Terraforming Mars is one of the modern board game giants. Published in 2016, this game skyrocketed to #4 of all time games on Board Game Geek, and usually finds its home in the top 20 of most “best of” lists around the web. There are a number of zealous devotees of the game, and surely a few detractors, but it’s undeniable that Terraforming Mars has found its way onto the shelves of many hobby shops worldwide, and into the hearts of many gamers.
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Terraforming Mars is a game where you and 1-4 of your closest frenemies work together to make Mars habitable to humans, using methods as humble as bringing moss to the carbon-rich planet, or as extreme as crashing one of the planet’s moons into itself. Did I say working together? I meant working feverishly to do all of these things as fast and as effectively as possible, before anyone else can. In Terraforming Mars, players play through generations (rounds) trying to raise the three base terraforming ratings to their maximum. Each generation players draw project cards, decide which ones they want to purchase and then take turns performing one or two actions until each player has decided to pass. 

A game of Terraforming Mars will have you looking at your starting hand of cards, awash in possibilities. Should you start laying down cards to increase my plant production so that you can overrun Mars with forests, and eventually bring yourself to victory as the most eco-conscious wanna-be-Navi in this future world? Or should you maybe focus on producing titanium so that you can tow comets, build cities on Jupiter’s moons, and end up terraforming Mars as a byproduct? You’ll make a decision as to which path to take based on what you see in your cards, and a few generations down the line you’ll find that your new cards don’t align with your initial trajectory and you’ll need to adapt. 

What was gramps thinking?! There is nowhere near enough titanium on Mars! Couldn’t he see that steel is the true future of the red planet?

Terraforming Mars is a game about planning exactly what you’re going to do every generation, and adapting rapidly to the situation while your opportunities disappear around you. By having a phase where you play one or two actions a turn, the game grants you just some flexibility. You can rush milestones that your opponents are trying to reach before you, or you can try and slow yourself down for fear of helping your opponents play their own cards. Because of this, the game alternates between being a madcap race and being a tense standoff.

Terraforming Mars is, unfortunately, not without its faults. The first thing you’re likely to notice about the game is its poor component quality. You’ll open the box and immediately find bags and bags of cubes, which look at first like cute tiny candies, or objects that would fit as a currency in a sci-fi film. Almost immediately afterward you’ll see that these cubes come pre-chipped and marred. Next, you’ll likely see the rather sterile (though appropriate) looking board, which won’t lay down flat until you press it down, causing the art to crack along the seam. You’ll find paper thin player mats which are expected to somehow keep cubes in specific places despite all the knocks and nudges a table is likely to experience during any regular game night. You’ll find a stack of more than 200 unique cards featuring art that varies from the beautiful and extreme sci-fi endeavors to awkward looking pictures of one guy…smiling? For the 70 USD price tag of this game, you certainly would hope that the components held up to a higher quality. It’s a bit of a mystery why these things are a problem that plague every copy of Terraforming Mars on the market.

On top of the component quality, Terraforming Mars is not a game that will make it out every game night. This is a game that boasts a 120 minute playtime, but will only really be true to that if you play the very basic variant with players that already know what they’re doing. More likely, you will be needing to carve out three (or possibly even stretching to four at lower player counts) hours for this game alone, and that is a demand to attention and time that some play groups are simply unable to give. 

Terraforming Mars says it’s meant for player age 12 and above, but it does seem that the game would be a bit more of an exercise for those on the younger end of this spectrum. Unless your children have been brought up on strategy games, it would probably be best to play another game with them, introducing them to mechanics like drafting, action taking, and engine building one at a time. 

As for money to gameplay value, the base game packs a huge punch here. Each game you’ll be playing one of the twelve different corporations with special abilities which can radically define the path you choose to take that game. Terraforming Mars also comes with variations on the rules that decrease the adaptability of the game and increase the playtime a bit, while also drastically increasing the range of options and the interesting decisions you’ll be to making each turn. Finally, if you’re ready to truly duel it out on Mars, you can use the other half of the cards included in the game and embark on the Corporation Era. This bedazzles your game with newer and bigger projects that do crazier and more fantastic things than the original deck alone.

Terraforming Mars also plays great at every player count. At five players the game is a quick race to see who can make the most out of the limited time they have on the planet; at two players the game is a longer competition more focused on who can build a better engine with their cards. The game also comes with a solo mode for those who are keen on exploring Mars themselves. There are four expansions already out for Terraforming Mars to keep you coming back to this box, with another one coming out late in 2019.

As for the bottom line, Terraforming Mars is a game that suffers from component quality and demands time and attention from its players that make it a game you only sometimes bring to the table. But in saying that, this is still a favorite game in many collections, earning the game 4.5 stars out of 5. 

All that being said, if you’re looking for an epic passive-aggressive (and sometimes directly aggressive) battle on our neighboring planet, this is definitely the game to go out and get. The theme is just so rich that at times you really do feel like a multi-billion dollar corporation using Mars as your scientific sandbox. Every game that you play will end in a complete upset, as the person who everyone thought was winning will get absolutely trounced by one of the underdogs during point scoring at the very end. Terraforming Mars always gives off a feeling that what you’re doing matters, and lets you experience tense moments of careful consideration contrasted with relaxed solo engine building adventures. If literally anything in this review sounded interesting to you and your play group, or if you’ve ever thought it might be fun to bounce around Mars with a rover and a spacesuit (maybe carrying around a potted plant?), do yourself a favor—go pick up this game and organize a night to play tout de suite. Just don’t be too upset when your friend nukes the tile you wanted to put your last city on.