Mars Attracts, developed and published by Outlier, is available in early access on Steam right now, and you can find it HERE. The official website for Mars Attracts can be found HERE.
Tycoon games have always been a joy to play, with some favourites being Zoo Tycoon and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Over the years, many games have tried to recreate a similar style, and some have achieved this, some not so much. Mars Attracts, though, hits that mark and knocks it out of the park with a dark twist. In Mars Attracts, you take control of a park on Mars, and yes, these aliens are the ones from the cult classic Mars Attacks. You must entertain the alien guests and keep them happy using things like rides, toilets, stalls, and all the usual tycoon game tropes you typically come across. The management aspect works well, which is a nice change, as some games that have been released seemingly lack a challenging management system, but Mars Attracts was fun to learn. Mars Attracts takes some systems from other games of old and converts them into a new and fresh way to fit the overarching theme. However, as mentioned, there is a dark twist…
The twist, you ask? Humans are the main attraction to a successful park. That’s right, you’ll have to send expeditions to different time periods to abduct humans and their precious items to run a successful human enclosure. Human enclosures will need things such as beds, food, water and the basic necessities humans need to survive and remain happy. While they wait to be experimented on for the aliens’ amusement, and for you, research points. Keeping humans and experimenting on them fund your research points from biology points, physics, and chemistry, all unlocking different rides, facilities, upgrades and more. It’s a good system that works well, and it’s exciting to see different time periods showcasing how humans react within their new homes, with some even managing to escape their enclosures. I have enjoyed the loop so far, and it feels like, despite it being in early access, there is quite a bit of content to keep you entertained. I did run into an issue during the tutorial. I don’t know if it was me or the game (most likely me), but I needed to gain human knowledge to advance the tutorial and could not work out why it wasn’t generating. It turns out that after being stuck for a good 30 minutes, one of my scientists blocked knowledge generation, so I fired him. It was frustrating as I didn’t understand that it was a thing.
Mars Attracts might not be the best-looking game out there; however, the way it leans into the hilarious Mars Attacks lore works perfectly. Each human from the different time periods looks just like the counterpart you’d expect. Most of the enclosures fit the time periods they belong to, but I do feel more theming could be added to each of the amenities the humans need to survive. The enclosures all look a little too similar in that regard, so they could use just a bit of variety. The experiments also look horrific, in a good way if you’re into dark humour. A lot of detail has been added to them, so you’ll see some pretty gory and messed-up things happening to your humans. I honestly felt a little guilty about it. Another improvement that is needed is that the alien guests all look the same; there didn’t seem to be much variety, but I imagine that as the updates progress, we’ll see more. The music is perfect; it belongs up there with the old classic alien B movies and works well, though there could be more theme park atmospheric sounds around the park.
Verdict:
Mars Attracts is already shaping up to be a great tycoon game with a dark and humorous twist that people will love. The early access title already has quite a bit of content to get your teeth sunk into. I definitely feel the tutorial could use a little improvement and more variety added in some aspects of the game, but I believe that in time, we’ll see more as it progresses. I didn’t run into any issues when playing, and it ran smoothly throughout. I am looking forward to seeing where Mars Attracts ends up in its early access journey.
nerdybirdgames.com 