Should you terraform Mars?
Terraformers is an expansive colony builder and resource management game. Explore the Red Planet, develop spectacular cities, spread life and terraform the planet with ambitious projects. Send your leaders to mysterious locations and be the first to discover rich resource depots, giant crystal caves and stunning natural wonders. Found new cities on craters and in lava Tubes. Make them thrive and meet your population’s rising demands. Mine the rare metals of Mars, manufacture them into advanced goods and set up an effective transport system between your ever-growing cities.
Terraformers is a turn-based strategy sim where you need to make all the right calls to manage resources as you terraform and build cities on Mars. You’ll be given certain choices that will impact your playthrough and some will pan out, while others will doom you. It’s one of those “one more turn” type of games where you’ll keep playing, even if it’s not entirely clear why.
If I had a complaint, it’s that the tutorials themselves are pretty unclear and struggle to get across the mechanics of the game. It took me a while to get to grips with things, but it was pretty simple once I “got” it. That being said, this definitely isn’t a game for everyone.
Resource management games are a bit niche and finding a good one is tough, but Terraformers does more than enough to please those looking for one, even if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel.
The visuals are simple but do the job effectively. I didn’t come across any framerate hiccups or any bugs/glitches through my time with the game.
The Verdict
Terraformers isn’t for everyone with it’s turn-based style of managing things, but for those who like these types of games, then you’ll be hard pressed to find one that matches it’s quality right now.