Terraforming Mars Review

Item: Terraforming Mars
Rating: 4.2
Author: BeforeYouBuy

Release: 2016

Players: 1 - 5

Playing Time: 2 h

Civilization Economic Environmental Industry / Manufacturing Science Fiction Space Exploration Territory Building

Summarized Review

Intro

Terraforming Mars puts you in charge of a massive corporation tasked with making the Red Planet habitable. It's 2400-something, and humanity has decided Mars needs a serious makeover. You'll raise temperatures, pump up oxygen levels, and create oceans while racing other corporations to rack up the most victory points.

This game works beautifully with 1-5 players, though it really shines with 3. Expect to spend about 2 hours transforming your little corner of Mars. With an 8.35/10 rating from players worldwide, it's earned serious respect in the board game community. The complexity sits in that sweet spot where strategy gamers feel challenged but newcomers won't get completely overwhelmed.

How It Plays

Each round (called a generation) follows a simple rhythm. First, everyone buys project cards from their personal hand of four. These cards represent everything from building cities to developing new technologies. Then comes the action phase where players take turns playing cards, claiming milestones, or using standard projects available to everyone.

Your player board tracks six different resources: money (MegaCredits), Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat. Each generation, your production kicks in and fills up your resource pools. The trick is balancing immediate benefits against long-term production boosts.

The main board shows Mars itself, where you'll place ocean tiles, cities, and forests. These placements matter because location affects bonuses and scoring. Meanwhile, three global parameters (temperature, oxygen, ocean coverage) slowly climb toward habitability. Once all three hit their targets, Mars is terraformed and the game ends.

Victory comes from multiple sources: your Terraform Rating (which also determines income), achievements called Awards and Milestones, and various cards in your tableau. It's a point salad, but one that makes thematic sense.

Highlights

The card variety is absolutely stellar. With over 200 unique project cards, each game feels different. One game you might focus on heat production and volcanic activity, while another sees you building an interplanetary shipping empire. The cards create natural narratives as your corporation develops its specialty.

The engine-building mechanics hit that perfect satisfaction sweet spot. Watching your production ramp up each generation while your hand of cards grows more powerful creates genuine excitement. When you finally afford that expensive card you've been eyeing for three rounds, it feels earned.

What really sets this apart is how cooperative and competitive elements blend. Everyone works toward the same terraforming goals, but you're fighting for the best rewards along the way. Sometimes you'll boost global parameters just because you need them for your cards, accidentally helping opponents in the process.

The solo mode deserves special mention. It's not just a multiplayer game with an AI opponent bolted on. Playing against the clock while trying to terraform Mars efficiently creates a completely different but equally engaging puzzle.

Criticisms

The biggest complaint is runaway leaders. If someone gets an early production advantage, they can snowball into an unbeatable position. More resources mean more cards, which mean better engines, which mean even more resources. Close games happen, but so do frustrating blowouts where you're fighting for second place by the halfway point.

Downtime can drag, especially with higher player counts. When someone's having a productive turn, playing multiple cards and taking several actions, everyone else just sits and waits. Analysis paralysis players make this worse, turning those 2-hour games into 3-hour slogs.

The randomness bothers some players. Your opening hand significantly impacts your strategy, and bad card draws can leave you scrambling. While skilled players adapt and find paths to victory, it stings when perfect cards for your strategy never appear while opponents get ideal synergies.

Conclusion

Terraforming Mars works best for players who love engine-building games and don't mind some randomness in their strategy. If you enjoy games where your early choices ripple through the entire experience, creating increasingly powerful combinations, you'll probably fall hard for this one.

Solo players and couples get an excellent experience, while groups of 3-4 will find the interaction level just right. Skip it if you hate games where luck plays a meaningful role or if you get frustrated when opponents pull ahead early. But if you want to spend two hours building the ultimate Mars corporation while watching a planet slowly come to life, this delivers exactly what it promises.

About this Game

In the 2400s, mankind begins to terraform the planet Mars. Giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable. In Terraforming Mars, you play one of those corporations and work together in the terraforming process, but compete for getting victory points that are awarded not only for your contribution to the terraforming, but also for advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar system, and doing other commendable things.

As a player, you acquire unique project cards (from over two hundred different ones) by buying them to your hand. The cards can give you immediate bonuses, as well as increasing your production of different resources. Many cards also have requirements and they become playable when the temperature, oxygen, or ocean coverage increases enough. Buying cards is costly, so there is a balance between buying cards and actually playing them. Standard Projects are always available to complement your hand of cards. Your basic income, as well as your basic score, are based on your Terraform Rating. However, your income is boosted by your production, and VPs are also gained from many other sources.

You keep track of your production and resources on your player board. The game uses six types of resources: MegaCredits, Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat. On the game board, you compete for the best places for your city tiles, ocean tiles, and greenery tiles. You also compete for different Milestones and Awards worth many VPs. Each round is called a generation and consists of the following phases:

1) Player order shifts clockwise.
2) Research phase: All players buy cards from four privately drawn.
3) Action phase: Players take turns doing 1-2 actions from these options: Playing a card, claiming a Milestone, funding an Award, using a Standard project, converting plant into greenery tiles (and raising oxygen), converting heat into a temperature raise, and using the action of a card in play. The turn continues around the table (sometimes several laps) until all players have passed.
4) Production phase: Players get resources according to their terraform rating and production parameters.

When the three global parameters (temperature, oxygen, ocean) have all reached their required levels, the terraforming is complete, and the game ends after that generation. Combine your Terraform Rating and other VPs to determine the winning corporation!