“On Mars” is a daring and incredibly complicated board game. Its designer is Vital Lacerda, and it’s published by Eagle-Gryphon Games. As a long-time fan of board games, I looked at the makeup of On Mars and saw a lot of what I like. I saw that it has difficult-to-master mechanics and a really satisfying amount of strategic depth. But when I actually got down and played the game, I found an even better reason to enjoy it: Its reward for players who put in the time and effort to understand the nitty-gritty of gameplay, very few games are able to hit this kind of balance between complexity and recompense.
On Mars is set in the not-too-distant future and charges players with the heady task of establishing a foothold on our neighboring planet. On Mars, part of the game’s title and shorthand for its core gameplay experience, asks the “astroneer” to do plenty: At the game’s start, not much else exists on the Red Planet except for your mission’s seed base and the orbital station overhead. You’re mostly creating and managing stuff on the surface of the planet; sometimes you also have to manage the station orbiting Mars up above. The game exists in two simultaneous and interconnected modes, and the work done in both either contributes to or undermines the success of your shared colony.
My initial experience with On Mars was during an all-night gaming event. I was there with several other people, and we were all long-time board game players. The On Mars rulebook is long enough to be off-putting to some players, which is why most of us had watched several different ‘how to play’ videos beforehand. Then we bumbled our way through about half of a round before things started to make sense.
Once they did, we could appreciate how interwoven the game’s many mechanics are, as well as the challenge and the thrill that come from trying to best both the board and your fellow players, with the game state in a state of constant flux and change.
“On Mars” is really much more than just another board game. It truly has layers of complexity and stirs deep thought, meaning it isn’t a game for everyone. But more on that chapter later. For those that might be into this beast, let me just say that the art of graphic designer Ian O’Toole truly is amazing. Board, cards, and components—the whole visual world that this game resides in is a delight to all the senses. And sense of delight is, unfortunately, my first sin in fawning over this game.
When you’re in low orbit around Mars and have at your disposal the stuff you’ve brought with you, plus the stuff you can get from Mars, and when your meaningful work leads to much cheaper voyages, then all the value you’re going to create for humanity in space: that’s for the benefit not just of the people who might go to space but, really and truly, of the people who must remain on Earth.
Endless hours of exciting and immersive gaming await those who look for a deep and strategic gaming experience.
On Mars provides just that—the player is not just some CEO in a large corporation or another member of the criminal underworld. No, the player is the governor of humankind’s first Martian colony. Yet it’s simple to learn, even for those without much familiarity with this type of game.
First, set up the main board. It’s divided into two parts: the first is the top part, which is the orbital station; the second is the bottom part, which is the Martian surface. This board is huge. It’s so big that you really feel like you could be on Mars. One of the best parts of the game from an anticipation standpoint is that you’re not just staring at a regular board that’s on your table or in your lap. The art, the components, the staging, the whole thing—you really feel like you’re not just playing a game; you actually feel like you’re on Mars sometimes … and when you succeed in the game, you feel like you’ve actually accomplished something.
The dual setup of the board game is not just for visual effect. It is an accompaniment to the substance of First Martians and the other two main actions you—the player—will be fulfilling throughout the game: transitioning from Earth’s orbit, where you acquire the resources and technologies you need, to the surface of Mars, where you stake out your base of operations and start expanding your colony.
Every player gets a game board. This is your “home base” for resource management, research, and construction. Your board is a beautifully designed and functional space where all the pathways of possibility are clearly laid out. It’s up to the player to make this arrangement of cells sing.
Moreover, each player is given a group of settlers, automatons, and spaceships at the start of the game. These are all bound to be integral to the carrying-out of whatever grand plan the player has in mind.
To get any game up and running, you need to distribute technology tiles and blueprint cards. These two items obviously exist for all sorts of strategic reasons. They let you know what is available and what isn’t, and this is both in terms of your prerogative and your choice. What’s more, the lead that you take with these two items can give you some sort of impetus for what you’re about to do. The fun comes in the initial setup and in the first few turns. If you’re in this lead, and if you’re following closely, then you can get a sense of just what you need.
The gameplay of On Mars is the shining highlight. The game plays cleanly and allows one to really feel like they’re in charge of a vast number of machines and systems, all of which make Elysium a place on Mars. These days, board game strategy covers an impressive range of effects (too many to list here) and even more impressive is the myriad of tiny strategic decisions that must be made and the ways and the oh-so-many “what if” moments that make your mind race with the thrilling possibilities of what the next turn can bring.
In every round, the players have to make a fundamental decision: They can take any number of a certain kind of action, a number associated directly with the well-being of their Settler figures. Or they can take a completely different kind of action associated with their long-term strategic objectives.
Each round of the game is made up of various phases. The players make their moves within this set of ever-changing situations that range from being on the orbital station to all the way down to the actual surface of Mars.
In the game On Mars, you confront a crucial decision right away. Will you linger in orbit, amassing an essence of, well, “eliteness”—the resources that let you act, the technologies that assist those actions? Or will you descend and build, right there on the red-dusted, metal-sharp surface of the planet itself? One of the game’s delights is the way it lets you-you, in the person of your astronaut—into and out of those two decisions; into and out of that act of either building up the game’s meaningfulness or knocking it down.
This is not just a hand wavey art thing; this is strategically the most important thing in the game. This will control what actions are available to you and when you can do them in the game.
No colony on Mars would be complete without its technologies. They give you strong powers and favor as you play, and then they can massively transform everything. If you want to do really well at this, don’t skimp on technology.
Another focus for the players is the shared missions. Players who complete these repeatable tasks are usually rewarded handsomely. These missions aren’t static, though, and when the rules of the game change, the mission being undertaken usually changes as well. Gamers have to be strategic in figuring out how best to complete the mission and adjust when changes happen.
Worry also about the opponents.
The advanced rules of On Mars keep it a constantly engaging game as it could always turn the corner as that new opportunity (or threat!) could open up. Similarly, sufficient lead time allows for appropriate countermeasures to be put into place. Compete over landing sites, and once the E.P.O.C. (expected period of completion) has been met, compete over who will actually inhabit those structures.
Yet another aspect of On Mars that I really get a kick out of is the high level of interaction between players. This right here is the co-op gaming bonanza you’ve been waiting for. While you’re mainly in competition with other players to serve the contract (building your very own colony outpost), it seems that, at any time, if you’re tied with another player to get to the same number of shared objectives, and your last action happens to be something involved related to that objective, then your direct interaction with the tied player becomes a block-party game of “who’ll get the service objective first,” and we all know how fun that can be!
The game’s quality of components is first class. The gorgeously illustrated boards (and deck boxes and avatars that beam in from an alternate cover universe) that serve up art plentiful enough to be a gallery in and of themselves. Nonetheless, “Paranormal Detectives” is a board game mythos that can turn a poker night into part two of The Halloween Tree.
An important positive point is replayability. With more than 12 distinct corporations, diversely altering overall game length and mission (Objective Card) strategies, and including new technologies and structures and their unique payoffs and rewards tracks, this game lets you play in both more and different ways than its predecessor.
On Mars is a next-level model of excellence in game design. It provides the kind of deep, top-notch strategic experience that seems to do well with today’s board game crowd. This is one of those games you simply dive into, assuring you’ll be spending the next 3 hours hunched over your seat, navigating over the 8-directional hexes that make up the very core of how On Mars works. Indeed, each time you and your friends play it, On Mars provides a fresh and completely attentive and absorbing experience.
One of the most satisfying parts about “On Mars” is how players feel as though their work really means something special and is contributing to not only human progress, but also a foothold of humanity on our beautiful, but very deadly, neighboring world. The game can still work fantastically as a parlor diversion if that’s all that players are after. Throwaway building components and “technologies ” that have no visible or tangible relation to progress on the part of humanity? Sorry, that’s not in this game of unrelenting relections and also really deep political statements about teamwork and the international mirrored community of scientists and assorted laborers who are making all of this life-over-yonder happen.
