MARS HORIZON Beta Impressions for Steam

In Mars Horizon, by developer Auroch Digital and publisher The Irregular Corporation, you are given a front row seat in leading major space agencies! Was that ever your dream as a child? I remember how enamored I was with space when I was young and wanting nothing more to travel across our galaxy. In Mars Horizon, you can do just that! The object of the game is to lead humanity to Mars, and to be the first space agency to do so!

Upon loading up the game, you are confronted with your first choice of many in this strategy game: to select which space agency you will be leading. Players can choose between NASA, the ESA (the European Space Agency,) and Russia. Each agency has different advantages and disadvantages to them, depending on their own historical positions in the space race. I played as Russia because my family is from Russia. What makes this game even more cool to me is that the publishers worked with European Space Agencies on aspects of this project to make it as realistic as possible.

What I really enjoyed about Mars Horizon was the attention to detail here. If space is your thing, you will love to research different rockets and satellites to advance your goals as a space agency. If you are interested in space but love a managing aspect to your gaming, there are lots of things around the agency to tend to. Projects must be supported by the public, be within your budget and you need to manage your own international affairs with other countries. I love history and especially the space race, so I tried to simulate my own sort of space race in game. It was all a lot of fun, although I would not do the former Soviet Union very proud, due to my managing skills not being very up to par. America managed to beat me with sending the first animal up in space. RIP Laika!

As I understand it, although I only was able to travel to orbit and to the moon, the entirety of the solar system will be in the game’s final form, which makes me very excited to see what Mars Horizon has in store for players. It is sure to be super engrossing. If you are a fan of the space race and this period of history, then I would really recommend you keep an eye out on this game. It looks great and I thought that the managing and strategizing of the game, although challenging, is easy to understand and pick up.

My only concern about Mars Horizon is the naming of Russia simply being “Russia.” The game is very well researched, and both NASA and the ESA are both appropriately named. Why not also name the Russian Space Agency? I understand that this could go two ways—it could be Soviet Space Program, due to the timing of the beginning of the space age, or you could simply just call it Roscosmos, due to the game simply referring to the country as Roscosmos. I think that this would add to the well-researched nature of the game, as well as making the line up seem a little less awkward. It is a nitpicky complaint, but to me that just goes to show how exciting Mars Horizon is. Keep an eye out!

Check Out the Mars Horizon Trailer:

Mars Horizon will be launching for Windows PC in 2020 via Steam. You can wishlist the game right now.

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