Tharsis's systems of interaction are reminiscent of player-versus-game board games like Pandemic and Dead of Winter, but because of that,.

Tharsis is a 2016 strategy video game developed and published by Choice Provisions. It was released worldwide in January 2016 for Windows and Mac OS X through the download service Steam, as well as for PlayStation 4. The game follows a team of astronauts on the first manned mission to Mars, in order to track down a signal that is apparently extraterrestrial in origin. After being hit by a micrometeorite storm, they must resort to desperate measures to survive the trip.

A turn-based game played using simulated virtual dice, the player controls four characters, attempting to fix problems with the ship and keep the crew alive each turn by managing their dice cache, health, and stress level. Developed by designer Zach Gage and the indie development studio Choice Provisions, the game was created to mimic a board game experience.

Critics were polarized on whether the gameplay was deeply strategic or overly dependent on random chance, and the game was more poorly received by video game reviewers than streamers, board game players or other developers.

Gameplay[edit]

Tharsis allows players to control four astronauts with unique jobs and abilities inside a heavily damaged spacecraft, the Iktomi. The game lasts for 10 in-game weeks, during which time the player must attempt to reach Mars without any of the crew perishing.^[1][2] At the start of each week, at least two parts of the ship will have a problem in need of repair, and which, if left alone, can damage the ship's hull integrity or crewmember health. The player can click each astronaut to deploy them to a certain module for that turn and repair them using the astronaut's dice. If a problem is not repaired after all crew members move, the negative effect will trigger.^[1][2]

Each astronaut has their own health points (HP), stress meter, and dice cache.^[1] Every roll of the dice decreases the character's maximum dice by one unless replenished with food. Problems can only be repaired by adding enough dice to match the indicated number.^[1] However, there are several types of hazards that can hinder dice rolls, which can only be avoided by gaining 'assists'. There are a maximum of three assists at a time, and one is consumed to prevent a hazard.^[3] Besides using the dice to repair, each room has a bonus that can be activated by rolling a certain dice, or combination of them.^[1] Extra dice can also be invested into research, allowing beneficial abilities to be used at a later time.^[4]

At the end of each week, crew can work on side projects that the player can choose from.^[1] Usually, these side projects have both a positive and negative effect. The higher the crew's stress, the worse the negative effects, and if crew are allowed to go insane, they will work on a solo side project with a more drastic effect than usual, and may harm the other crew. The crew can also eat food, if any, during this time.^[1]Cannibalism can be used as a last resort if the crew runs out of food. The player can choose to feed the body of a crew member who died in the beginning of the game to various surviving crew. However, this has significant negative consequences to the characters' stress levels and maximum health, and affects the game's ending.^[1]

Plot[edit]

The game is set in the near future, where Earth has received a mysterious signal from Tharsis on Mars. With scientists believing it to be a sign of extraterrestrial life, the Iktomi is built, and its six crewmembers are sent to Mars to investigate the anomaly. Depending on the characters used, the voice of the commander will be either male or female.^[5] However, halfway through their mission, the ship is suddenly hit by a micrometeorite storm that kills two crew members, Mapiya Musgrave and J. Cross, and destroys the Pantry where the food is stored. With limited food supplies and crew, disasters start running rampant throughout the ship, and the astronauts are forced to constantly fight to survive. Despite still being able to contact Mission Control, they are unable to turn back home.

During the journey, the crew deciphers data sent from Tharsis and realizes that it shows what seems to be an exact copy of the crew of the Iktomi who are in dire straits. Unsure of what to make of this data, they manage to survive until they reach Mars and launch the capsule, while the Iktomi remains in orbit and is destroyed. The crew tracks down the signal and comes across an alien artifact. Suddenly, the artifact flashes with a bright light. If one or more of the Iktomi's crew is dead, the artifact's energy release seemingly kills everyone. One of the crew manages to survive long enough to send a distress call, which the artifact sends back in time, creating a causal loop. However, if all of the crew survive, then one of the crew members manages to pick up a rock and throw it at the artifact, destroying it in a massive explosion, with their ultimate fate unknown and Mars now covered in a layer of snow, implying the planet can now support human life.

Development[edit]

According to an interview with Mike Roush, co-founder of Choice Provisions, the original inspiration for Tharsis was the story of the whaling ship Essex, which was sunk by a whale, forcing the crew to resort to desperate attempts to stay alive, including cannibalism.^[6] The game was also inspired by the Apollo 13 mission and the fact that they were forced to use unusual household items to maintain the air scrubber.^[7]

The game was also created out of Choice Provisions's desire not to be 'typecast' as a studio that only developed the Bit.Trip series or worked in an 8-bitretro style.^[6]Tharsis's art style was based on 70's sci-fi designs such as those used in Space: 1999 and UFO, but which was updated to be realistic in a modern-day context.^[7] The pastel color scheme was derived from that of a children's xylophone.^[7] The soundtrack consists of tracks from the album Half Age EP by Weval.^[8]

The dice mechanic was used due to a perceived resurgence in the popularity of board games, as well as due to the uniqueness of the concept in video games.^[6] A challenge that was noted was the high learning curve of the game, which caused people to abandon it instead of watching the tutorial or delving deeper into the strategic mechanics.^[6] The game was balanced to provide a degree of challenge such that players could not beat the game on their first try, but required repeated attempts to be able to get further and further.^[6] The game's development took approximately two years to complete.^[6]

Reception[edit]

Since its release on Steam, Tharsis has received mixed reception, according to review aggregatorMetacritic.^[9] Amongst positive reviews, Matt Peckham of Time called the game 'ingenious' and 'brutally exacting'.^[4] Reviewer Andrei Dumitrescu of Softpedia cited 'interesting mechanics' and 'a lot of replayability', despite the high difficulty, and that the game showed how humans persevere in the face of hopeless odds.^[12] Brian Dumlao of Worthplaying scored the game moderately, praising the 'lovingly rendered' graphics of the ship despite the 'generic' characters, and saying the music was 'done very well', though mentioning that the game was 'not for everyone', and that people who weren't comfortable with losing far more often than they would win would be unhappy with the game.^[1]

A common point of criticism was that success was perceived to be overly based on random chance. Patrick Hancock of Destructoid praised the game's graphics as 'wonderful', aside from the faces of the crew members, but criticized the game for relying 'too much on dice rolls', leading to the feeling that winning is too dependent on luck and 'destroy[ing] one's interest in trying again'.^[5] Rob Zacny of IGN stated that he felt that he had gotten 'lucky' when things went well, instead of doing 'something clever'.^[11] Tyler Wilde of PC Gamer called the game it highly 'dependent on chance', and suggested that the difficulty varies widely depending on how good your dice rolls are for that particular playthrough.^[3]

According to designer Zach Gage, the game was one of the most critically divisive he ever worked on.^[13] The game received an overall negative response from publications that were video game focused, while it received a more positive response from streamers, board game players, and developers.^[13] He believes this is due to the fact that games of chance are usually used as a lazy shortcut to make things harder, or to take the player's money in mobile games, which caused the gameplay of Tharsis to be overlooked.^[13]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdefghiDumlao, Brian (February 4, 2016). 'PC Review – 'Tharsis''. Worthplaying. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
2. ^ ^abMachkovech, Sam (January 14, 2016). 'Tharsis review: The exploding, cannibalistic space station always wins'. Ars Technica. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
3. ^ ^abcWilde, Tyler (January 13, 2016). 'Tharsis review'. PC Gamer. Archived from the original on September 1, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
4. ^ ^abPeckham, Matt. 'Review: 'Tharsis' Is an Ingenious Game That Will Break You'. Time. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
5. ^ ^abcHancock, Patrick (January 11, 2016). 'Review: Tharsis'. Destructoid. Archived from the original on October 6, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
6. ^ ^abcdef'Tharsis PC Interview GameWatcher'. www.gamewatcher.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
7. ^ ^abcChoice Provisions (November 17, 2015), The Origins of Tharsis, retrieved August 25, 2016
8. ^'ABOUT'. THARSIS. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
9. ^ ^ab'Tharsis'. Metacritic. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
10. ^Tran, Edmond (January 28, 2016). 'Tharsis Review'. GameSpot. Archived from the original on October 6, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
11. ^ ^abZacny, Rob (May 2, 2017). 'Tharsis Review'. IGN. Archived from the original on July 3, 2019.
12. ^Dumitrescu, Andrei. 'Tharsis Review (PC)'. Archived from the original on September 9, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
13. ^ ^abcKuchera, Ben (January 27, 2016). 'Death is random, but so is survival: Learning to love random chance in Tharsis'. Polygon. Archived from the original on August 25, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.

External links[edit]

I love games that offer players a challenge, even those considered extreme. At times I can get a bit overconfident in my gaming abilities. After conquering Darkest DungeonI felt pretty indestructible when it came to playing games. Playing Tharsis however, gave me one hell of a reality check.

Tharsis is a strategy game developed and published by Choice Provisions. It released January 12, 2016 on PC, Mac, PS4 and iOS. Tharsis is a good game that anyone can play, but only the extremely lucky or the best strategists will ever finish it.

A doomed mission to Mars

Earth receives a signal from Tharsis on Mars. The transmission is believed to be of extraterrestrial origin. A ship called the Iktomi is built and launched with six crew members to travel to Mars and investigate the signal. Halfway through the mission, the ship is struck by a micrometeoroid storm.

While most of the ship is left intact, two crew members Mapiya Musgrave and J. Cross are killed. The pantry bay is also lost where all the food was stored. Despite being able to communicate with Mission Control, the remaining astronauts are unable to return home.

With no choice but to simply survive, the crew must battle through constant disasters with limited food. During the journey, the crew decipher data sent from Tharsis. It shows images of what appears to be an exact copy of them. What is actually happening here? Can the crew even make it there? Their fate is in your hands.

The story to Tharsis is told through voice-over and still images in between each round of the game. It is interesting and covers more than just surviving the journey. The problem is, finishing the game to experience the story in its entirety is a difficult task.

Due to the games difficulty even on Easy Mode, most players will never experience the plot. The chances are, you will likely have to look up a video of the ending before experiencing it yourself.

Complex gameplay

The gameplay to Tharsis is quite complex. It takes some time to get used to along with learning what everything does. Essentially the goal of the game is to survive ten weeks until you reach Tharsis. The problem is, each week the crew are struck with new disasters around the ship.

You must fix the issues around the ship, while also keeping your crew alive and fed. This may sound simple but each crew member only gets one turn each week resulting in having to make decisions and at times compromise. Each week the ship suffers two to three disasters of varying severity. Any repairs not fixed during a week will carry over to the next.

To fix the issues in the ship, you must send a crew member to the damaged module, there being seven in total. When at the module you must roll the dice. The better fed the astronaut is, the more dice they will roll, five being the maximum. To successfully repair a fault, you must roll and install the number given or higher. Totem tribe gold liana island walkthrough movie.

As if attempting to roll a dice to gain a specific number is not difficult enough, each repair has hazards also. The hazards come in three forms; Injury, Statis and Void. If a dice lands facing up with a number of a hazard, it will activate. Injury results in the astronaut losing one health. The void will make any dice that activates it disappear completely and stasis will hold the dice stopping it being re-rolled.

You can counter hazards with assists but you can only have up to three at any one time. You are able to regain assists but doing so requires a roll in the laboratory. It uses up one of the astronaut's turn for that week. Alternatively, if you have the technician, they can use their bonus to gain two assists in any module using a dice of five or six.

This brings me on to the bonuses and the crew members and modules. Each crew member has their own bonus just like I mentioned with the technician above. For example, the Captain's bonus will increase any crew member's dice by one in the same module as them. The Doctor will heal any crew members in the same module by one and the Mechanic will increase the ship's hull by one.

The module bonuses work in a similar manner but can be activated by any crew member within it. Some require several dice of the same number to activate the bonus. Finally, there is research. While rolling the dice, you can place a dice into one of the six research slots.

Each slot applies to one face of the dice, so you can't place two dice of the same number in research slots. You can then use the points gained from the dice to research one of three available options at any time assuming you have enough. The better the research the higher the cost. Alternatively, if you don't like the options available you can shuffle them at the cost of one point.

Have you taken all of that in? To succeed at Tharsis you must keep every little detail mentioned above in mind, during each week. While it all makes for good complex strategic gameplay, it isn't without its issues. A lot of the difficulty comes from the hazards and getting unlucky with a dice roll.

I like to work my way up to building Bronze tools. The fuel refinery needs something to convert. So you also need a tin mine and copper mine and fuel refinery. Banished colonial charter. You need a forge or foundry to produce bronze and bronze tools which in turn needs furnace fuel, tin ore and copper ore.

The assists used to counter the hazards is entirely automatic. This results in you using your assists on hazards that may not have to. Also on rolls with a lot of dies it is easy to use all your assists at once. I feel a choice of what hazards to use the assists on would work far better.

Not only would it add another bit of depth to the strategy, it would make the game a little bit more fair at times. Also, a few of the more severe repairs require perhaps a few too many dice, even in Easy Mode. Aside from those issues, the gameplay is solid.

While I am yet to survive a single run in Tharsis, I feel I am yet to find a strategy that works. It is easy to assume that the game is simply just crucifying on difficulty but with such a complex strategic system, I think I just haven't found a plan that works. Either that or this isn't the game for me.

Unlockable characters and additional missions

The starting four characters and stand game mode is not all that Tharsis has up for grabs. As you continue to play the game you will unlock new characters each with their own professions and bonuses. You can only ever have a total of four characters in one playthrough but you can switch them around.

The additional characters change up the gameplay quite a bit. As to how you deal with each situation can depend greatly on what characters you have selected. After that, there are ten missions to choose from. These are basically special scenarios with their own circumstances and goals.

If you find yourself getting bored with the standard game mode, these missions do help vary things up a bit. Just don't expect them to be any easier than that of the actual main game.

A game that is not for everyone

Tharsis is a tough game about surviving a life or death situation with the odds constantly against you. If you are to play it, you need to make sure you don't mind dying more than winning. You will die a lot. It isn't perfect but it is never the less a good game that is fun.

Its gameplay is complex and difficult. Visually it is quite beautiful with the ships design being really well done, even if the characters faces are not so much. The soundtrack is great and fits in with the space theme of the game. With unlockable characters and additional missions to play through, there is quite a bit of replayability to offer.

Tharsis is one of those games that isn't an instant purchase. It is a game that should be considered greatly before spending money on it. It really is a game that isn't for everyone. If complex strategy with a high difficulty sounds like a good time to you, then Tharsis may be just what you are looking for.

Tharsis is available to buy on Steam for $14.99. It is also available on PS4 and iOS on their respective stores.