and build with different options.”
Steam review · 1253.4 h played ↗
High replayability and variety
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“Every playthrough feels different thanks to the variety of sponsors, commanders, and random scenarios.”
Steam review · 310.9 h played ↗
Scalable difficulty
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews
“The difficulty is very scaleable.”
Steam review · 30.1 h played ↗
Satisfying terraforming
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“The ability to terraform is especially awesome.”
Steam review · 134.3 h played ↗
Great mod support
Mentioned in ~1 in 25 positive reviews
“the mod support is actually insane my colony has pokemon gyms now”
Steam review · 10.7 h played ↗
What players complain about
Original delisted and forced repurchase
Mentioned in ~2 in 3 negative reviews
“Removing a game from steam just to resell it anew, forcing all those who bought the original version to buy it a second time.”
Steam review · 135.7 h played ↗
Can't buy DLC or finish achievements
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“I can't complete the game's achievements as they're locked behind DLCs which no longer exist”
Steam review · 127.3 h played ↗
Review-bombing over Paradox moderation
NEW · LAST 30 DAYSMentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Calling Atatürk “controversial” and banning people just for using his picture as their profile photo.. Do better paradox”
Steam review · 85 h played ↗
Bugs left unfixed, game breaks late
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“The problem comes after 10 hours when your colony's really getting started, at around the 2-300 person mark, where the game just completely breaks.”
Steam review · 47.1 h played ↗
Repetitive micromanagement, slow pace
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“Most of the gameplay is waiting for resources, fixing small problems and watching colonists do stupid things. It becomes a chore very quickly.”
Steam review · 16 h played ↗
Expensive DLC for core features
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“basic features are locked behind DLC which is a classic Paradox thing”
Steam review · 17.2 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: UnsupportedController support6 GB
Minimum
OSWindows® 10 Home 64 Bit
Processor4th Generation Intel i3 CPU or equivalent
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsHD 4600/Geforce 620/Radeon 6450 or equivalent GPUs with 1 GB of video RAM
Storage6 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows® 10 Home 64 Bit
Processor5th Generation Intel i5 CPU or equivalent
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsGeforce 750 Ti or equivalent with 4GB of video RAM
Storage6 GB available space
OSWindows® 10 Home 64 Bit
Processor4th Generation Intel i3 CPU or equivalent
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsHD 4600/Geforce 620/Radeon 6450 or equivalent GPUs with 1 GB of video RAM
Storage6 GB available space
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