Tharsis Review – An Unwanted Space Odyssey

<p class&equals;"western">Space&comma; oh space&period; When it is bright&comma; optimistic&comma; and full of wonder&comma; I admit I draw the curtains as tightly as I can as it does nothing for me at all&period; It is when space hides something dark or awakens the more insidious irrational side of humanity that I raise an eyebrow&period; I fall in love with the bleakness as humans genocide a race&comma; spoil planet after planet&comma; or decide that ethics is a Christmas cracker joke&period; Perhaps that says a troubling amount about me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although I think I could have done with saving the message of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;humans are flat out of luck outside of Earth&comma; stuck in a tin floating precariously through an atmosphere that will kill them if even one thing goes mildly wrong” for another time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em>Tharsis <&sol;em>&lpar;pronounced &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;farce is”&rpar; is a sci-fi dice-rolling game by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;totallychoice&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">Choice Provisions<&sol;a>&period; Four people of your choice sit in a tin with a rocket strapped to it&comma; and it is down to you rolling those six sided fate boxes to make sure everyone arrives at Mars after 10 turns &lpar;by the way&comma; they probably won&&num;8217&semi;t&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;98362" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-98362" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-98362 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;04014307&sol;Tharsis1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Tharsis 1" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-98362" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Tharsis&comma; Choice Provisions&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">On each turn you are thrown two or more malfunctions on your ship which will have a negative impact on your progress&period; These can include damaging your hull&comma; harming your crew&comma; or decreasing the amount of dice your crew uses&period; These trigger at the end of each turn&period; During the turn you assign each member to a compartment of the ship and then roll the dice&period; You assign said rolls to various things such as research &lpar;that buys one-shot bonuses&rpar;&comma; your character&&num;8217&semi;s special or&comma; y&&num;8217&semi;know&comma; actually repairing the ship&period; After each turn&comma; you are then presented a choice between two or three options that will have a good side and a bad side &lpar;e&period;g&period; more dice in exchange for hurting your crew&&num;8211&semi;because food has to come from somewhere&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">And right there are all of the rules&comma; and even then I guarantee I&&num;8217&semi;m making it sound more complex than it is&period; I actually had to double check to see if <em>Tharsis <&sol;em>was for Android or iOS because it felt so accessible&comma; as I learnt the entirety of the game within about 5 to 10 minutes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">However&comma; this was where I begun to realise something was off&comma; like an astronaut with far-off stares&period; While accessibility usually means simplicity&comma; <em>Tharsis<&sol;em> decides they are one and the same&period; You play the main mode &lpar;i&period;e&period; help guide people to Mars&rpar;&comma; and then you lose within 10 to 20 minutes &lpar;because of course you will&rpar;&comma; and then you&&num;8217&semi;re left replaying that same 10 – 20 minutes again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">You can unlock more characters through grinding particular actions&period; Each character has an unique skill that functions if you roll a 5 or a 6&period; However&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re talking about actions that aren&&num;8217&semi;t spent repairing&comma; spent making food&comma; and spent duct taping the various leaking holes in your rickety tin can floating in the oxygen-less atmosphere&period; Not to mention&comma; a 5 or a 6 is an expensive dice roll that is often better spent plugging holes&period; So what it amounts to is banging your head against a wall for 10 minutes at a time with a repeating thud&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;98363" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-98363" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-98363 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;04014250&sol;Tharsis2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Tharsis 2" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-98363" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Tharsis&comma; Choice Provisions&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">I can not emphasis enough that you don&&num;8217&semi;t play the game as much as bang your head against the wall&period; Whether you repair units or not is more about sheer blind luck rather than organisation&period; If the dice are in your favour&comma; then maybe you&&num;8217&semi;ll be able try to get some extra food in or repair the ship&&num;8217&semi;s hull a smidge&period; If the dice is even once against you&comma; even at the easiest difficulty &lpar;normal&rpar;&comma; at that point you may as well just restart&period; The failures of yesterday stack with the problems of today&comma; and this leads to quickly being overwhelmed due to bad luck&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d almost suggest that the game plays itself&comma; but you are often a tool in how your crew dies&&num;8211&semi;but frustratingly not <em>if<&sol;em> they die&period; That is down to dice rolls&period; In the end&comma; you will lose a lot and you won&&num;8217&semi;t feel like you caused it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The final score for <em>Tharsis<&sol;em> is a 5&sol;10&period; I understand that they wanted to make a bleak sci-fi game where you will likely lose&comma; but such a game is a careful balance&period; You have to balance bad luck or unfair odds against agency so the player feels like they deserve when things go horribly wrong&period; The fact is that <em>Tharsis<&sol;em> fails this colossally&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">If this was the extent&comma; maybe I&&num;8217&semi;d give it a pass with thoughts of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;maybe I missed something” floating around my mind&period; However&comma; there sadly isn&&num;8217&semi;t enough play time or enough of an excuse for repeated playthroughs to warrant the price tag&period; It feels less like its own independent game and more of one that would be stapled to a larger game&period; Unless you&&num;8217&semi;re really drawn in by the theme and the use of six-sided dice rolling to resolve events&comma; there are enough bleak sci-fi games and titles with similar gameplay out there to leave <em>Tharsis<&sol;em> floating as a husk into the cold darkness of space&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western" style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC copy of Tharsis was provided by Choice Provisions for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;