“Surviving Mars” is a sleek strategy game that challenges players to construct a city on the Red Planet and you can get it free this week from Epic Games.
The single-player Mars construction game from Paradox Interactive and Haemimont Games is the most recent free PC and Mac offering on the Epic Games Store, yet the offer closures March 18. So in case you’re hoping to put your stamp on Mars life, you’ll need to move quickly.
While Epic is offering the center variant of “Surviving Mars” free (it’s generally $29.99), there’s an abundance of extension packs available (counting a free Mysteries Resupply Pack) that you might need to consider to upgrade your experience.
Those expansions range in cost from $3.99 for the Stellaris Dome Set to $19.99 for the Green Planet add-on, with others in the middle of challenging players to bring creatures and race different countries to the Red Planet. There’s even a MarsVision Song Contest extension to shake out on Mars. You can score them all with a Season Pass offer for $34.99, which merits considering since the core game is free.
Yet, even the base game can be a challenge.
As our own Chelsea Gohd wrote in 2018 her review: “You arrive equipped with a rocket full of raw materials, drones and a few prefabricated structures. I quickly realized after landing that this game could be more difficult than I had anticipated — and maybe, just maybe, I should have taken a look at the expansive tutorial, as Mars has seemingly endless ways to kill you.”
If you do grab “Surviving Mars” for free, here’s some advice (likewise free): Don’t build your base on a level if your water sources are in a valley far below. In any event not from the start. You’ll have to arrive at that stuff effectively in case you will make due on Mars.
