Do you ever go into a game with really mixed feelings? It’s not rare. What about coming out the other side still with really conflicted thoughts on the game? That’s my experience with Terraforming Mars.
Terraforming Mars is a game from Stronghold Games which sees players working to make the red planet hospitable. That makes it sound like a co-op but it’s not, although you all have the shared goal of increasing the three essential meters to reach that target (increase the oxygen level, increase the temperature, increase the amount of water on the planet) the winner at the end will be the player who has scored the most points. Points are scored in a number of ways between raising the previously mentioned meters, building forests on the surface of the planet, building cities, through a selection of awards and milestones, and through cards in your tableau.
The way you get cards is a bit unique and not something I’ve really encountered in any other games. At the start of each round, or generation, you are given 4 cards from the deck. You can then pay 3 megacredits for each one you wish to keep, the rest get discarded. It’s kinda interesting in that it means rather than just getting new cards in your hand you have to consider the cost to play each card in your hand is basically increased by 3. I’m not entirely sure that this added much to the game but it was kinda interesting at least.
So let’s start with the positives. The theme is awesome, I really like that practically every card in the game is grounded in some kind of real science that could be used for potentially making an alien planet hospitable. I’ve seen a lot of complaints online that the art is rubbish and though there’s little that is going to jump out at you I actually found it pretty average, certainly not problematic.
The gameplay itself was a lot stronger than I had expected based on reviews and reading the rules. I really, really enjoyed the puzzle that it put in front of me and although there was pretty much zero player interaction this was absolutely fine with me as I was quite enjoying trying to build my own little engine. I came in expecting a solid but not very interesting euro and instead found myself really falling in love with the game.
Sadly the discussion doesn’t end quite there as this is a game that I don’t think I will ever play again. I don’t have a problem with take-that effects in games, I own plenty of games that have a lot of that style of gameplay in them and when it’s done in the right place that’s fine. Getting two-thirds of the way into a very long game that thus far had featured zero interaction between players it really sucked when all of a sudden I got targeted with take-that cards by two consecutive players which eliminated my already struggling engine and eliminated me from the game for all intents and purposes. I certainly was grumpy about this and vocal in my dissatisfaction with the situation but despite all my wishes I remained at the table and finished the game although frankly, I was ready to pack my stuff away at that point and be done with the experience.
I try to be a decent person to play games with. I didn’t want to be an asshole in the situation but in a game where I had already struggled for the entirety of the game and was already headed towards finishing in last place it felt like what effort I had put in immediately was wasted and the last 3 hours of my evening totally ruined. Dramatic? Perhaps, but those are my feelings and I feel them legitimate. This being my only play and having not looked through the deck of cards outside of play I can’t be certain but it feels like I kept getting a really unfortunate draw as during the entire game I only saw one card that raised my production of any resource other than plants. Whilst other players were able to have their resource production on money, steel, titanium etc all going up I was floundering with an engine that was producing plants and nothing else. So when those plants all got wiped out I was pretty pissed off, yeah.
Is this a case of using one game of less-than-ideal card draw and being targetted by other players entirely put me off a game? Yes, totally, but I don’t want to risk spending another three hours of my time at some point for a similar experience when I have access to so many other board games that I want to play more often.
The owner of the copy I was playing has since pointed me towards a BGG thread where the game’s designer has suggested taking them out if they cause a problem. That leads me to question why they are included in the first place? He mentions that they were included as a catch-up mechanic and something that was wanted by the publishers. If they really are meant to function as a catch-up mechanic then they seem a pretty shoddy attempt as the cost of playing a lot of the take-that cards (largely asteroids) are amongst the most expensive cards in the game.
The one other complaint I have against the game is less about the game and more about the product. The production quality, for a game that retails at this price, is not acceptable at all. The cards are fine but certainly not the best card stock I’ve ever played with. The resource/economy cubes look very nice but were already flaking paint and had damage to the corners when we started our first play of this unpunched copy. The real gripe is the player boards though which are absolutely terrible. The flimsiest of card stock upon which you are expected to balance anywhere between 10 and 50+ resource cubes in a manner where the slightest knock is going to leave you and the other players completely unsure of where your various production values and quantities were. I’ve seen a few third-party solutions for sale but why was this a problem in the first place in a game with such a high cost and relatively little physical content inside the box?
Would I recommend Terraforming Mars? Yes, absolutely. The game is so much better than it looks but there is definitely the potential for a really negative feel-bad experience and that is something you should be aware of. Would I pay for it? No, not full price at least.
There may be a chance that I would come back to this game again one day and find that this was just one bad experience but why take the risk when I have a ton of games on my shelf or in my friends’ collections which I know will provide a satisfying experience without the risk? Nice idea, awesome theme, just a shame about the small number of issues which were enough to put me off entirely.