Mars Colony: Frontier

Mars Colony: Frontier is a pretty good game. Honestly, I am not sure how the game became so over looked and got bad ratings because it is better than what other people say. Sure, the game is still not complete, but it is at least playable in its current state if you modify your options, otherwise it may crash on start up. My experience went something like this: I started up the game, created a profile and jumped into the game. At this time I was also playing mars Colony Challenger, the prequel to this game. What I saw when I started was slightly better graphics and smoother lighting, so definitely an upgrade there. My HUD appeared and a text box appeared telling me to go see Benjamin Carver, the commander of Base Ares, the Mars colony I landed at. After finding him in the command center, he gave me some credits to get started. I then bought a rover and selected one of the four outposts that were not owned by anyone and set out to get one. After I claimed it, I started building my base (being sure not to use all my money!) After that, the adventure is up to you. I have only encountered a few bugs, the lighting has issues some times and a game breaking one is if you upgrade your modules in your base they will move into a random spot on the map, ruining your base and making it unusable. If you do not upgrade your modules, you should be fine. This game is still fun however. Again, have had a good experience with this game and it is not as bad as it looks. Sure it has bad ratings but most of them are from people not understanding how this game works.

got the game, started in sandbox mode... nothing to do started in story mode... talk to so and so, then nothing to do waited for updates which never came appearance not good story what story? gameplay wonder around reason to play trailer looked ok (false advetisment)

Great game! It's kind of like the Sims, but on Mars. If anyone out there likes science or has a passion for the destiny of mankind, or simply wants their kids to learn something while playing a game, I highly recommend this one. I got the last one, Mars Colony Challenger, and I've been looking forward to the release of Frontier for awhile. It did not dissapoint. The cool thing about this one is it adds an economy aspect and multiplayer competition (though I haven't tried the multiplayer yet). I especially like the fact that we can build solar arrays and either make or buy all those little things (nutrients for worms and mushrooms, GPR shots, etc) for which we simply had a finite source in Challenger. Plus, driving the rover just got way cooler in third person! I was surprised to see a lot of negative reviews, mostly focusing on graphics and lag and a few startup bugs. Well boo hoo. I could argue down each of those gripes, but I'll sum it up like this: I use an outdated laptop, so I set the graphics on the lowest setting to begin with. I have almost no lag at all, the graphics are still great, and in the two weeks since this game was released about half the bugs I noticed have been fixed. That's better than I can say for most of the games I've played. Keep up the good work HyperKat! Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

I have played all of Howard Dortch's Mars games. Frontier is entertaining, engaging and with the game options included, can be guaranteed to be different each time you play. It is a more streamlined version of "Challenger" which, if you haven't played, can get so detail oriented at times it borders bogging down in the all the minutiae. Frontier offer you the chance to build your own base using an economy-based system of play. You can even compete against other players (live or AI) to be the best operating base on Mars. With story lines that have graduated from "Challenger" to include Mars quakes, missing persons, and others that I won't spoil, it's easy to see the hard work Howard and his team put into this game. I think this game got a raw deal from gamers when it first came out. They rated it based on what they wanted it to be rather than what it was - and it is a fun, playable game that seeks to draw inspiration from the good people at the Mars Society and more specifically Dr. Robert Zubrin. If you are looking for "little green men shoot 'em up" this isn't it. If you're looking for realism, physics, planetary science, botany, geology, and survival then you've found a great game to master.

Not able to invert Y axis, I need this option, sorry, currently unplayable for me. Will review again if this is implemented.

Like its companion game, Martian Colony: Challenger, Frontier is a good simulation of how living on Mars would actually feel. Unfortunately, in order to add multiplayer, the developer seems to have felt it was necessary to dumb things down a bit. Several things have been simplified, when it comes to maintaining your base, and that's too bad. It was what I loved so much about Challenger. Other things were added, and there are some story elements, but unfortunately they aren't very satisfying. The developer was away for a few years, dealing with an illness, and just recently announced that he intends to do some updates to these games. I hope that's the case, because Frontier is clearly unfinished. Despite that, I still enjoy it, and I've played through it several times, so I recommend it. Just know that it's not quite all there yet.

you should add 24 hour days, more missions and contracts, and the rover repair bug, i click repair,exit emeaditly, damage is at zero!

prometeur car deja tres complet, mais a ce stade quelques amélioration de game paly serait le bienvenu : personnage un peu plus rapide, construction des machines, tuyau de connection serait un vari plus, graphiquement on est pas sur du take on mars, mais c est propre, les NPC ne sont pas dynamiques, ni tres interresant, je le recommande si le jeu mise a jour, donc a suivre

Отличная игра. С учётом первой, крянутой версии, почти 400 часов провёл в ней. Жаль, что создатель перестал заниматься этим проектом.

Игра стала лучше прошлой части, но часть классных вещей пропала =( Из хорошего: 1) игровой автомат "Однорукий бандит" - намного более веселый способ зарабатывать деньги, чем починка поломанных приборов; 2) возможность строить и модернизировать свои базы - это и правда круто; 3) возможность как состязаться на одной карте, строя разные базы (до 4-ех штук), так и играть совместно; 4) наличие бота с базой, против которого можно состязаться в одиночку; 5) наличие сюжетного режима, который делает события вселее (но еще лучше была бы конкуренция с ботом плюс сюжет); 6) необходимость зарабатывать деньги и поупать оборудование делает игру веселее. Из плохого: 1) Мне нравилось собирать устройства из 4-ех блоков, ходить с резервуаром отходов и убирать отходы, ходить с канистрой и поливать растения, включать питание на сафандре и настраивать температуру, отдельно нажимать на кнопки открытия дверей - все эти элементы упростили, а жаль! 2) Как и в оригинальной части - хреновое обучение (его нет), что заставляет разбираться в игре и она кажется из-за этого тяжелее, чем есть; 3) из-за ограничения в деньгах и плохих пояснений можно неудачно построить свою базу (а сносить блоки нельзя или Я не нашел как) и прийдется начать заново; 4) после строительства базы будет период времени, когда нечем заняться - приходится развлекать себя самому, а это фигово; 5) заглючило базу, модуль кухни стал криво размещаться, не стыкуясь с модулем фермы, из-за чего играть стало невозможно =( Глюк, который испортил игру и надо начинать заново. Думаю такая проблема возникает регулярно; 6) однообразные задания на центральной базе. В целом, игра зайдет для любителей Космонавтики и Выживания. Но покупать стоит только на распродаже в комплекте: прошлая версия Mars Colony: Challanger и эту.