Terraforming Mars (2018)

I"m not a connoisseur of board games, but this seems to be exactly the same as the board game but its automation and stuff is streamlined so you don't have to keep up with turn order manually and such (kinda nice) it's nicer than the TTS version i have played with my friends with before.

However, I don't particularly like the underlying game so much. It's okay, I like the idea but i find it really difficult to beat players who have more experience with the game (who seem to be about at the same skill level as the easy AI) and every time i play it i don't improve in any way really.

If you're a fan you've already gotten this and played it. If you aren't sure but curious I would direct you to Tabletop Simulator and trying the steam workshop version first. Menus and UI are okay. Most stuff you can click on you have an idea what will go on. It would be nice to see what opponents have what engines during the 'purchase cards' screen but oh well, that's about my only complaint. The music is cool and hypnotic. Audio isn't too distracting and serves the purpose of providing feedback to the player. It's certainly a great PC Version of the game.

But in the end i'm a bit underwhelmed. I don't find playing digital board games online like this better than the real thing for the most part, so I won't be sticking around here (I fear I will find Gloomhaven underwhelming too)

Playtime: 150+ hours

Intro

TM is a digital version of the boardgame in which you do the most pointless thing imaginable - terraforming a distant planet that's like Antarctica without oxygen.

You and 0-5 AI companies take 1-2 actions during each turn during each round ("generation") - investing in infrastructure and changing the environment. This is done through default actions, card actions or playing cards. At the start of each round you get money and other resources, buy 0-4 new cards and the order of play switches. Once Mars is warm, oxidised and wet enough it is terraformed and each company is scored based on terraforming rating, per-game achievements and victory points from cards.

The Good

• Companies are varied enough to keep things fresh.
• A variety game options, especially if you have the DLC.
• Good amount of cards.
• DLC adds two new maps with different goals.
• Solo mode, with another one added by DLC.
• Three difficulty settings for AI.

The Bad

• You can't pick a company before a game, you only get to pick between two random ones at the start.
• Pointless slow animations basically force you to set the game to skip them all.
• Enemy production/resources isn't shown on the normal screen.
• No option to "skip turn and pass".
• After each turn the game does an annoying "refresh" that is slow and disables all buttons. It's only a few seconds but it's very clunky.
• Without the DLC the amount of stuff is kinda limited, especially because there's only one map.
• One of the tutorial maps bugged out on my. The tutorial also doesn't explain the three treshholds.

Conclusion

Terraforming Mars is a clever little game that i had to force myself to uninstall because i kept coming back to it ("just one more turn"). It's perfect to play while you're listening to a Youtube video or music. If you like strategising and combining various elements, you will probably enjoy this game.