Tharsis
Main game
2.99 average rating based on 69 ratings
- Developers
- Choice Provisions
- Publishers
- QubicGames S.A.
- Platforms
- Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, Wii U, iOS
- Genres
- Adventure, Card & Board Game, Indie, Puzzle, Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS)
- Themes
- Horror, Science fiction, Survival
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Tharsis?
Too random and too hard
Tharsis is basically a board game. It's very similar to the Battlestar Galactica board game and to FTL (another indie rogue-like). In all three games you play as the crew of a ship and you have to survive various random events. I love BSG. I quite liked FTL. But Tharsis just doesn't do it for me.
Luck is far too big a factor and you don't have people sitting next to you to bemoan your bad luck. The game is also simply too hard, even on Easy, even compared to FTL. These two elements combined just lead to a lot of frustration for most people.
Tharsis is by no means a bad game, but it has a very specific audience and doesn't try enough to cater to those who aren't part of that audience.
A sadistic game of chance.
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
An interesting idea completely shattered by forming the whole gameplay around pure dumb luck. The dice in Tharsis will either make you or break you, creating an unsatisfying experience only a true masochist could enjoy.
Not Recommended
Tharsis is a very short strategy game, you need to keep your crew alive while travelling to Mars. You roll dice to collect food or repair the ship. The UI is clunky but I got used to it and the graphics are fine. There is no story and your crew has no personality at all so the game is all about the strategy elements. The main game took me around an hour the first time and there are also around 20 shorter missions you can do but they play exactly the same and don't really add anything to the game.
Tharis feels like a demo rather than a completed game. Initially it is fun - figuring out how to complete the main mission takes a while - so I enjoyed it for the first hour or so but I kept waiting for the real game to begin, instead I reached the end. Playing again on hard or playing the shorter missions was a lot less fun - there really is just one best strategy to beat the game and that means it gets very dull.
If you really want to try this then wait for a sale – it’s really …
Tharsis is a very short strategy game, you need to keep your crew alive while travelling to Mars. You roll dice to collect food or repair the ship. The UI is clunky but I got used to it and the graphics are fine. There is no story and your crew has no personality at all so the game is all about the strategy elements. The main game took me around an hour the first time and there are also around 20 shorter missions you can do but they play exactly the same and don't really add anything to the game.
Tharis feels like a demo rather than a completed game. Initially it is fun - figuring out how to complete the main mission takes a while - so I enjoyed it for the first hour or so but I kept waiting for the real game to begin, instead I reached the end. Playing again on hard or playing the shorter missions was a lot less fun - there really is just one best strategy to beat the game and that means it gets very dull.
If you really want to try this then wait for a sale – it’s really not worth full price. Overall not recommended.
This has a distinct board game feel. It is is difficult and the dice are unforgiving, but I'm kinda used to this unforgiveness from co-op board games so, after some initial cold shower losses, I found Tharsis somewhat fun. I probably played for about 10h or so before getting bored by the repetitiveness though. I didn't find the game had a nice mix of replayability enough for me to unlock the other characters or explore tactics. To be honest, even if this game was an actual board game, I would probably only play it about 10 or so times, which is about as many as I played it in this pc version. Give it a try if you want to play something boardgamey and the dice are stacked against you.
I played this game for a half hour and immediately put it down.
Tharsis plays more like a board game than a video game. It's a turn based strategic game where you have to manage your crew and ship. There are some interesting decisions you can make, like prioritizing the health and stress of the crew or the ship's hull. But getting a series of bad dice rolls ruins the whole experience. I didn't have any fun with this game.
Free on Epic Store now. I bounced from FTL and Void Bastards, so I think I'm definitely NOT the target audience of space-based roguelikes but YMMV.