Deliver Us Mars review (XSX)

Deliver Us Mars has come out of the blue for me. I had no idea of its existence and have to say the same about its prequel, Deliver Us The Moon. Now Deliver Us The Moon came out on PC in 2018, and console only last year, and has gathered some average review scores. So many of this type of Indie game come and go with out a lot of notice. It seems that Deliver Us The Moon was one of those titles. But now after playing Deliver Us Mars, I have an interest in going back to investigate the prequel.

Spoiler Free.

Deliver Us Mars has a very story driven narrative. So I will do my best to do this review without any spoilers. The basic premise is the Earth is rapidly becoming uninhabitable and Colony Ships, known as ARKs, have been stolen by a group referred to as Outward. There is lots of family connections and flashbacks throughout the game to add context to the story. I am assuming if you have played Deliver Us The Moon then your understanding will be much greater. In saying that though, with no knowledge of the prequel I had no problem understanding, and thoroughly enjoying the story as it unfolded in Deliver Us Mars.

Looks Aren’t Everything.

I’m not sure why but initially I thought the visuals in Deliver Us Mars weren’t that good. Then I started taking screenshots for this review. I found myself revisiting my original opinion. I think I was more distracted by the limited areas you can explore, but this isn’t open-world. It never claimed to be. As you can see the overall look is pretty stunning. The use of ray-tracing and reflections, along with motion capture for the characters really does look stellar.

And although you are directed to follow the story path, there is a great range of environments to enjoy. I’d also like to mention the playable flashbacks. These really do take you to different places.

But What Do You Do?

I went in thinking Deliver Us Mars was a bit of a story driven survival game. But was wrong about that. At its heart I guess I would call it a narrative driven puzzle adventure. There are some very cool puzzles to solve, usually to supply power to doors to allow progress. And some climbing is also involved a la Lara Croft with two climbing axes. Gameplay is mixed up nicely and doesn’t have you stuck doing any one thing for too long. Even when aboard the shuttle Zephyr the controls are treated like a mini game of sorts.

It’s hard, I want to explain more but don’t want to give too much away. Some gameplay aspects are just a really cool touch and genuinely fun to come across for the first time.

Closing Comments

Deliver Us Mars has been a joy to play. The story is great and the setting well done. As usual I don’t doubt that there will be the usual hate on a strong female lead from certain corners. Good characters and good writing should transcend these petty things. As gamers we should be accepting of a good game, hell, we don’t seem too upset when the main character is an alien or zombie! If you are looking for a well rounded narrative drive game you would be remiss to pass on Deliver Us Mars.