Memories of Mars Online Preview Virtual Demo Impressions

I had the pleasure of attending the Memories of Mars Online Preview Virtual Demo event this week by 505 Games and Limbic Entertainment.

The demo of Memories of Mars—a survival game set on, well, Mars—began on an open wasteland on the red planet. One of the people hosting the demo walked us through the controls as we went to meet-up. We customized our space suits to different color schemes, armed ourselves with pistols and shotguns, and collected items from a container set up for the demo. Once we were assembled, we formed an alliance (the game’s equivalent to teams/guilds) and left to fight a PvP match against another team of players in the demo.

As soon as we arrived on the scene . . . I was shot through the head by another player and put into a downed state. The host revived me—only for me to awaken on a pool of acid and get downed a second time. After being downed the second time, I was quickly killed by the acid I was laying on and had to re-spawn.

After the first bout, the host built a base for our alliance at which to meet. From there, the alliance went to the enemy base to engage in round 2. I would say “we went,” but I had trouble reading the map at first. Between having to stop every few seconds to check I was going the right way and the robot spiders that ambushed me along the way, by the time I got to the scene of the battle, the fighting had more or less ended.

After the second round was done, the alliance was dissolved and I got to see the reception to the idea of everyone working together to survive on a harsh, alien world. Everyone started shooting each other in a free-for-all. After that, the demo ended.

During the demo I was able to sample the crafting system. Because it was a demo made to be easy to players who weren’t familiar with survival games, I didn’t need to worry about gathering materials (in the final game you will need materials to craft things). From what I was able to access, I could build medical supplies, ammo for the weapons, iron bars, or a welding torch to fix broken structures. Base building is possible in the game, although I wasn’t able to sample it. From what I could see, crafting seemed rather simple, something which I enjoyed (although it might have just appeared simple because it was a demo version).

Overall I had fun with the game.

See the Memories of Mars Welcome to the Red Planet Trailer:

Players can visit the official Steam page today to add Memories of Mars to their Steam Wishlist.