Occupy Mars: The Game

I played the game in EA as well as in full release. I had hoped that 1.0 would also tackle the gameplay loop—it didn't. The game feels as if the developer never played their own game – the gameplay mechanics seem to be thrown together in a way that is completely incoherent. The controls are sometimes sluggish (e.g., you have to press the button several times to pick up items before anything actually happens). I won't even mention the vehicle controls... Exploration means that every 50 meters you find an abandoned base with loot, i.e., mining ore and crafting materials is basically only necessary to advance in the tech tree (even on the “hard” difficulty setting). Once you've built a Spartan base, the game feels like it's over. The beginning of multiplayer on hard is a little trickier, as you have to divide the same starting resources you would otherwise have in SP at the same level by the number of players (keyword: food) – but even that is doable. The Mars setting actually offers a lot of potential (in terms of immersion alone), but this is completely wasted here. Instead, it becomes a grindfest with short-lived motivation. In my opinion, the game wastes a lot of potential and is currently still more of a proof of concept than a game. I would not buy this game again.

For the Dev Team: I just wanted to say that my son and I really enjoy playing this together. He's a big STEM fan and loves space exploration and it provides a window into that world. Also like the fact that you kept it somewhat grounded in real physics, science, and space exploration challenges. Don't give up on it. Consider a space station option, a pilotable way to get off the planet, ice mining to get water, space suit upgrades, cold fusion, there are really limitless things you could do with the engine and environment. Well done.

[h1]Extremely clunky control scheme and consistent bugs make for an unplayable game.[/h1] I made it through the tutorial and most of the way through the intro mission before I gave up. The controls are extremely difficult to use, with the character constantly grabbing and dropping cables, unable to pick them back up. Sometimes right click puts items back in the inventory, sometimes it does not. Sometimes "E" puts items back in the inventory, sometimes it does not. When dealing with mission-essential items, right click [i]does[/i] put things back in the inventory, but only then. No contextual clues pop up for how to interact with the world around you when they really should, like installing circuit boards or other necessary components. Sometimes "E" will do the job, sometimes left click will do it. Waypoints show up on the screen but for some reason not on the map. The worst part is easily the character taking off his helmet and dying while checking messages. I was able to replicate this issue three times in a row; looking at your messages during the "escape from base" mission forces the character to remove his helmet and immediately die. This is, at its core, an incredibly stupid game design choice. Not only does it serve no gameplay purpose, it deliberately undermines good gameplay by providing a challenge-free fail state, it somehow also makes the game even more unrealistic. Under no circumstances would removing your helmet on Mars ragdoll you. You might get severe frostbite before you could get it back on, sure, but asphyxiation takes time. Certainly more time than the few seconds the animation takes to seal your helmet back on. Good game design would be showing the player an extremely hostile environment ripping at their temperature, health, and O2, but giving them an opportunity to desperately shove the helmet back on in hopes of surviving. Alternatively, it would be easy to prevent the player from removing his helmet outside or activate an airlock to a low-pressure area by simply displaying a "you can't do that" error. That sort of basic game functionality has existed for literal decades, and perhaps unsurprisingly has existed for a reason. Allowing the player to break the game or put it in a fail state with a simple button press is a failure at the most basic level of game design. Finally, the timed escape intro mission is really badly designed. The character constantly gets stuck on random bits of the level sticking out from walls or up from the floor and it makes it effectively impossible to complete on the first try, resulting in repeated deaths and save loads to figure out the way out of the base. Again, incredibly bad game design which really pulls the player out of any limited amount of immersion they might have had by this point. Sure, the game doesn't feel "immersive" and the world does not feel "real" and the characters do not feel "alive" and it is far from "polished" but this is from an indie team and those things should not be expected. What should be expected is good game design, and this fails to deliver that in an almost purposeful, deliberate manner.

It's now April 4th, 2026, at 3am The game came out of early access January 30th, 2026 You still can't complete the campaign. Due to bugs with the game, that haven't been fixed. I like the game, I really do. But the fact that it's released as a full release, and you can't finish it, means I do not recommend this game. However, that being said, it's still a good time for what you can do, just be aware that it's not completable, and they haven't patched it in around a month.

I was playing Early Access in 2023. The game has great potential and I was happy to discover that it has now been fully released as version 1.0. I immediately got back into the game and put another 100+ hours into it. Sadly, the 1.0 release was rushed. Even as at version 1.0.12, it still has many show stopping / game breaking bugs. Mission tasks sometimes will not complete (after having performed them), blocking the path to subsequent missions, which are never offered since the dependant mission is incomplete. (See Below... I recovered the Mars Truck, Installing the battery, clearing the debris, and driving it home, but the mission is still stuck at "Clear debris and install battery"). I DROVE it - obviously those are complete!! There apprears to be no way to assemble Spotty the robot. Ive found the parts in an abandoned base, and Ive got the blueprint to print my own parts, but cannot for the life of me see how I am supposed to assemble those parts into a working robot. Yes, Ive checked the tutorials - there is no mention of assembly anywhere in the tutorials. The "Assemble" option on the workbench is for Meteor Defense rockets, and will not assemble Spotty, Ive even tried assembling it on the ground, with no luck. I found the Vehicle Teleportation blueprint, and unlocked it in the tree, yet I can see no way to actually teleport a vehicle in the game's UI, or at various consoles. My understanding is that it is not a true Teleport, but rather allows stranded vehicles to be returned to the hanger. Neihter of to two consoles in the Hanger have a Teleport option, nor does the Vehicle tab on the suit interface. Because of the mission progression bug, As mentioned above, the Marstruck mission got stuck, so I was never offered a Rover Recovery mission, but I noticed the Heavy Rover in my vehicles tab, so using its location, I drove the ATV 6km and traded it for the rover, with no way to recover the ATV... Not even Vehicle Teleport, apparently. ... And finally, after exploring many many bases, the Abandoned tablets finally stopped giving me blueprints. However, accoring to the Tech Tree, I am still missing TWO blueprints. There should only be ONE counter for blueprints - you either have it or you dont. Clearly the Tech Tree and Tablets disagree on which blueprints I have. That shouldn't be possible. I need the Kilowatt blueprint in order to complete the Electricity tech tree, so that I can spend my 20+ remaining electric tech points on the infinite options at the end, but opening tablets, does nothing. The simply close again because they have no blueprints to offer. I have quite a stack of unusable tablets in my storage, since in this condition, they do not self-delete after use. I forget the name of the other missing blueprint in my game, but that is a similar story in another part of the tech tree. Bottom line: In my opinion, the game was not ready to be released when it was. There are game breaking bugs still in existence, and parts of the game (assembling spotty / teleportation) dont seem to be implemented yet. In other words, the game was incomplete when released. I have no doubt that eventually Pyramid Games will put these issues right, but that probably wont save my 100+ hour Campaign save file that I have built since 1.0 was released. I will evenually have to start again. Basically I paid for this game, only to be made an involuntry QA tester. The testing should have been completed BEFORE release. You don't want to know my hourly QA Test rate. :p Ive left comments open, so that if anyone knows how to build Spotty, or Teleport vehicles, they can add it below. Its possible I may have missed something, but with the amount of time Ive spent looking, and with experimentation, I think those features are missing. For now, I dont recommend the game. There is little value in being a forced QA tester. Eventually when PG fix these issues, Im sure I would highly recommend it - but not today.

An open-world-survival-craft game that is NOT fantasy! I greatly appreciate the hard-sci-fi aesthetic of this game. The point is surviving on Mars. There are no aliens, inter-dimensional or 'ascended' beings, there is no combat with wacky toon animals pretending to be aliens. Or Dinosaurs. This is MARS. In our solar system. There is no life on Mars. You are alone. No magic, and no magi-tech. If something needs power, you run an extension cord and PLUG IT IN. Better hope your solar panels have charged your batteries, because they are SOLAR PANELS; They only work when the sun is up. No magically broadcasted 'global wireless power'. You will need oxygen, temperature, water, food, sleep, and the power requirements to enable all of that. If you enjoyed the novel or movie "The Martian" starring the character of Mark Watney, this is basically the game version of that. (yes, you'll be farming potatoes) And it's awesome!

Игра отличная. Если нравятся НФ-симуляторы, то вам определенно стоит брать эту игру. Для тех кто играл в Stationeers - играйте без гайдов и не подсматривайте. Начинайте сразу с песочницы на среднем уровне сложности (с достижениями). Так же игра подходит всем, кто играл в Satisfactory, No mans sky и тех, кто смотрел фильм Марсианин с Мэттом Дэймоном. Тут есть даже отсылка к Чужим (пасхалочка от разрабов). Играть в кооперативе пока не рекомендую, т.к. есть шанс испортить мнение об игре. Игра не закончена. Я за 45 часов дошел то крайнего задания, а дальше ждем чего там разрабы напридумывают. Очень понравился тяжелый марсоход. Да и в общем то вся техника здесь к месту. Но в конце уже использовал только две машины для разных целей. Квадрик и кросс использовал только в начале, но это было большим подспорьем. Кто бы там не писал, что техника нужна только одна и т.п., либо не играл, либо унылый мозгоклюй, которому хочется дое***ся до лежащего камня. Физика транспорта мне понравилась, но не пытайтесь переезжать провода и шланги которые не лежат на земле, а хоть чуток подняты- есть шанс стать манекеном для теста авто на безопасность (особенно на кроссе). Не пренебрегайте ботаникой- весьма вероятно что вы станете "Величайшим ботаником на планете".

I suggest to not buy the game in this state, I personally bougth it 3 years ago in early access. The game has good ptenital, but personally even if it has been released as a full game, it is far from that. Main solo campaign is bugged (you can search it on google and find many people with this problem) and cannot be completed, for me this is a major issue. Also still lot of bugs. 4 months after release, as today May 2026, still no patches to fix the main campaign issue.