After offering us the moon in Deliver Us the Moon, the good people of KeokeN Interactive join forces with Frontier Development to go much further in this spectacular trip to Mars that is a big step for them and a small step for the saga with new mechanics, NPC on screen and a more ambitious proposal than the original installment.
After the events of the moon
Deliver Us Mars takes place 10 years after the events of Deliver us The Moon. After the great adventure lived on the moon, our beloved planet Earth once again suffers a resource crisis that leads the WSA to mobilize its astronauts to find a solution out of orbit. With the energy crisis solved with the previous expedition to the moon, the new resource crisis is related to global warming and the desertification of the planet. A problem in capital letters that has once again brought the terrestrial powers to the brink of military confrontation. To calm the situation and try to recover the terrestrial ecosystem, a group of astronauts will try to travel to Mars to recover a technology that could be the only solution to the emergency.
With a credible and topical approach, Deliver us Mars focuses on the undisputed protagonist of this adventure, Kathy, expanding it to her family and friends to create a fusion between hard science fiction novel and after-lunch television drama. All the characters in this expedition to Mars are related to each other and united by a past. which, by way of flashbacks, will serve as tutorials for each new mechanic that the game introduces. A good idea that is lost when trying to delve into a narrative that does not have the best of stories and that tries to send a message that, once the game is over, is not quite clear. Kathy, her sister Claire, their father and the past she shares with another member of the crew, Sarah, who on top of that doesn’t hesitate to take her boyfriend with her on the expedition, only complicate a title that works especially well in space and knows how to keep the type in the playable.
From Earth to Mars
As soon as you start playing, Deliver us Mars plays with the narration in the form of cinematics, in-game scenes and flashbacks as a tutorial to try to put the player in the background and tell them the whole story without having to play Deliver Us the Moon beforehand. . In general terms, planet Earth was barely saved and needs help again, but this is only the cream of the cake. We will soon discover that beyond the general plot lies a story of interpersonal relationships, ambition, duty and selfishness, led by the members of this new expedition far from planet Earth and by other characters that will appear as we progress in the adventure. Kathy’s relationship -Osita Lunar- with her father Isaac, the bitterness of her sister Claire, who confronted their father, and the scar that Sarah hides from her previous encounter with Isaac are laying the foundations of the argument while we learn how to play : move in zero gravity, control our drone orb and handle the different tools that will help us with the puzzle mechanics, climbing and platforms that form the hard core of our experience on the Red Planet.
In these early stages it is easy to recognize the artists of Deliver Us the Moon, who now boast several improvements and new features compared to their previous release. The improved platforming gives way to the pinnacle moment of the game, the one I’ve enjoyed the most, which includes everything related to the exit of the Earth and the first exploration of an ark out of martian orbit. Being part of the cabin crew, carrying out the checks, starting the different mechanisms and, finally, taking off, is a real joy for any science fiction lover worth their salt. It’s impossible not to think of The Expanse, 2001 or Interstellar as we take our first spacewalk to repair a thruster or jump into the ark to investigate this strange artifact that left Earth a few years before. A very well done masterful prologue that continues when we finally get to Mars and start the ‘big’ part of the game.
Welcome to the Red Planet
Deliver Us Mars manages to maintain the type with the gameplay change to which its previous installment already accustomed us. The exploration of the planet’s surface and some of its facilities includes new platform mechanics in which the use of ice axes takes center stage. A new form of mobility that may not have been the studio’s best idea but manages to integrate well with the story. Except for a couple of somewhat desperate moments, the use of ice axes and climbing serve as a counterpoint to the plots of indoor exploration and the moments of tension generated, almost always, by the conflicts of interest of the ground crew.
While we explore the planet and the old facilities of an organization that left Earth years before, Outward, we will discover different holograms that, after solving a not very complex puzzle, will give us access to the events that occurred years before on Mars. A series of cinematics that work better than those included in Deliver Us the Moon and that are reminiscent of the already classic detective modes, offering us short clips of diffuse characters that serve to update us on events. There is also no shortage of WhatsApp conversations loaded with icons and some notes that complete, together with the scanning of points of interest, the complex encyclopedia of the game. An excuse like any other that will invite us to explore every corner of its linear settings and that will keep us busy for the 7 or 8 hours that the full game lasts before… reaching the end.
A step forward for the saga
Deliver Us the Moon ended up being a great puzzle title and a love song to the purest science fiction, although it was not exempt from the classic problems of low-budget games on the indie scene. Although it knew how to offer a new next-gen version that improved its offer, the absence of NPCs, the abuse of holograms to tell the story and the odd puzzle thrown against the grain continued to affect the perception of a title that in its 3-hour duration offered a good job, simple and yet very ambitious. Deliver Us Mars now arrives in the midst of a new generation and fills in some of its shortcomings, although the lack of a high budget is still noticeable in some points of its proposal. It is appreciated the inclusion of NPCs that make the story and the solo journey much more bearable. The inclusion of new mechanics has its pros and cons, but in general they also serve to finish polishing a proposal that manages to maintain that unique game sensation that its predecessor already had.
Technically, Deliver Us Mars manages to function without much fanfare, offering some unique moments and corners with scandalous lighting along with other less worked and more generic areas. The work of localizing texts and vocal interpretation stands out above all, in English, unfortunately, although with an interpretation that shines above all in the case of Kathy. At the performance level, things are not so pleasant. Although everything runs like a charm indoors and in zero gravity, when we drive the rover or during the journey on foot across the vast Martian surface, the game suffers with some scratchy frames and the appearance of elements on the screen that, we are sure, they will be fixed little by little with the arrival of new patches and updates. On the Deliver Us Mars platform it works correctly although it does not allow you to search for alternative routes. Regarding the use of the DualSense haptic trigger technology, played on PS5 I have not perceived any effort in this regard with a more functional performance than tending to the spectacular.
Lights and shadows on Mars
Deliver Us Mars is a step up in almost every element we already got to enjoy in Deliver Us the Moon. A title with a deeper story than leaves its end open to a more than intentional continuation with a third installment of the saga. Its greater variety of mechanics joins the new characters, the excellent voice acting and a great audio job that manage to tick all the boxes with the improvement of its appearance and the inclusion of a more intelligent and better carried out level design and puzzles. The variety of scenarios and situations make this new installment something better in almost everything, but unfortunately not all the decisions have been correct, dragging some bugs that could have been eliminated with more development time and better control of the plot.
The story that surrounds the characters of the expedition to Mars has moments that don’t quite work with excessively emotional protagonists and situations that seem more worthy of an afternoon TV movie than of a science fiction work. A decision that commitment to twist the plot in a sensitive way but that sometimes takes out of the game and does not quite come together with the supposed importance of the mission we are carrying out. Coming to the end, all this hodgepodge of emotions and temperaments ends up affecting the enjoyment of the game, making it very difficult to empathize with any of the positions of the different speeches and there comes a time when all you want is for the end credits and move on to something else. This is not to say that Deliver Us Mars is a bad game or that it is not recommended: it still includes some truly spectacular moments and experiences that are very difficult to find in other titles. If you like science fiction and space exploration and you are not very demanding with the psychology of the characters, the second installment of the Deliver Us saga offers reasons to continue the adventure and hope that a third party whose name is easy to guess after listen to the last sentence of the end of the game.
We read each other!