Surviving Mars: Relaunched Is A Solid But Inessential Remaster For...

There are fewer reasons for veteran players to return, but for new colonists it's a no-brainer.

Surviving Mars: Relaunched is an unusual remaster, though this is not particularly clear at a glance. Remasters tend to fall into two categories: gussied up classics that take advantage of technological improvements, new consoles and a new audience, or cynical attempts at double dipping. Surviving Mars comfortably slots into the first group, but given the original's relative youth, you could be forgiven for assuming it's part of the latter.

Haemimont Games and Paradox Interactive released the original Surviving Mars back in 2018. In my Surviving Mars review, I said it was "a lot of hard work, but managing a burgeoning colony never stops being compelling", and then slapped an 80% on it. Thanks to the DLC, we were then able to keep expanding our colonies with new features all the way up to 2022.

This is not an ageing classic, then. Nor has its relevance diminished. Survival city builders are even more popular than they were when Surviving Mars first launched, and the fantasy of colonising Mars is as zeitgeisty as ever. It largely feels as fresh as it did back in 2018. Yes, it launched during a previous console generation, but it's compatible with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

But Haemimont's reasons for this remaster are still pretty compelling. The studio stopped working on Surviving Mars back in 2019, with Abstraction Studios taking over update and DLC duties. The most notable additions during this era were the Below and Beyond expansion and the tiny Martian Express pack (which was actually designed by modders). These represented a significant drop off in terms of quality, despite the features themselves being very welcome.

With Haemimont back at the helm, it had the opportunity to tweak the work of its successors, adjusting things like the underground maps for Below and Beyond, which is now more spacious, and significantly polishing the train system from Martian Express in direct response to player complaints. Tracks now have fewer placement limitations, and you can make a proper network with the trainline running through multiple stations before looping back to its point of origin.

Essentially, Haemimont has made the game it would have, had it not left for greener pastures.

These are likely the most highly-anticipated changes, but there are little tweaks and quality of life improvements filtered throughout, as well as enhanced lighting and textures that brin

Source: PC Gamer