Take On Mars is a simulation video game for Windows, developed by Bohemia Interactive. The game was announced at E3 2013^[1] and released in its alpha version on 1 August of that year. It is the second installment in the Take On series after Take On Helicopters. The user assumes control of a rover or lander in order to explore Mars. The spacecraft can be equipped with scientific instruments by the player in order to study the Martian surface and complete objectives. The game includes seven destinations for the player to visit: Asteroid Belt, Deimos moon, Gale crater, Kaiser crater, Lyot crater, Ptolemaeus crater, and Victoria crater; with Mars Yard located on earth as a testing ground.^[2] Each map is a perfect square (four by four kilometers) with an area of 16km² (6.2mi²) to be explored with various objectives. Not all locations however are encompassed in the bounding zone, since the craters on mars take up more than 16 km² (e.g. Gale and Kaiser crater).

Players can also take on the role of an astronaut building bases, exploring the terrain and managing the resources needed to keep their crew alive. The second chapter of the space program is a story focused on the survival on Mars. Players take on the role of astronaut Mark Willis, one of the crew members in the first manned mission to Mars. Launched from Earth in 2028, the mission reaches Mars orbit a year later. However, during the descent into Mars' atmosphere, things go wrong, and connection to Earth is lost. When contact cannot be re-established, the crew is declared MIA.

Take On Mars is still an unusual game, even if it has drifted into the increasingly populist realm of the base-building survive-’em-up, of which there are far too many on PC. Take On Mars is a simulation game that allows players to explore Mars using various rovers and other small robots. This all happens on a realistic representation of Mars.

Gameplay[edit]

In Take On Mars, the player operates a variety of Marslanders and rovers. The functions of the space vehicles are not fully accurate in order to make the simulation more accessible. The speed of the rovers is increased along with their instruments.^[3] Unlike actual Mars exploration vehicles, the in-game spacecraft are controlled in real time: rather than planning a Martian spacecraft's tasks for the day, the player directly operates its instruments. Functions that a user must perform include driving to new destinations, imaging terrain, and collecting samples. Multiple science instruments are unlocked by the player in order to study Mars and complete mission objectives. Many landings are required to complete all missions for any given location. Each spacecraft carries a relevant suite of instruments designed to complete its assigned objectives.

The player is able to enter the lab where they are able to change assets on the given vehicle in order to increase the quality of the asset or outfit the vehicle with the budget allotted. From imagers or APXS to an arm on a lander, or a chemical battery, many small details can be changed about a vehicle to create a unique variant to the basic model. There are three tiers the user can choose from the first tier to the last are each incremented by double the previous tier in price.

Features[edit]

Take On Mars offers four game modes that are accessible to any user.^[4]

• Space Program: Explore Mars from the perspective of a fictional space agency. Players unlock new technologies, vehicles and instruments to tackle the tasks ahead.
• Scenarios: Land on the surface of Mars with a functional vehicle and complete individual missions centered around various scientific mission objectives.
• Editor: Create custom scenarios with missions of varying complexity.
• Multiplayer: New addition to Manned Missions

There are four prominent aspects of the game.

• A dynamic destruction system where vehicles can be destroyed by severing their cameras, robotic arms, and individual struts and wheels.
• A virtual economy for the space agency that gives a budget to the player to fund missions. Funding can be increased by completing missions and individual tasks.
• Realistic terrain with locations on the surface of Mars that are based on actual satellite data from places such as Victoria Crater.
• Weather created on mars can impede on progress and destroy the space vehicle.

Story[edit]

The story is inspired by Andy Weir'sThe Martian.^[5]

The game is set in 2028 when a manned mission is sent to Mars. Player takes control of Mark Willis a member of the crew. Expedition suffers an accident and the crew dies. Willis is the sole survivor on Mars surface without any contact with Earth. He has to survive and find a way home.^[6]

Development[edit]

Early Access[edit]

The early access phase of Take On Mars allows users to help Bohemia Interactive create new content and fix many bugs the users spot. They have implemented the Mantis Bug Tracker for users to effectively report issues to the developers. They have added many new missions, since the launch of the game on August 1, 2013.^[7][8] A full change log of the early access phase can be found here.

A patch released on October 3, 2013 included a workbench suite for mod-makers. Added locations Deimos moon and Asteroid Belt. It will also include Dynamic Mission Generation of every task types(e.g. photo, exploration and analysis). Weather will also make its way into the game with sandstorms, strong winds, and dust devils.^[9]

On November 20, 2013, Take On Mars received its third large patch overhaul, adding new vehicles, two new locations (Lyot, and Ptolemaeus), with a mission control room addition of a tech tree and objectives.^[10]

Bohemia Interactive announced on 21 January 2017 that Take On Mars will leave Early Access on 9 February.

As of March 30th 2019, many bugs still have not been fixed and there have been no updates since November 2017 due to active development being halted.

Reception[edit]

IGN stated that this game will be boring for most gamers, but for a select few it would be something 'nerds have been waiting for'. It seems to be a great balance between science and the fun of playing a sim.^[3]

IGN awarded the game by IGN's Best of PC Award in category Best New PC Game.^[11]

References[edit]

1. ^'Announcement'. June 18, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
2. ^Bohemia Interactive (November 17, 2013). Take On Mars. PC. Bohemia Interactive. Level/area: The Map.
3. ^ ^abDavis, Justin (June 13, 2013). 'E3 2013: Take on Mars is the Game Space Nerds Have Been Waiting For'. ign.com. IGN. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
4. ^'Take On Mars Features'. August 1, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
5. ^'Finální verze Take On Mars vyjde 9. února'. www.zing.cz (in Czech). Retrieved January 21, 2017.
6. ^'Take On Mars vyjde už 9. února včetně příběhové kampaně - Games.cz'. Games.cz (in Czech). Retrieved January 21, 2017.
7. ^'Take On Mars Release Date'. July 17, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
8. ^'Take On Mars Steam only Early Access'. August 1, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
9. ^'Take On Mars adds Steam Workshop and Deimos'. September 10, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2013.
10. ^'Tech-Enhanced update for Take On Mars'. November 20, 2013. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
11. ^'E3 2013: IGN'S BEST OF PC AWARDS'. IGN.com. Retrieved June 20, 2014.

External links[edit]

A semi-realistic space simulation sandbox.Expect to pay £21/$27Developer Bohemia InteractivePublisher In-houseReviewed on Radeon RX 480, Intel i7-5820K, 16GB RAMMultiplayer 1-10LinkI’ve been playing Take On Mars on and off since it was released through Steam Early Access in 2013. It first attracted my attention because of how unusual it was.

A game about trundling around the surface of Mars with a rover, probing soil, looking at rocks, and listening to the lonely howl of the wind. It appealed to me in the same way games like Euro Truck Simulator do. Slow, ultra-niche, and strangely relaxing. But over the years the game mutated into something else entirely.

The understated realism and scientific simulation of those early alpha builds has been quietly pushed aside to make way for manned missions that incorporate survival, base-building, and advanced near-future technology.So now it’s a game largely about colonising Mars and trying not to die on it. Which is less unusual, but admittedly more immediately entertaining than scooping up soil. The popularity of Andy Weir’s novel The Martian, and Ridley Scott’s 2015 film adaptation, has undoubtedly influenced the game’s direction. So much so that the 1.0 release contains a singleplayer campaign in which you play as Mark Willis, an astronaut with a background in botany who ends up stranded on Mars. It’s a series of entertaining, varied scenarios that teach you the basics of survival, building, and other elements of the simulation. And it’s all connected with a fairly lightweight storyline focusing on Mark’s lonesome survival and his desperate attempts to return safely to Earth.Waking up on Mars surrounded by flaming debris as the oxygen warning on your HUD shrieks at you is a powerful opening.

You see the scattered bodies of your crewmates and your ship torn to pieces, and your first priority is searching the rubble for supplies to replenish your O2 and fix the scary-looking crack on your helmet. It’s a nicely produced series of missions, but let down by the game’s clumsy controls. Everything you do in Take On Mars feels incredibly laborious. Walking around in a spacesuit in low gravity is probably pretty unwieldy in real life, but it makes the game needlessly frustrating.

Not to mention the twitchy physics that send objects flying into the air or getting stuck in things. Fallout 4 far harbor walkthrough/ps4. I was more willing to forgive this jankiness in Early Access.If manned missions sound too exciting, you can play through the robotics space program instead.

This sees you managing a budget and building vehicles to explore the planet. You’ll start out with basic probes with low-res cameras, but as the money rolls in you can create advanced car-sized rovers like the real-world Curiosity. It’s a very different experience, and there’s something strangely tranquil about it. Especially with how atmospheric the game’s realistic recreation of the Red Planet is. They’ve captured the haunting, desolate feeling of what it might be like to be alone on another world brilliantly.

The red sand dunes, ancient craters, and ghostly sunsets make for an evocative setting, whether you’re rolling around as a rover, your flimsy solar panels rattling in the wind, or settling in for the night in your newly-constructed base.But if you’d rather create your own missions, or download user-made ones from the Steam Workshop, Take On Mars comes with an Arma-style editor. With this you can place objects, pre-built bases, vehicles, and whatever else is in the game’s deep toy box. And because these are the same tools the developers use, dedicated players have created some pretty impressive stuff. Some missions even take you away from Mars, including to Earth’s moon and a replica of the International Space Station. So even if you’ve exhausted the bundled scenarios and campaign, there should still be plenty of additional missions to dive into, courtesy of the community. The quality will vary, but it’s cool to have the option.Take On Mars is still an unusual game, even if it has drifted into the increasingly populist realm of the base-building survive-’em-up, of which there are far too many on PC. Its atmospheric Martian deserts are beautiful to look at, and struggling to survive on such a hostile, lifeless world is an entertaining, often terrifying challenge.

But an overall feeling of clunkiness—which can make something as simple as loading a few oxygen canisters into the back of a buggy feel like a cumbersome chore—really tested my patience at times. But when you’re out there among the dust and craters, alone, growing potatoes or conducting experiments, there’s a feeling of serenity that keeps me coming back to Take On Mars, despite its many faults and frustrations.