With Occupy Mars receiving an Anniversary Update it was time to jump into this survival open world game. There are some things I love from exploring to building my base. Along with the struggles of surviving on the harsh surface

I did try this game out in two different modes. They had a story mode that is still being worked on and a sandbox mode. I went with the storyline mode first as I was hoping it would help guide me a bit while I learned the ropes.

As someone who does not want to spend hours making their character, I rather approach having enough options to give my character personality. Yet not enough that I feel like I need to spend forever trying to get things just right. For me, it was a perfect balance. Besides it’s not like I'm going to be seeing the face of my character much if ever while playing.

I’m just going to say it. I hated the story mode. Thankfully after a short amount of time bad things went down and then it felt like playing in the sandbox mode. I’ll honestly just recommend now skipping the story mode while this game is still in early access.

You arrive as a new member on an already-made base that is falling apart. Tasks given I didn’t quite feel were teaching me anything. I found them to be rather mundane and just follow the direction of the indicator.

It also highlighted an issue this game struggles a bit with and that is movement. Movement can be a bit of a gain to get right in video games so I fully expected that to be something a game in early access has not nailed down right. Even more so with being in an inside close environment.

After getting used to walking around I did somewhat forget about not being a huge fan of it. Even more so with how you end up colliding with things and the character getting around an uneven surface.

I for one could not wait for a bunch of stuff to happen that put me in the situation you find yourself in if you choose story mode or sandbox. That was crashing and landing in a survival pod with some resources to get you going but not enough to feel comfortable.

Things then got far more interesting and challenging. I could kind of tell the story mode was trying to set me up in terms of how certain things work in the game. It was however not enough. Thankfully there is an in-game tutorial system you can access at any time and look up different topics. As that was quite needed.

I then needed to focus on setting up a place I could survive in at some point, with power, water, wiring, and hoses for everything. All of this was just to put me into a situation of being able to grow potatoes. I had some food on me but by the time I ran out if I was not growing enough on my own it would be game over (news flash I sucked at growing potatoes the first time around.)

You first need to scan for and find a place where you can set up a well pump. It just so happened to be on quite a nice flat area of land. In sandbox mode, you can end up in quite a few different areas of the map. They all at least have a flat building area for you to set up in.

Once a spot was selected it was time to build a well and where you get to learn about the game building. While I started with more than enough to get some of the basics done. At some point, I'd need to either go mining for raw resources and use a 3D printer or go raiding abandoned outposts and object grinding down structures and taking loot out of creates.

Tools also decay and can be upgraded. You can start with some repair kits for tools. They are also rather easy to repair once you have a little base setup and a workbench to perform that action from. You can also craft new tools with a 3D printer that the pod you crashed landed in comes equipped with.

Early stages of mining you use a jackhammer to break down different rocks and boulders you find dotting the landscape. You end up needing to break the rock down a few times till you find the resource node on it.

Once you upgrade the scanner that you found water with it can tell you the kind of ores are in a rock. They are also quite easy to visually tell once you learn the different types from silicon to iron and a few other kinds.

I prefer going around to abandoned outposts and structures and just grinding them down for different material scrap. This was also a great way to get stuff I had yet to unlock the ability to craft.

Not to mention many of the buildings had other things I was not going to be making for quite a while like circuit boards. Along with something far more important in the shorter food.

Many of the early game nights or during bad weather storms on the planet I'd run back to my pod and get some sleep. There I could also fill my O2 tanks back up. For getting water I'd have to run to the well I had made. Along with slowly recharging my suit from some solar panels I had placed.

Over time a concern for food started to kick in. While I had a basic structure setup and some places to grow from the seeds I had potatoes. The issue always ended up being power.

During the day the solar panels I had could more than keep the power and most importantly heat on in the place. During the night even with a battery bank, it would end up depleting over time. Leaving my potatoes to slowly wither over time in the cold every day in and day out. I was quite shocked at how long they took to grow.

I even over time expanded my energy collection. I however kept running into the same issue time again and again. The lack of resources to build more solar panels, ECUs, and a big enough battery array to land the night.

My local area was also starting to become quite depleted on easy things to scrap with the level of grinder I had. Thankfully I fixed up a quad I found and it extended my reach to keep going further and further out looking for food and materials I needed to improve my power grid.

I ended up going on quite a few fun adventures exploring around the planet and ransacking anything I could haul back to my base. My limiting factor then became having enough daylight, food, power, and water to keep leaving my base.

If I did not get back in time during the dead of night I'd freeze to death. There was also the chance of storms ending my run as well. At least you get a six-hour heads up about bad weather approaching.

The game has things like dust storms that dirty your solar panels reducing energy output. Perhaps if I was not away that day, I'd have noticed I was not generating enough power for my base to survive the night. My last chance at growing potatoes also died that night. Cementing in the borrowed time I was on before my character died from hunger from a failed exploration trip to find food.

It was at least fun to do quite a few different activities and gain points to spend in the different tech trees. I even managed to acquire while out exploring some of the blueprints that are required along with spending points in the tree to unlock new technologies and structures to build.

Final Thoughts

I had more than enough fun in this game that I ended up starting over in the sandbox mode. I’ll be starting a little miniseries about my attempts to survive on Mars for as long as possible. I still have so much to explore and so many things to build.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Occupy Mars: The Game.

Disclosure: A review copy of the game was received for free.

Disclosure: This game was in early access when I played it.