Review: Terraforming Mars

Ugh. I played my turn (but didn’t end it) then sent a chat to explain the event I played. The game then froze. I had to exit out and come back in and my chat was still there but I had to take my turn again. Luckily I remembered what I had done (and subsequently told you I had done).

thanks! next time you can just name the played event.
i will gladly look it up in “Terraforming Cards” then :blush:

learning about more and more cards this way.

our test game is my very first game of TfM and i must say the fun keeps growing.

we have arranged a 4-player game in an iMessage group now.
we will notify each other on turns and will proclaim played events.
i think this way the game will be perfectly playable.

and while playing we can easily wait for the upcoming fixes and upgrades.

I still have the game on Steam so would be up for a game like this. I’m on iPhone so iMessage works great. Or PMs on here

@whovian223 Sounds good. I can also use the Steam app (and might still buy on iOS when we are done with the beta … in yet another triumph of hope over experience).

@JammaTal Will you join us? Anybody else for a “Notify by iMessage” game?

yes! yes! i’m in :grin:

This all smacks of @SpiceTheCat and my experiment with 1775. More fun in our retelling of the turns and putting a story to it than in actual (frustrating) gameplay.

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Anyone?

I don’t know…I came into the digital version having played the tabletop version a couple dozen times, so i can’t really answer.

I don’t think I even looked at the tutorial (I’m not even sure there is one).

Mirefox’s 1-star got the same canned response.

I’ve not played the full release but solitaire mode worked fine in the beta. I thought it was a particular highlight of the game as it didn’t have the issues that multiplayer or the ai has.

If by solo you mean vs the ai then it wasn’t great. The game ran fine but the ai was pretty poor. It could play the game but the flowchart it followed was far from optimal or intelligent. Maybe they changed that for the full release

There’s vs AI and a separate solitaire mode? How long do you think a solitaire game would take once you are comfortable with how to play?

Like @Neumannium, I already know the game so I can’t answer you perfectly. I can say that I don’t don’t find the tutorial all that great. I would watch a YouTube tutorial to learn the game. There are also not on-screen reminders of how the planet tiles work/score, unless I haven’t seen them. You might want to bring your question to BGG as I think there is some discussion of solo play in the news thread.

Appreciate the responses everybody. Thinking this might be a worthy pick up for me. The games I tend to play a lot are shorter affairs that I can churn games over and over. However, I tire of them eventually, because it feels repetitive after a while. I also really enjoy setting up economic engines in those games (RftG, for instance).

While I don’t tend to get much use out of more complex games on iPad, maybe this one will split the difference. I also really like the hard generation limit, since I get frustrated with games that bog down in the late stages.

Gripes about the app aside, it is an amazing game.

Yeah, I don’t play mp, so those concerns aren’t a factor for me. Do hope they wake up and listen to you guys though.

The solo mode is a bit like solo-Agricola; I think you have 12 generations to max out oxygen, oceans and temperature. I have yet to beat it but it’s a good variant.

I failed in my first attempt, but I also forgot about standard projects until like Gen 11. I also mistook the icon on the map that gives more cards for VP. Think I would have made it if I’d temembered/understood those. Regardless, I have a much better idea what I’m doing now.

Think I’m going to enjoy this.

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I really enjoyed playing the beta. Game is amazing (TFM), app is slick but minus some key features you might want for multiplayer, and some QoL improvement opportubities

Probably mentioned above but I don’t seem to see a high score list?

I did manage to win my 4th try. Got water-splitting very early which made oxygen production a snap as well as a card that increased heat production by 7. The rest was a cakewalk.

Big update on iOS. The patch notes seem to address our biggest complaints.

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