Upon requesting this game for review (because it looked very interesting), I failed to realize that “Deliver Us Mars” is a sequel to “Deliver Us The Moon.” A game that has slipped my radar completely, now in retrospect I wish I had played it before starting the sequel. Even still, without playing its predecessor, I was impressed with how cinematic this little Indie game actually is. There’s a lot of ambition all over this game which is commendable, but I think due to its limited budget, it bit off more than it could chew when it comes to execution.
Taking place ten years after the events of the first game where the Fortuna mission was a success and saved Earth from extinction. You play as Kathy, who is easily the youngest astronaut in history and is on an extremely important mission to Mars, because Earth isn’t out of the woods just yet. Kathy as a character is exceptionally enthralling and a very likeable protagonist that got me invested in this story pretty much right away, which I felt was an essential need so people like me who haven’t played the prior title will still get on board with this one.
Like one would expect in a space exploration game, the majority of the game’s story is told via exploring. As you traverse the red planet you will encounter collectible items with information that further enriches the story, as well as holograms. The meat of the real story is told through cinematics, which thankfully are written and performed exceptionally well. If they weren’t the subpar graphics to put it nicely would have stuck out like an even more sore thumb than it already is. Graphically it can be a bit of a mess, there are texture pop-ins constantly and a fair amount of frame dips. Also, some of the character face models can often look just not right.
But graphics aren’t everything, gameplay is king, so is “Deliver Us Mars” fun to play? Well, sort of? I will say it won’t be for everyone. Traversing the environments can feel a bit clunky and sometimes slow, to the point where it can feel like a chore. This game can easily test some gamer’s patience, especially on the wall climbing mechanic that at first reminded me a lot like the recent Tomb Raider games where you have two axes and traverse walls. While that is the case here, it does so to an extremely slow degree, where it feels like that’s how long it would take an actual person to wall climb in this situation.
The puzzles that you need to solve are also on the simple and monotonous side, a part of me feels like they forgot to add the ingredient of “fun” into the game a lot of the time. Miraculously, despite all the game’s shortcomings, the writing, the story, the characters are so well done that I was compelled to persevere to see how the story played out, and that’s pretty commendable in its own right. So, while this game isn’t perfect, and certainly won’t be for everyone, if you still find yourself curious to play, then maybe you will be one of the ones like me that will be captivated by the “Deliver Us Mars” narrative. If they failed in that regard, this score would have been quite lower.
7/10
For more information, visit: https://www.deliverusmars.com/
Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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