Space games are getting better and better every year as improving technology allows developers to deliver experiences that were previously not possible. While we already have tons of space games that offer an open-world space experience. The number of narrative space games is still not that high and the few that we have, deliver a mediocre experience. Deliver Us Mars is a new space sim that is highly focused on its narrative rather than having complex gameplay mechanics or involving grindy player development. It is a simple narrative-heavy title that is set in space and thus falls into a genre that is not that dense if you think about it. This is our review of Deliver Us Mars in which our rocket breaks down on the way to mars and we drive some rovers on the red planet.
Developed by KeokeN Interactive and published by Frontier Foundry, Deliver Us Mars is a sequel to the 2019 title Deliver Us Moon and follows along the same line of narrative-driven gameplay. The game is set ten years after the story of Deliver Us Moon and follows the adventure of Kathy Johanson as she boards the Zephyr and sets on a journey to planet Mars. Her goal is to investigate a signal that arrived at Earth from one of the three Arks that were stolen from humanity a few years ago. Planet Earth is on its last breath with its natural resources depleted and humanity is trying its best to survive. Following the signal, Kathy and the crew of Zephyr must try and locate the three stolen ARK colony ships which were designed as a last attempt at humanity’s survival.
However, things are not as simple as it sounds because the outlaw group responsible for stealing these ARK colony ships is called Outward and Kathy’s father was one of the members of this group. Given the special circumstances, Kathy is here on both professional and personal agendas as she must figure out whether she wants to reconcile with her father or do as her company, World Space Agency has instructed her and the team. Like always, the mission is not always a smooth one and troubles start arising right after the crew launches into the orbit of Earth. Throughout the story of Deliver Us Mars, apart from the modern events, we are also shown flashbacks of Kathy with her father and other family members. Kathy’s father wanted Kathy to travel to Moon and beyond once she grows up and because of this, he trained his daughter really well but what changed his father and led him to steal one of the ARK colony ships is still a huge mystery that is solved by playing through the game.
Deliver Us Mars is played as a first-person game where you will travel through space, launch a rocket, fix a rocket, swim deep underwater, drive rovers, and whatnot. However, solving puzzles dominated most gameplay sections as you will be tinkering with your brain cells in order to progress in the game. A few mechanics dominate the puzzle solving as well like you will be using your laser cutter to cut through a lot of metal items in order to access locked areas or breakaway stuff. Since you are in space and things do not always go according to your plan so you will need your laser cutter in order to break away stuff that you do not need. Other puzzle mechanics include pressing buttons in the right order, using your drone to sneak into places where you are not supposed to be, aligning devices to activate switches, and much more. Despite being a puzzle-heavy title, Deliver Us Mars is not that tough and you can easily solve most puzzles in the game without much trouble.
The level design of Deliver Us Mars is strictly narrative and there is no exploration of any kind. You will be exploring some rooms or areas which are a little off the main path for some lore collections or hidden collectibles but other than that, you will be following a strict path that revolves around the game’s narrative. There is no backtracking in the game as well, which is another nod to the game’s linear system as you will go through most of the areas of the game only once. You arrive at a location, you solve a puzzle, you pull some levels or press some buttons, a door opens and you move on to the next area while listening to some dialogue. This is what the whole premise of Deliver Us Mars really is. Even in some of the huge environments of the game such as while exploring one of the Arks which is literally huge in size, only a small bit of it is accessible to you with the rest of it closed off so the game really is a linear experience.
The whole story of Deliver Us Mars will take you through some really cool spaces such as earth, inside a rocket, outside of a rocket in space, and eventually different areas on Mars as well. The game also gives you the actual feel of being there in the game for example, while I was trying to launch the rocket and was given instructions to perform a single task, apart from a small visual screen aid at the front, I was supposed to find everything on my own by looking around and understanding the controls of the rocket. Also, when the first time the rocket broke down and I had to step outside into the empty space to float my way to the boosters and inspect them, they were really memorable moments for me. There are also plenty of other cool moments in the story of Deliver Us Mars but I will not spoil the whole game here for you because this is one narrative that should be experienced firsthand.
The only thing holding Deliver Us Mars is its poor character animations and sometimes choppy visuals. On the PS5, at certain locations, I felt like I was playing a PS4 title or even a late-PS3 title at instances. The animations are smooth overall but the character animations and their faces while speaking and showing different facial expressions are not that well made even for an indie game. These days we see all these indie games with some of the best visuals but Deliver Us Mars lacks in this area. Some of the scenes in the game look very good but even in some outdoor areas such as in one area where we are stuck near Mars and we are out in space trying to work on our ship, Mars as a planet does not really look that believable and this was a bummer. Being a big fan of space games, this really put me off. The visuals are okay to look at when you are inside working in your rocket, exploring Mars, or exploring space stations. I really hope something can be done about facial expressions though because sometimes they look hilarious.
Other than that, I am happy to note here that the game runs fairly well on a PS5 system and there are no technical issues with the game. Unfortunately, the game does not use any enhanced features of the DualSense controller which is a missed opportunity because a little bit of extra feedback would have been amazing when doing different tasks such as using the laser cutter. There are no visual glitches or technical hiccups that may hinder the gameplay in any way so you will be experiencing a fairly steady version of the game on PS5. Deliver Us Mars is not a difficult game in any way and you can consider it more of a game that is highly oriented towards its narrative instead of actual gameplay. You can easily complete the game without getting stuck in any bit of the puzzles or the narrative in around 10 hours or so, which is not too much but enough to deliver a decent adventure.
Final Verdict:
Deliver Us Mars is a really good narrative experience and one that I will highly recommend to everyone to play but do not expect too much when it comes to game visuals. I have played a lot of titles with less visual fidelity, even with pixel visuals and normally, I do not consider the visual fidelity too much but sometimes, in Deliver Us Mars things start to appear out of the ordinary. Everything in the game is top-notch such as the gameplay, soundtrack, and dialogue delivery so that makes the low-quality visuals stand out even more while playing the game. The only points I am deducting for Deliver Us Mars is because of the visuals otherwise, this amazing sequel by KeokeN Interactive certainly lives up to the expectations. If you love space games, and simple puzzle narrative titles or you played the first game, I will highly recommend that you give this game a shot as well.
Final Score: 8.0/10
