Choice Provisions made a name for themselves back when they were called Gaijin Games and created the beloved BIT.TRIP series. When it came to creating quirky retro inspired games they were the team that delivered some of the best. With their new game, Tharsis, they are trying something different.
Tharsis sees you on Earth’s first manned mission to Mars, when everything goes wrong. Your new mission then becomes to survive and make it to Mars. How is it you survive? By rolling dice. No that’s not a typo. Tharsis is very much a digital board game and, because of this, it means you’ll be unlikely to have the same playthrough twice.
All you have to do is survive ten turns to make it to Mars. Easy right? It would be, but during the course of the journey the problems that arise will leave you having to make tough decisions. You need to make sure your ship remains intact whilst also making sure your crew stay alive, and are well fed. When food runs low there are certain choices you can make to try and ease the crews hunger.
Food is an important part of the game as it provides more dice rolls for a crew member. More dice rolls means higher numbers to help put out fires, repair the ship, research something or use the special ability of your class. At first you will only have four crew to choose from, but as the game progresses you’ll unlock more. I failed to do a complete run of the game until I hit the stipulations to unlock a few more crew members. Their different special abilities mean you’ll be tinkering to find the ones that match your play-style.
Tharsis is an addictive digital board game, and one that I see as tricky to replicate in real life. It’s because of this that the game really shines. One run of the game is normally fairly quick and, even if it’s all going wrong you can get something from it due to crew unlocks. The speed of a run means that it slides in to that “just one more game” territory so well you’ll be going back to it for a while. It’s got a few issues, but for the most part it’s a great way to spend some time. If you’re a fan of strategy games or digital board games I strongly suggest you consider picking Tharsis up on PS4 or PC.
You can watch my video review below.