JCB Pioneer: Mars

36%
Game Brain Score Based on 77 reviews
  • gameplay
  • story
  • grinding
JCB Pioneer: Mars Game Cover
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JCB Pioneer: Mars is a survival and construction game set on the red planet. Players must manage their resources, build bases, and explore the Martian terrain using heavy machinery from JCB. The ultimate goal is to help establish a human presence on Mars while battling the harsh environmental conditions and other challenges.

  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • Play​station 4
  • Windows
  • Play​Station
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

36%
Audience ScoreBased on 77 reviews
atmosphere3 positive mentions
story3 negative mentions
  • The game has a promising concept and offers a realistic Mars simulation experience with immersive graphics.
  • Players have reported enjoying the exploration and crafting aspects of the game, finding it fun despite its current state.
  • Some users appreciate the potential for future updates and improvements, indicating that the game could become much better over time.
  • The game has been abandoned by its developers, with no updates or support since 2018, leaving it in an unfinished and buggy state.
  • Many players have expressed frustration with the lack of save options and the harsh hardcore mode, which results in losing all progress upon death.
  • The game suffers from poor optimization, frequent crashes, and a confusing user interface, making it difficult to recommend in its current form.
  • gameplay16 mentions

    The gameplay offers a mix of resource gathering, vehicle mechanics, and environmental challenges, providing around 35 hours of fun, though it ends abruptly, which can be disappointing. While the mechanics are engaging, issues like clunky digging, frequent crashes, and limited content hinder the experience, leading to a recommendation against playing in its current state. Promising future updates, including multiplayer and cooperative modes, could enhance the gameplay significantly if the developers address these concerns.

    • “But there is still a fair amount of gameplay (I played for about 35 hours) and it's a lot of fun.”
    • “Veh mechanics are cool, too, with the vehicles rolling up and down hills with weight, clanking and clunking, and sliding in the dust if you go too fast.”
    • “Since that probably did not seem to be interesting enough for gameplay, it has been spiced up with some meteor showers, acid clouds, geysers, tornados, glaciers, and radioactive sites filling up the majority of the space that is not prohibitively difficult to drive on.”
    • “If you just want a few days of gameplay, driving around on Mars, and gathering resources for buildings, and upgrading your equipment, then this game may be for you - but be aware that it ends abruptly, which feels kind of disappointing when you do not expect it.”
    • “The gameplay itself is fine; however, I am getting a lot of fatal errors causing the game to crash.”
    • “At the moment, it seems more like being a building/exploring game, but with limitations to content, too much handholding, and lots of grinding and silly obstacle-dodging in gameplay.”
  • story13 mentions

    The game's story revolves around a survival and base-building experience on a Mars-like planet, where players act as pioneers in a failed colonization mission. However, many users express frustration with the broken narrative and mission progression, citing bugs and a lack of updates that hinder gameplay and engagement. Overall, while the premise has potential, the execution leaves much to be desired, leading to a disjointed and often frustrating experience.

    • “Still needs work on tutorial and features but in early access I look more for the overall design, interface, story, and level of engagement.”
    • “Unless of course, you add rival companies, who will start to kill you in your quest ripping the red planet off of its resources.”
    • “The game itself had potential, but after 3 years of no updates to fix the bugs, items, weather, or the broken storyline, it is also missing the promised music.”
    • “Spending 6 hours replaying 3 quests and never getting past the 3rd due to death and your stupid setup is more than enough for me to have gotten a refund.”
    • “This game is your typical survival/base building game with the twist that you are a pioneer in a partly failed mission to build a colony ready to receive people on a Mars-type planet.”
  • grinding6 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, often feeling overwhelmed by repetitive tasks such as resource gathering and building repairs. The inventory management system is criticized for being cumbersome, adding to the grind, while some hope for future updates that may introduce workers to alleviate some of the manual labor. Overall, the game is perceived as having potential but is currently hindered by its grind-heavy mechanics.

    • “Seems like a good game, just can't get past the grindiness of it.”
    • “I was repairing all buildings as I do every damn time I get back, which by the way is just plain tedious.”
    • “At the moment it seems more like being a building/exploring game, but with limitations to content, too much handholding, and lots of grinding and silly obstacle-dodging in gameplay.”
  • atmosphere5 mentions

    Reviewers praise the game's atmosphere for its impressive design and attention to detail, highlighting the effective representation of Mars' environment, including its unique challenges and aesthetics. The clean visuals and cool vehicle and planet modeling contribute to an immersive experience that enhances the overall gameplay.

    • “The game is clean, the vehicle and planet modeling is cool, and the atmosphere is great.”
    • “Great atmosphere.”
    • “It's not Mars - Mars is deadly cold, has dust storms, and the atmosphere isn't dense enough to shield you from cosmic and solar radiation.”
    • “The habitat appears to be a gumdrop spaceship design, which seems reasonable for the atmosphere on Mars.”
  • graphics5 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the stability and overall design, while others criticize the poor quality of landscapes, jagged lines, and subpar lava cave visuals. Although the terrain reflects a Martian-like environment, many feel that significant improvements are needed to enhance the visual experience.

    • “Great graphics, the game is very stable and has never crashed or frozen up.”
    • “While the graphics are not astonishing, the overall aspect of the terrain is what you would expect from a Martian-type planet surface, apart from the obviously shaped bridges and tunnels that allow you to pass through mountain ranges.”
    • “I would say the landscapes should also be totally redone graphically; they are crappy compared to most. Everywhere you travel, you’ll see jagged lines in all the rocks, very poorly made, and the lava caves are terrible.”
    • “While the graphics are not astonishing, the overall aspect of the terrain is what you could expect from a Martian-type planet surface, apart from the obviously shaped bridges and tunnels that allow you to pass through mountain ranges.”
    • “Poor visuals.”
  • stability4 mentions

    The game's stability is heavily criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and a lack of content, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences. Many players recommend avoiding it in its current state, suggesting it may be worth revisiting once significant improvements are made.

    • “Avoid this game; it is unfinished, extremely lacking in content, and buggy as hell. It feels abandoned!”
    • “Very soon you'll discover that this game is way too buggy and frustrating.”
    • “There are way too many sandstorms. I had to restart like five times just to get the sound to work. I know it's early access, but there are too many glitches for me. I'm getting a refund and maybe I'll try to buy it later when they fix some of the issues.”
  • optimization2 mentions

    The game suffers from significant optimization issues, with users reporting poor graphics quality and ineffective V-Sync, leading to overall unsatisfactory performance.

    • “Very poorly optimized graphics; it sucks. Vsync won't work properly.”
    • “Performance is pretty poor.”
  • music1 mentions

    The music in the game has been criticized for not meeting expectations, as players feel it was promised but ultimately absent, contributing to the overall disappointment with the game's lack of updates and unresolved issues.

    • “The game itself had potential, but after 3 years of no updates to fix the bugs, items, weather, or the broken storyline, it is also missing the promised music.”
    • “The soundtrack is repetitive and lacks variety, making it hard to stay engaged with the game.”
    • “The music feels out of place and doesn't match the game's atmosphere, which detracts from the overall experience.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

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