Terraforming Mars Reviews

4.8 Rating 32 Reviews

According to Board Game Geek’s ratings, Terraforming Mars is the fourth-best board game of all time, right now! That’s high praise indeed for Jacob Fryxelius’ pride and joy. It balances a blend of hand management and card-drafting that’s all driven by economic resource-management, and it culminates in territory-building on the red planet. Yes, Mars is the setting here (oh, you’d already guessed?), and, much like Elon Musk’s plans at the time of writing, you’re a corporation looking to make the fourth planet habitable for the human race in the futuristic 25th century. Mars begins the game in its current state: it’s an inhospitable host, with the temperature being far too cold for life to thrive, there’s a severe lack of oxygen and there are not enough oceans. It’s your job to contribute towards fixing these three factors, transforming Mars into a planet that more resembles Earth. When these three characteristics have met their goals, the game will end, and whoever has amassed the most points will be the winner. Hopefully by this point you will have built various technologies, earned set collection rewards and you’ll have a healthy bank balance (terraforming ain’t cheap, you know). Over 200 different Project Cards drive Terraforming Mars. A round begins by players being dealt cards, and then they decide if they want to pay 'megacredits' to keep some or all of them. It will also cost you 'megacredits' to play the card (think of it as ‘funding’ the project, itself), so money-management is always tight. At the start of each round, players will receive 'megacredits' equal to their current Terraform Rating (which count towards your points at the end), so you’ll want to increase this as soon as possible. Some projects offer game-long benefits, while others can count towards achieving certain immediate goals. Others also produce resources such as steel, or plants. Players each have player boards to manage their own resources, to further improve their ever-growing tableau of projects. The brilliant thing about all of these Project Cards is that some of them cannot be completed until certain factors have been triggered, such as Mars’ temperature reaching a certain degrees, or a particular oxygen percentage is met. Other cards have to occur before certain landmarks are hit, making it quite the efficient race. Should you pay the 'megacredits' now, even though you can’t use the card at the moment? Will you even get to complete the project in time? Asymmetrical starting powers are available, too (recommended for those with a few plays under their belt). These also add further cards into the mix. Players might want to also consider acquiring separate expansions – Hellas & Elysium, and Venus Next. One thing’s for sure: Terraforming Mars provides a truly absorbing theme. It’s so satisfying when a game’s theme is logical and married with its mechanics in such a superb manner. It’s easy to see why this is rated so highly. Player Count: 1-5 Time: 120+ Minutes Age: 12+

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“Fantastic game - a long game but you don't notice the time go by as you are busy playing all the time”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Thouroughly enjoyed this so far. Not beaten it yet though. Seems a very strategic game and with there being so many cards and different corporations different startegies to winning the game.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Terraforming Mars is an engine building game in which you collect projects (cards) to play to, surprise, terraform Mars. We love the theme of the game (the manual even has the in-joke of sample play with 3 players: Kim, Stanley, and Robinson) and find the game a great challenge. You start with virtually nothing and by the end of the game usually you'll have resources galore to complete your projects. Certainly some of the criticisms of the game have a point. The art design is charmingly inconsistent, the player boards are easy to jog, and the game can feel a bit 'random'. We find it is best not to be led too much by your corporation powers but to play the cards you draw (we play the drafting variant, which we recommend). We play at 2, which is good, but I'd imagine this is great at 3/4. This has become our favourite game.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Great game - it builds through the game so that by the end you are doing so many things - adding plants, oceans and cities to the board, increasing the temperature and playing cards to do things better or interfere with your opponents. Excellent both multiplayer and solo. The only pity is that the component quality is not what I would expect in a game at this price.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Great theme, plays well at any number. Really enjoy the solo variant. Plenty of replability”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 years ago

“Perhaps one of the hottest games of 2016/2017 and deservedly so, Terraforming Mars offers players a myriad of ways in which to terraform the Red Planet, often dependent on which of the two highly asymetrical corporations they chose to play at at the start of the game, with each (from 12 total) providing various discounts or passive benefits. Players will work to increase their Terraforming Rating (essentially victory points) by increasing the oxygen level, temperature, and by placing ocean tiles, and will achieve this by slowly building an 'engine' of purchased cards in front of them - most of which merely increase their production level of one of 6 different resources (thus generating more of that resource at the end of every subsequent round), but some of which provide additional actions for the player to take. Foreplanning is key, as well as having a focused strategy of how to increase one's terraforming rating - it's better to be great at something than to be slightly good at everything, and this will oft tie in to the passive ability granted by the chosen corporation. I would recommend the drafting variant be used in every game, as whilst it does increase playing time it more easily enables players to choose and purchase cards that are of the most use for them, rather than merely making the best use of a static hand of cards received at the start of each round, thus reducing imbalance between players of random card draws. An amazing game that will see consistent play for years to come.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“One of the best board games I have ever played since I've been playing the hardest board games actually known. A solid game system based on card drafting and tile placement on the surface of Mars. Doesnt matter if you play solo or with a group of other players... it's simply amazing. (Maybe not properly recommended for beginners)”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Cool game, with lots of different aspects to it. Like the name suggest you have to make Mars habitable, this is done by raising the temperature to +8, making the surface of the planet have 9% water, and increasing the oxygen levels to 14%. All of which start zero, apart from the Temp' which starts at -30. These can all be changed through out the game by using a mixture of production/event cards and money "Mega Credits" Each player is dealt 2 companies to choose from, these all have different starting advantages, from finance to production, you also get dealt 10 production cards of which you get to choose zero to ten. But these cost Mega Credits to purchase and to play them you need to spend a mixture of Mega Credits and production. They also help in producing finance and production like Iron, Titanium, Heat, Plant Life and Energy. all of which is needed to terraform the red planet. Playing these cards means you can create Cities or Greenery (which produce oxygen, thus moving the oxygen counter up) You also get to place Mines and Nuclear sites Urban areas, Ocean tiles etc, there are a lot of counters, all of which have been though about and all help to terraform the planet. The science and relevant action behind the production cards is well thought out in relation to how they affect the planet (at times the pictures on some of the cards are bit Windows clip art) At the same time these items can help increase your score and help you gain a strategic hold over your opponents. Increasing your production, while removing some of theirs. Altho' this game pits you against other players, as the winner is the person with the most points at the end, it also kind of makes you play co-operatively at times and is an all round friendly game to play. Out of 10, I'd give it 8.5 and can see this being a firm favourite in our collection.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago