Tharsis is a video game that has you use dice placement to save a spaceship.

Can you save it? Or, should you even play it?

Earth’s first Mars mission should have been 300 days to glory. But Yuri only made it to 170, and we lost Allison after 105. Turns out, life in space is just that: life, with moods and jealousies and infuriating little failures. Only you’re a few million miles from civilization, so humanity’s frailties also happen to be deadly.

Tharsis Game Play

This is a playthrough of Tharsis on the Nintendo Switch shortened down to the important details..

Theme

This is Pandemic crossed with Galaxy Trucker? Space ships in peril aren’t new but this does it very well. Your crew have abilities that fit their role on the ship… Not sure what else you need here.

Visuals

Everything looks really good. There’s a lot of movement in the ship and facial expressions on the crew that are all quite subtle.

The text is small in places, especially when playing on the Switch handheld. It’s not so bad on the big screen but handheld is a struggle.

UI & Ease of Play

There is a tutorial but the game is very busy. As with most cases like this, once you get going it’s fine but it is overwhelming at first.

The UI is good enough and anything you need to know right now is clear and visible. Sometimes you need to click on things to get a better idea but they’re minor things.

It’s as easy to play as any gateway game really, but it’s a challenging one.

Tharsis Summary

Positives

The game has a nice look and the sound and music are really good. I don’t usually notice the music and sound effects so the fact I’ve mentioned them here does mean something.

I like dice placement and I like the dice placement in this game, it works well because…

…the status effects (void, injury, stasis) on dice make rerolls risky. It means you can’t just freely try and get the right results without risking losing dice, or even getting crew killed.

The events are interesting and keep you on your toes.

Side projects give you something else to consider and are always a difficult choice.

There is a scoreboard, I like a scoreboard in a video game. (I’m a child of the ’80s ;))

The cannibalism and the gruesome effects on the dice are great, but…

Negatives

…food feels like one extra thing to focus on and wasn’t needed if you ask me because…

…the game is very busy with a lot going on. Too much for me for a solo board game and way too much for me for a video game.

The small text when playing on a handheld Nintendo Switch is really tiny. I don’t want to have to change to my reading glasses to play a video game.

ANOTHER video game that uses standard looking dice!

Summary

This could be a board game but it wouldn’t be a popular one. it would get lost in the shuffle. Real games like Solar Storm are similar and simpler.

Jesta ThaRogue

Note: The game code I played was generously provided for review by WireTap Meda, big thanks to them for this game.