Playing Surviving Mars is like watching someone put a kitten in a plastic bubble. It's cute for a while, wobbling around in its new environment. But then you realize that the kitten is going to suffocate, and you are going to spend hours watching it slowly run out of air and die. Trying to get the kitten out of the bubble is hopeless. You don't know anything about bubbles, and the kitten isn't telling you. Have fun, kids!

Though Surviving Mars makes a game out of colonising our red neighbour, this game brilliantly keeps that hard edge... It constantly pushes and tests your ability to plan with survival in mind, especially with the unpredictability of the Mysteries of Mars.