When ‘Ship Us the Moon’ was launched on Xbox in 2020 it got here out on the good time, now now we have the following sport Ship Us Mars. We have been in lockdown and I used to be drastically working out of issues to maintain me entertained. Then I stumbled throughout this indie area sport by ‘KeokeN Interactive’ which I hadn’t realised had already been out for two years for PC.
I will need to have been dwelling below a rock.
From begin to end I utterly fell in love with ‘Ship us the moon’. The truth that I’ve performed it via a complete of 6 occasions can again this up.
I used to be hooked on the story of Earth turning into much less liveable and turning into solely depending on the Moon’s fixed provide of Helium 3 for energy. The sport drew me into its thriller by having the participant as the one bodily character all through the complete story. You be taught what occurred on Pearson Station and the Moonhub via information recordsdata and playable holograms. The exposition speaks for itself.
‘Ship us the Moon’ earned its place on my all-time favourites listing for all of those elements. Sure, it wasn’t an AAA+ sport however you might actually inform that the builders cared and poured their love into it.
I used to be left questioning after I completed my first playthrough ‘Would there be a follow-up?’. For a narrative as nice as this I assumed it might be a rattling disgrace to move up on a sequel and broaden the story. So after I heard final yr {that a} sequel was coming and that it might be set on Mars I used to be past excited.
I feel I ought to word that I’m obsessive about area and Mars is my favorite planet (apart from Earth) in our photo voltaic system, so to have a sport set on it (and on the earth, they’ve created) made me need to play it as quickly as I may.
So let’s depart the orbit of the Moon and set our sights on Mars and dive proper in.
If I used to be to match ‘Ship us the Moon’ and ‘Ship Us Mars’ to particular motion pictures, ‘Ship us the Moon’ can be ‘Moon’ (2009) with Sam Rockwell and ‘Ship Us Mars’ can be ‘The Martian’ (2015) with Matt Damon. Not as a result of the settings of those movies are similar to the video games however as a result of they share similarities in story and situations. Extra on this later.
‘Ship us Mars’ is about 10 years after the occasions of ‘Ship us the Moon’. You play Kathy Johanson who’s the sister of Claire Johanson and daughter of Isaac Johanson who you study and listen to from hologram and audio playbacks whereas exploring Pearson Station and the Moonhub within the first sport.
‘Ship us Mars’ opens up with a flashback establishing what actually occurred on the Moon and the place Isaac went. You lean via cutscenes that Isaac tried to depart from the Moon with Kathy on board the ‘Outward’ Ark colony ships. Nonetheless, he was cut up up from Kathy when his older daughter Claire tried to cease him from going.
We then zip ahead in time and Kathy is working as an MPT engineer for the WSA (World Area Company). With out giving an excessive amount of of the story away, the WSA receives contact from the colony ships which at the moment are on Mars. Kathy is determined to seek out out what occurred to her father so when she just isn’t invited to the assembly by which her sister is concerned she decides to eavesdrop. She overhears the message despatched from Mars. It’s very scrambled however she will hear it’s her dad’s voice and recognises his pet title for her ‘Moon bear’ (see the moon bear floating in Claire’s room in ‘Ship us the Moon’). Kathy then storms into the assembly and persuades them to let her be part of ‘Opera Group’.
We then have one other time bounce to the day of the mission. Right here an amazing piece of gameplay from the primary sport comes by which is the launch sequence of the spaceship that can take you to the title vacation spot. Like within the first sport you run via all of the preparations and sequences to have the ability to launch the area rocket. Like I stated final time it’s a fantastic sequence that actually makes you’re feeling like an astronaut.
I need to word earlier than shifting ahead that there’s a good name again to the primary sport on the WSA headquarters the place you chop via a museum to get to your vacation spot. Within the museum, there’s an exhibit of the ‘Fortuna One’ mission and all of the astronauts concerned.
Shifting onto the gameplay.
The gameplay in ‘Ship us Mars’ is usually the identical as in ‘Ship us the Moon’. When in areas with gravity the sport is within the third particular person permitting you to see the character mannequin of Kathy, however once you swap to Zero G or in underwater sections the sport then shifts to a first-person placing you within the headspace of the character.
Whereas within the Zero-G (and underwater) sections the motion controls additionally shift that can assist you adapt and compensate for floating round. The suitable and left bumpers allow you to rotate your angle, A and B allow you to float up and down and the left thumbstick allows you to direct your motion. It’s a pleasant strategy to transfer round and when you grasp it you’ll be having a lot enjoyable in Zero-G.
The brand new gameplay addition is mountain climbing. It is sensible as Mars is virtually a barren wasteland stuffed with mountainous terrain, plus it provides a enjoyable aspect to traversing it. You’re geared up with two climbing axe’s and you employ the left and proper triggers to function the respective axes. For those who let go of each triggers you’ll fall, however for those who instantly press them each in once more Kathy will slam the axes into the rock/ice in entrance of her to interrupt her fall. It really works very equally to the tomb raider climbing axes.
You’re given a short tutorial on find out how to use them in a flashback sequence earlier within the sport earlier than touchdown on Mars. Nonetheless, this tutorial doesn’t clarify find out how to propel your self onto a climbable rock/ice face that’s immediately behind you. I needed to google how to do that and after 10 minutes of trial and error I lastly (though by a fluke) managed to barely climb up an ice cliff whereas having to leap back and forth. It was a little bit of a let-down as I used to be caught scratching my head wanting on the wall pondering ‘How the hell am I alleged to climb that’ and never being proven find out how to do it. I personally suppose {that a} extra in-depth tutorial or on-screen directions may have been added right here to this to make it extra user-friendly. I get that there making an attempt to maintain it minimal to maintain the immersion, nevertheless it breaks it when you’re caught with an issue you’ll be able to’t remedy.
One other new aspect is find out how to entry the holograms left all through Mars. Within the first sport, it was so simple as urgent the X button to work together and play the sequence. This time round you may have a unusual mini-game the place you must completely line up three rectangles inside a circle. You’ll know you’ve accomplished it appropriately as soon as they’re all blue. To do that you need to take management of your ASE (Droid) and float ahead or again, up or down and facet to facet to get them to align. It was annoying at first, however because the Zero-G controls, when you’ve mastered them you’ll discover it simple.
Now I discussed beforehand my comparisons to the 2 movies ‘Moon’ and ‘The Martian’.
I’ll clarify why.
‘Ship us the Moon’ could be very very similar to ‘Moon’ (2009) the place it’s a really self-contained story that includes just one bodily presence. Whereas ‘The Martian’ although it’s a story a couple of lone man on Mars, it additionally incorporates a supporting forged to assist elevate the story. That is mirrored in ‘Ship us Mars’ as you don’t function by yourself on this sport, not like its predecessor. You may have a supporting forged from the crew of ‘Opera Group’ to your sister Claire and your dad Isaac. I feel the builders went for this strategy as they needed to inform a extra private character-driven story this time round centered on a father’s timeless love for his daughter. And as a father to my little woman, I actually related and associated with the story and its characters and will empathise with their objectives and motivations. When a narrative has made that reference to the participant and has them invested like that, then the builders have accomplished their job proper. So hats off to you ‘KeokeN Interactive’.
Efficiency sensible the sport ran easily on the Xbox sequence X with little lag or drops in body charge. The load occasions have been quick making the loading screens barely a chore and textures can be there instantly. The character fashions look good too. I can inform extra time was taken on making Kathy’s character look good and as near her voice actress Ellise Chappell as attainable. Nonetheless, the opposite characters face fashions suffered a bit within the course of and primarily with the hair and eyebrows. Ryan and Sarah’s characters for instance. The eyebrows seemed very uneven like somebody had taken an electrical razor to them of their sleep as a joke. Additionally, the hair is just too shiny and too ‘collectively’. In Tomb Raider (reboot) they made an enormous tune and dance that every hair on Lara’s head is a person strand which seemed nice, whereas this… not a lot.
Now I’m not saying it’s dangerous. When you recover from the preliminary look you be taught to look previous it as you’re extra centered on the beautiful areas of Earth, The Moon, The Area Ship and naturally Mars and the Arks. I simply want the quantity of element they put into these areas was the identical within the character fashions.
Now I did take a look at the sport on an Xbox One S and sadly, it doesn’t maintain up on older {hardware}.
Load occasions are lengthy. The body charge is inconsistent. Scene freeze momentarily whereas the sound performs on and you must anticipate the image to catch up. Textures take longer to pop in and character fashions look dated.
It’s a disgrace as individuals who haven’t been in a position to get their palms on a next-gen console but as a result of scarcity can be enjoying this sport on their ‘Present’ last-gen consoles and received’t have the ability to expertise it at its full potential.
Total ‘Ship us Mars’ is a worthy follow-up to the excellent ‘Ship us the Moon’. Whereas I don’t see it in the identical mild but as its predecessor I’m positive a number of playthroughs to expertise Mars once more will assist to sway my thoughts.
Sure, the sport has its flaws right here and there, however we turn into so wrapped up nowadays within the graphics and the technical particulars that the story that the developer is making an attempt to inform will get misplaced within the echo. ‘Ship us the Moon’ did such job in establishing this world that you just turn into so invested in it and you start to look previous these flaws. Gaming is supposed to be enjoyable, and ‘Ship us Mars’, ‘Delivers’ on simply that.
(see what I did there!)
Ship Us Mars was reviewed on the Xbox Sequence Set of consoles, seize your copy right here https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/video games/retailer/deliver-us-mars/9mz33g9gh5pk
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Sequence X and Sequence S, Microsoft Home windows
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Developer: KeokeN Interactive
Writer: Frontier Developments plc
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