I’ve written and re-written this review too many times. Every revision feels like I’m just saying the same thing I said in the preview a while back. Mars Horizon is effectively the equation that results in how to make space games very dry. I’ll reference it a lot, but I did say in the preview that the game is entirely focused on encyclopedic education that it is trying to impart on players. All starting on the edge of the pre-space race era and aiming for the skies.

The depth of which you reach with reams of paragraph after paragraph of context and detail, is brilliant. However, it doesn’t make for a very interesting game. That’s the sticking point; What the game drills down to is effectively mind-numbing clicks, going through the motions as you play. You spend time picking your boosters and payloads for rockets, cutting through the research tree with the stumbling of someone in the dark looking for the light after stepping on LEGO, and just matching numbers together. It is space accounting; mathematics and lengthy reading sessions on jet fuel.

It is well-designed, perfectly articulating the phase that I think everyone should be shouting from the rooftops, “isn’t space awesome?” Though the only archetypal game portion with any breadth is the stages and satellites. They ask you to add, subtract, and ultimately manage a few resources in a mini-game. It works well enough and it is indeed satisfying, but overall there is a lack of… gamification?

That seems to be the purpose of the entire game, to gamify the learning of space exploration history. There is one part done with great passion and love, however the other is left to be (for the most part) a nicely dressed set for play-NASA/NACA administrator. At some point while playing, I just fall into a lull of listening to music and clicking my way through the early days of the space age. To which the question would be, do I enjoy it more than Kerbal Space Program, FTL, Elite Dangerous, or other space-focused games? Well, yes and no.

To sit and relax, Mars Horizon does the perfect job at a low energy and overall peaceful experience. Though without much in the way of providing a better game experience, I don’t know what reason there is other than for that educational experience as you play. There is an odd numbness to playing that I’d characterize as satisfying, though I always lack a strong desire to return for any particular reason. Mars Horizon is a strange one to analyze or deconstruct. It does one good thing very well, yet is lacking the most important thing to conventional games, standout gameplay.

A PC review copy of Mars Horizon was provided by The Irregular Corporation for the purposes of this review.

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Mars Horizon

$19.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Great educational tool on space.
• Relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Cons

• Those looking for a typical game are in the wrong place.
• Oddly dry.