Space, oh space. When it is bright, optimistic, and full of wonder, I admit I draw the curtains as tightly as I can as it does nothing for me at all. It is when space hides something dark or awakens the more insidious irrational side of humanity that I raise an eyebrow. I fall in love with the bleakness as humans genocide a race, spoil planet after planet, or decide that ethics is a Christmas cracker joke. Perhaps that says a troubling amount about me.
Although I think I could have done with saving the message of “humans are flat out of luck outside of Earth, stuck in a tin floating precariously through an atmosphere that will kill them if even one thing goes mildly wrong” for another time.
Tharsis (pronounced “farce is”) is a sci-fi dice-rolling game by Choice Provisions. Four people of your choice sit in a tin with a rocket strapped to it, and it is down to you rolling those six sided fate boxes to make sure everyone arrives at Mars after 10 turns (by the way, they probably won’t).
On each turn you are thrown two or more malfunctions on your ship which will have a negative impact on your progress. These can include damaging your hull, harming your crew, or decreasing the amount of dice your crew uses. These trigger at the end of each turn. During the turn you assign each member to a compartment of the ship and then roll the dice. You assign said rolls to various things such as research (that buys one-shot bonuses), your character’s special or, y’know, actually repairing the ship. After each turn, you are then presented a choice between two or three options that will have a good side and a bad side (e.g. more dice in exchange for hurting your crew–because food has to come from somewhere).
And right there are all of the rules, and even then I guarantee I’m making it sound more complex than it is. I actually had to double check to see if Tharsis was for Android or iOS because it felt so accessible, as I learnt the entirety of the game within about 5 to 10 minutes.
However, this was where I begun to realise something was off, like an astronaut with far-off stares. While accessibility usually means simplicity, Tharsis decides they are one and the same. You play the main mode (i.e. help guide people to Mars), and then you lose within 10 to 20 minutes (because of course you will), and then you’re left replaying that same 10 – 20 minutes again.
You can unlock more characters through grinding particular actions. Each character has an unique skill that functions if you roll a 5 or a 6. However, we’re talking about actions that aren’t spent repairing, spent making food, and spent duct taping the various leaking holes in your rickety tin can floating in the oxygen-less atmosphere. Not to mention, a 5 or a 6 is an expensive dice roll that is often better spent plugging holes. So what it amounts to is banging your head against a wall for 10 minutes at a time with a repeating thud.
I can not emphasis enough that you don’t play the game as much as bang your head against the wall. Whether you repair units or not is more about sheer blind luck rather than organisation. If the dice are in your favour, then maybe you’ll be able try to get some extra food in or repair the ship’s hull a smidge. If the dice is even once against you, even at the easiest difficulty (normal), at that point you may as well just restart. The failures of yesterday stack with the problems of today, and this leads to quickly being overwhelmed due to bad luck. I’d almost suggest that the game plays itself, but you are often a tool in how your crew dies–but frustratingly not if they die. That is down to dice rolls. In the end, you will lose a lot and you won’t feel like you caused it.
The final score for Tharsis is a 5/10. I understand that they wanted to make a bleak sci-fi game where you will likely lose, but such a game is a careful balance. You have to balance bad luck or unfair odds against agency so the player feels like they deserve when things go horribly wrong. The fact is that Tharsis fails this colossally.
If this was the extent, maybe I’d give it a pass with thoughts of “maybe I missed something” floating around my mind. However, there sadly isn’t enough play time or enough of an excuse for repeated playthroughs to warrant the price tag. It feels less like its own independent game and more of one that would be stapled to a larger game. Unless you’re really drawn in by the theme and the use of six-sided dice rolling to resolve events, there are enough bleak sci-fi games and titles with similar gameplay out there to leave Tharsis floating as a husk into the cold darkness of space.