From Ian McLarty, the creator of Dissembler, The Catacombs of Solaris Revisited, Jumpgrid, and Boson X, comes yet another exciting thinky-looking game in the form of Mars First Logistics. You are an engineer tasked with constructing rover vehicles and expanding a martian colony, so get building!
Remember the trucks and bikes from Death Stranding? Here you get to build your own Mars rovers and transport all manner of awkwardly shaped cargo across the Red Planet. Slowly gather up funds for new, unlockable parts, and help the martians establish a new home! It looks like tipping over will be a common occurrence, and I look forward to the challenge of balancing packages.
Looking at the trailer and concept pieces, Mars First Logistics’ art style is reminiscent of Sable, an open world exploration game with puzzle elements. A very minimally shaded landscape, coupled with a thin black outline for both objects and backgrounds — this game brings an interesting spin on the cell-shaded aesthetic.
Having grown up on Lego Technic sets, Mars First Logistics is scratching an itch of mine that’s been lingering for years. I’m excited to see what kinds of things I can build, to test my engineering skills against this martian physics simulation, and learn what wacky techniques (eg. traversing slowly with a carefully arranged load for maximum optimisation) I can use to get my cargo safely to its destination.
Mars First Logistics arrives on Steam Early Access next week on the 22nd of June.
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