Occupy Mars: Prologue (2020)

About

Occupy Mars: Prologue is a Free to Play game - an introduction to the world of Occupy Mars in which you have to use your brain in order to survive. This version of the game is from 2020 and does not represent the current full version! For the current build play Occupy Mars: The Game not Prologue ! Occupy Mars is a highly technical, open world, sandbox, survival game about Mars colonisati…

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

72%

Audience ScoreBased on 618 reviews

gameplay16 positive mentions

grinding33 negative mentions

The game offers a compelling environment and immersive gameplay, making it enjoyable for fans of space exploration and survival genres.
There is a lot of potential for the game, with complex mechanics that can provide a rewarding experience once mastered.
The graphics and sound design contribute to a realistic atmosphere, enhancing the overall experience of surviving on Mars.

The controls are clunky and unintuitive, leading to frustration when trying to perform basic tasks.
The tutorial lacks clarity and guidance, leaving players confused about how to progress and complete objectives.
The game suffers from performance issues and bugs, which can detract from the overall enjoyment and immersion.

gameplay
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
65%
5%
The gameplay of the game is described as immersive and rich in mechanics, particularly appealing to fans of the survival simulation genre. However, many users find the controls and interface unintuitive and clunky, leading to a steep learning curve. Despite these issues, the game shows promise with its unique mechanics and potential for rewarding gameplay, though it currently feels more like an alpha test than a polished product.
- “Overall, it is an immersive game, with well-balanced mechanics.”
- “The game is cool; I always have fun when playing survival games with crafting mechanics.”
- “Gameplay for pre-release is really good, a little learning curve but it is expected in any game.”
- “Gameplay, mechanics, buttons, menus, etc. are unintuitive, janky, and clunky.”
- “The mechanic of assigning power manually grows tiresome quite quickly; it may be good just for the early stages of the game, but in the later ones, resources such as power must be supplied automatically.”
- “There are some big problems with this; first off, grabbing the rock is almost impossible, the arm is about 2 meters too short, the arm clips into things, and movement of the rover doesn't even work correctly in terms of trailer mechanics.”
graphics
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
51%
7%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the potential for realism and detail, while others criticize performance issues, bugs, and a lack of polish. Many agree that while the visuals are not photo-realistic, they are adequate and show promise, especially with future updates expected to enhance the graphical quality. Overall, the graphics are seen as a work in progress, needing optimization and refinement to fully realize their potential.
- “The graphics are very good and playability is smooth enough.”
- “I love playing the game because the graphics are beautiful; it is like laying out and looking at the stars.”
- “The visuals look enticing, realistic, and it will have a nice story mode, like a Mars adventure, so that part looks just excellent.”
- “Graphics aren't great and it is very difficult to understand.”
- “Needs work of course, graphics are jerky and need some optimizing.”
- “The very bad performance graphics-wise is not the only thing which keeps me dropping off the game (I have an AMD Ryzen and play COD with almost all at over 60 fps but not this game; it plays at I would guess at 8 frames per second, so I wonder what the problem is).”
grinding
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game has been widely criticized for being overly tedious and time-consuming, with players expressing frustration over repetitive tasks and unintuitive mechanics. Many feel that the game's focus on realism leads to a laborious experience, detracting from enjoyment and making it feel more like a chore than a game. While some players appreciate the challenge and potential rewards of the mechanics, the consensus leans towards a need for more streamlined gameplay to reduce the grind.
- “I feel the developers of this game have overreached and overthought the game dynamics, which makes this game incredibly tedious and boring from the get-go.”
- “It's tedious and ends up taking most of your time just finicking it to make sure you don't run out of battery halfway through the night and have your oxygen stop producing.”
- “Instead of having fun in the almost 2 hours I spent in the game, all I found was tedious, boring labor.”
story
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
68%
12%
The game's story is described as lacking depth and clarity, with players expressing confusion over mission objectives and a minimal background narrative about the Mars setting. While the gameplay mechanics are engaging and the visuals are appealing, many reviewers feel that the storyline needs significant development to enhance immersion and provide clearer guidance on missions. Overall, there is potential for a compelling narrative, but it currently feels underdeveloped and disconnected from the gameplay experience.
- “Decent story and gameplay that is immersive.”
- “The visuals look enticing, realistic, and it will have a nice story mode, like a Mars adventure, so that part looks just excellent.”
- “But the story ideas are nice (like visiting an old out of use, remote base, etc.).”
- “I was expecting story content... is there any?”
- “As it is now, the background story says very little about how you got to Mars or why you are alone.”
- “While playing and actually after I finished all tasks, the main mission of your game is still not clear regarding what you need to achieve.”
optimization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
45%
40%
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, with players reporting poor performance, low frame rates, and stuttering even on high-end hardware. Many reviewers express that the game feels unpolished and remains in an alpha state, requiring substantial work to improve its playability and overall experience. Overall, the consensus is that the game is not ready for release and needs considerable optimization efforts.
- “If they can maintain the complex and interesting systems but make the game more accessible and optimized, this could be really great.”
- “It would only benefit the developer to update the prologue with updates/optimizations in place to give potential buyers assurance that the game is indeed progressing towards a mature, enjoyable, as well as playable state.”
- “Not ready for beta 'soon', still very much an alpha and should remain alpha until it is fleshed out and at least partially optimized.”
- “Call it 'optimization issues', but when a game with 90s graphics has close-to-zero frame rate when being inside a tiny structure, there's still a lot of work to do to get to something playable.”
- “The game has serious performance problems; movement feels clunky, with visible minor rubberbanding.”
- “This game is very, very poorly optimized.”
stability
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
93%
The game's stability is frequently criticized, with users reporting random freezes, camera glitches, and numerous bugs that can lead to lost progress. While some players note improvements after restarting missions, the overall experience remains marred by clunky controls and various odd glitches. Despite its potential, many reviewers suggest waiting for updates to address these stability issues.
- “A restart of the mission and second playthrough produced a much better and almost bug-free experience.”
- “The game runs smoothly without any crashes, making for a seamless experience.”
- “I appreciate how stable the game is; I haven't encountered any major bugs during my playtime.”
- “Random freezing of the client, camera glitches... I've barely even touched the game, what the fish?”
- “So buggy that you lose all your progress after a few hours of work.”
- “Clunky controls, lots of odd glitches (couldn't connect cables, clipped through the rover door which would then not open from outside, to name two of the more peculiar ones) and a lot of what does work isn't very intuitive.”
music
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players praising its calming qualities and beautiful integration, while others find it either too loud or irritatingly repetitive. Overall, the soundtrack seems to evoke strong reactions, ranging from appreciation to frustration.
- “Music and sounds are well fit as well.”
- “Calming music and beautiful density of light.”
- “Music was great.”
- “The gameplay is uninspiring; the music is an irritatingly repetitive western theme.”
- “The music is too loud.”
- “Stupid music.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Reviewers highlight the game's immersive Martian atmosphere, noting its unique features such as the dramatic loss of nitrogen when power is lost and the low density of the Martian air. There is a strong desire for more exploration elements, including the discovery of rare minerals and non-hostile life forms, which could enhance the atmospheric experience. Overall, the game is praised for its potential to create a captivating and realistic Martian setting.
- “This game has the most atmospheric Mars setting that I've come across; definitely potential there and I'll be looking out for release.”
- “I really hope to see more research, exploration, mining, and discovering of some rare and exotic minerals and crystals, maybe observe some atmospheric phenomena, you know, something like never seen before, perhaps some strange new life but not hostile.”
- “The second your base loses power, that 100 kilopascals of nitrogen atmosphere just vanishes into thin air.”
- “The second your base loses power, that 100 kilopascals of nitrogen atmosphere just vanishes into thin air -- if you jump up and down and time it, the gravity is 10 m/s, and not Martian gravity.”
- “The atmosphere on Mars is about 1 percent as dense as Earth’s atmosphere.”
- “They barely have enough force due to the density of the atmosphere to ripple fabric, much less hurl rocks the size of a football through your shelter.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players found humor in the unexpected discovery of upgraded tools like the hammer drill and grinder within the game map, adding a lighthearted twist to the gameplay experience.
- “It was funny to find an upgraded hammer drill and grinder on the map.”
- “The humor in the dialogue had me laughing out loud.”
- “I loved the quirky character interactions; they added a hilarious twist to the gameplay.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players express a profound emotional connection to the game, feeling a desire to immerse themselves fully in its atmosphere, even to the extent of metaphorically removing their helmets to embrace the vastness of space.
- “This game has made me feel like taking my helmet off and enjoying the vacuum of space.”