Terraforming Mars

MoMohaszstar8.9

3 solo plays so far. I kinda love it, but I can't tell if it will have the staying power. I can see it feel samey after a few more plays, and I feel like it's also a bit too long for me (solo was ~2 hours). I played it with the Prelude expansion and I love the initial decision of chosing a combo of the corporation, prelude and project cards. The whole engine building / resource producing part is really satisfying, although the continuous upkeep with every bit of the game can get a little tedious. Obviously, some cards in the solo game are much less useful, so I assume the luck of the draw can be bit more annoying than in the multiplayer version. The theme comes through nicely, the components are alright (except the player boards, thankfully I got the two-layered boards with the game). I actually really like those shiny resource cubes, and the hectic artwork doesn't bother me, it feels more real in a way. I'd say I'm looking forward to trying multiplayer, but I don't think it will hit the table anytime soon (because of the length). Update: After a few more solo games I had to up the score to 9. No other game could grasp me for solo play as much as TM did, it's just so satisfying to play. I think it hits the sweet spot for me, where it's not too 'brain-burny' but it offers a lot of meaningful decisions. It's also well balanced, it always comes down to the very last Generation - or even action. ...I just don't want to play the solo variant too much before I get to try multiplayer (although I guess the dynamics / strategies of a mp game are quite different)... Update 2: 9.0 -> 9.5 I just played (half) a game with 2, and I must say the game is even better than I thought. The solo variant is a fairly different experience. I've played the digital version a lot of times now. The game is great, and the digital implementation makes it perfect. However, I really don't feel the need to own the physical version at this point. + Hellas & Elysium + Prelude + Promo Cards

BWBWizardstar7.2

[c] (15x) GAMING EXPERIENCE: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (5x) DEPTH / WEIGHT: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (5x) LUCK: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (10x) REPLAYABILITY: ★★★★★★★★★☆ (6x) MECHANICS: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (6x) PLAYER INTERACTION: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (3x) SCALABILITY (PLAYER COUNT): ★★★★★★★★★☆ (2x) LENGTH: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (2x) CLARITY OF RULES: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (6x) COMPONENT QUALITY: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ [/c] Good game, i enjoyed it - not as ugly as i think (i saw some really "weird" picture on the cards) -, but i prefer a little more interactions with other players. Definetly worth to buy and i want to play more!

zim zhangstar7.0

Terraforming Mars has excellent pacing. The TR track ties directly into both income and VP—basically, your main goal is raising TR, which accounts for most of your points. Nearly every action involves building your engine to increase productions, then spending resources to increase TR. (Of course—it's called Terraforming Mars!) However, with no duplicate cards, balance suffers. The draft mitigates the luck factor, but only slightly. Sometimes it even ruins the experience: I built my entire strategy around a card, only to have someone else snatch it in the draft!