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Do you like strategic board games that really make you think? Do you love a space theme? Are you committed to spending a few hours at the games table? If the answer is yes, yes and yes then this is just the game for you!
Terraforming Mars is a cleverly thought out card collecting, engine building game that will keep you hooked. You are a corporation that has its sights set on making Mars habitable. To do this, you need to increase the oxygen level, increase the temperature and expand the ocean. Increasing any one of these steps will gain you victory points and what do victory points make?… PRIZES! Well, actually they won’t but they can win you the game and then you can leave the gaming table with boosted pride and bragging rights.
CARDS, CARDS, CARDS
At the beginning of each generation (or round) you will have the option to purchase cards using your mega credits (the game currency). Cards enable you to grow your corporation, increase resource production, gain victory points and lay tiles. Cards with a greater cost give you greater benefits but you mustn’t overlook the lower priced cards! In fact, half the fun of this game for me is trying to figure out if I should save my mega credits to lay the higher priced cards or whether to pay for and lay the lower priced cards so that I can get immediate, although smaller, rewards.
This game is based around card paying and laying so if you’re not a fan of this type of strategy game this probably won’t be a favourite of yours. I know some people don’t like the randomness of card selection games as they feel it comes down to chance - you either pick up the card you want or you don’t. However this never felt like a problem for me in Terraforming Mars. There are lots of different cards to choose from and I haven’t come across a card that either ‘makes or breaks’ my chances of winning. It’s about choosing what to do with the cards you acquire and how your choices to keep or discard later cards directly affects what you have already laid. There’s more strategy and less chance, if you play it right.
It’s been said plenty before but the artwork on these cards is a little lacking. It feels to me like not enough time and money has been spent on making them engaging. There’s pictures on them, yeah. But they don’t make the game feel overly thematic. Some of the photos seems a little blurry or of poor quality and some images remind me of the old movies. You know, the ones that make us say ‘goodness, CGI’s advanced an awful lot since this was released.’ I just wish they were a little higher quality and perhaps more thought out. The cards themselves are of good quality, not easily wrinkled or bent and, once you understand the different symbols in the game, are really self-explanatory. Pay for a card, lay a card, follow the instructions on the card - the descriptions on the cards don't leave you guessing what you need to do next. Follow this simple formula and you’ll be a space genius.
CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS WISELY
I feel it must be said that this game supports 1-5 players but I have personally only played it with 2, me and my husband. There’s a big reason why…
I love the strategy of this game but it doesn’t make it super easy to learn or to teach to others. When you are ready to teach it to your friend you’re gonna need a) plenty of time and b) the belief that your friend is going to come back and play it again.
Now, my husband and I learnt it together and it took us a while to get our head around the rules. After looking through the rule book we decided that the best way for us to learn this game was by watching a YouTube tutorial video. Maybe we are just visual learners and you will be fine with just the rule book but personally, we just needed a little extra support to get going. Once we got going we got hooked and we actually have some friends whom we would really like to introduce this game to. It’s space themed, strategic and right up their street! We’ve taught them Wingspan and so it's not the actual teaching part that puts us off but the length of time and commitment from them that it is going to require. Rather than having a games night where we say after we’ve played one or two games ‘hey, wanna learn this one?’ It feels more like a game that needs an event. A calendar entry titled ‘teach the gang Terraforming Mars’. In fact, it might even need a whole afternoon. Because, as you can imagine, if it takes two hours to play, its gonna take likely around 3 to teach and run through. At that point, you’re kinda hoping that they’ll like it enough to come back and rematch you.
Having said all this, if you have the right gaming group, this is gonna elevate games night. And if, like us, it’s just you and your committed friend or spouse then I can guarantee you will still have a perfect evening and will enjoy watching your friendship grow over both terraforming your personal Mars.
How long will this game take? Often my husband and I are figuring out our next moves and miss seeing what move our opponent has taken. I like to see what he's doing, how his strategy is progressing, etc. However, it takes a lot of brain power to plan my next move! So depending on how long you want your game to be you can either stop and watch each other's turns or spend your opponents thinking time developing your own strategy. I think this will probably determine your game length, especially if there's more than two of you. It tends to take us 1½ to 2 hours with all cards included. What do I mean by ‘all cards included’? For beginners or for a shorter game, follow the instructions in the rulebook to use less cards. For a longer and slightly more advanced game use the Corporate Era cards supplied in the box. These develop your corporation and resource production but do not directly terraform Mars itself.
PIECES, PIECES, PIECES
I'm a sucker for beautiful components in a game! When I look at my gaming shelf I'm seeing this… Wingspan with its gorgeous little eggs and birdbox dice roller, Everdell with lovely wooden meples and the large Everdell tree, Takenoko with 3d bamboo and an adorable panda!! Then there's Terraforming Mars which in comparison is no where near as exciting…. Cubes. Yep, just little cubes. Some painted gold, some silver and some copper to help distinguish their value. Now don't get me wrong, they work. But that's kinda it, they do the job. Collecting them doesn't feel anywhere near as rewarding as much as it does necessary. The player mats are thin pieces of cardboard - combine these with the cubes and you have a situation where you're desperately trying not to nudge anything so as not to lose track of your progress. Nudge a mat, cubes go flying and I'm sat thinking ‘wait, did I have a steel production of 5 or 6?’ because there's enough to keep track of already.
Moan over though, it's simple and effective. It possibly makes me focus more on my gameplay and less on adorable components. Maybe that's the point?
The game board is lovely. It is of great quality and the map of Mars is beautifully laid out. I really like the victory points tracker all around the edge and having the awards and milestones on the main board makes it easy for all who are playing to take advantage of and keep track of them.
Ocean tiles can only be laid on ocean spaces and personally I find this a little limiting as it means that generally our city and greenery tiles are played in the same area of the board, especially as you gain extra points for laying certain tiles near others. For example, laying a tile next to an ocean tile gains you a bonus 2 mega credits; you have to lay your greenery tile by another one of your tiles if you already have one in play; and if you lay a greenery tile next to a city you'll get an extra victory point at the end of the game. All of this combined with the fact that some tile spaces on the board gain you extra resources means that our tile laying strategy is pretty much always the same and there would be absolutely no benefit to our gameplay in changing it. It would be nice if there was another map to play with just to shake things up a bit, although I think this comes in one of the expansions.
IN CONCLUSION….
Terraforming Mars is a great game! Yes, it's components and art work could be better but what it lacks in this area it makes up for in theme and gameplay. It keeps me coming back for more whether I win or lose. There are so many strategic options to consider that you could play this multiple times in multiple ways without being bored once. Will I get bored eventually? Maybe. Maybe at some point I will feel I've learnt all the cards and tried playing as all the corporations but I think that's a long way off. And if and when it does happen, I'll dive into the expansions.
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