Prepare For Liftoff… Again

I don’t need a reason to jump back in to Surviving Mars, but with this revamped and Relaunched edition, I’ve got a pretty good one. 

The original game remains one of my favourite sim management games of all-time. Not least because the soundtrack is a personal highlight that I still regularly listen to. So, I am pleased to report that Surviving Mars: Relaunched is of the same high quality, with the tiniest extra bit of shine.

For those that missed out on the original 2018 release, Surviving Mars is, as the name suggests, all about starting a new life on Mars. But you can’t simply just go up there and build a settlement. It is all about creating a hospitable area with limited resources, living on the very edge of life and death before flourishing. It is known for its tough difficulty, so much so that it may take a couple of starts before you can even get to a point where humans can land on the red planet.

A Variety Of Modes To Choose From

It is highly recommended you complete the tutorials before attempting to survive Mars. There are five different tutorials in total, and the first three are concerned with creating and preparing an unknown planet for human life. That should tell you all you need to know about even getting into a position where you can welcome humans.

Starting a new game in Surviving Mars: Relaunched allows you to fully customise your mission. Choose from things such as the sponsor, commander, number of rival colonies and additional rules and watch them increase or decrease the challenge percentage. 

You can also choose a mystery that acts as an additional storyline throughout your mission, on top of everything else that will occur. The beauty of these mysteries is that nothing is given away to you; not how you trigger them starting, or what they are even about. They’re fun additions, but not essential if you just want pure simulation.

As well as the standard mode, you also have Creative and Challenge mode. These should be pretty self-explanatory: Creative allows you to create a colony free from any worry, and Challenge ups the ante even further than normal. There are 33 challenges in total, but many of them involve you starting from scratch and reaching a specific goal in a certain time limit. There aren’t really any that drop you into an existing colony set-up with the task of turning it around, so unfortunately, do play very similar to the main game. Still, it can be fun trying to achieve a different goal from the norm.

Gameplay Remains Solid

Once you land your first rocket – packed with tools and resources to get you at least started – your little drone army will file out and unpack for you. You should see what resources are available in your vicinity to at least start harvesting that. One of the big things in Surviving Mars: Relaunched is the sheer number of resources needed. Money, power, oxygen, water, metals, concrete, food, rare metals, polymers, machine parts, fuel and electronics are all resources you will be using to build a colony. Power is required from the very beginning, and stockpiling water and oxygen from the atmosphere early will do you no harm. Beginning buildings such as extractors and storage tanks don’t require many resources, but more technical buildings require some of the rarer stuff that may need to be sourced from asteroids or much further afield.

As such, there is a constant feeling of juggling plates in Surviving Mars: Relaunched, and that’s part of the reason why it plays so well. It is one of those rare games that has you thinking about what you want to achieve in your next play session when you are away from it. Providing you don’t run into any mishaps that is, which is a common occurrence.

There are meteor showers to contend with that can hit structures, but these are minor inconveniences compared to more extreme disasters. Dust storms and dust devils can ravage through and cold waves can significantly increase power consumption. And that is just the nature of the red planet, there will be many more human-caused problems once you start to colonise.

What Comes Next?

Get as far as having a comfortable civilisation on Mars, and you can begin to think about terraforming the wider area. That option, alongside with landing on asteroids, are now part of the base Surviving Mars: Relaunched game, having both previously been DLC additions. More DLC is on the way too, but only for this new version. In fact, the original version of the game has since been delisted.

But Surviving Mars: Relaunched is a bit underwhelming in terms of what it actually arrives with. A slightly revamped UI and better performance are welcome, but the only major new gameplay addition is the Martian Assembly. This allows you and competing Mars colonists to vote on several actions that can help you on your journey. It allows you access to certain mechanics a bit earlier than normal progression does if nothing more, but not really groundbreaking.

A Solid Relaunch

Whilst questions can be raised as to whether Surviving Mars: Relaunched is needed as a full new release, the gameplay is still absolutely solid. It’s a hardcore sim management game that offers plenty of trials and tribulations but can be immensely satisfying at the same time. Simply a joy to return to.

Important Links

This New Remaster Includes ALL DLC and a Brand-New Endgame – Surviving Mars is Relaunched! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/this-new-remaster-includes-all-dlc-and-a-brand-new-endgame-surviving-mars-is-relaunched/

Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/surviving-mars-relaunched/9NS8192KZVT3/0010

There’s an Ultimate edition too if you want it – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/surviving-mars-relaunched-ultimate-edition/9NM420KPXKKB/0010