Maybe its a bit of kismet that Asmodee dropped Terraforming Mars ($8.99) onto iOS so close to one of the biggest board game weekends of the year in Pax Unplugged, or maybe it was calculated. Either way, it’s an exciting time to be a board game enthusiast! In 2016, FryxGames released the physical version of this masterpiece board game and since then it has risen as one of if not the most complete and well-rounded strategy games in recent history. With colorful card art and shiny tokens, it is a head turner every time you open the box up. Without the stunning physical components, you might wonder how the app holds up, but wonder not: We are about to embark on a trip to a cold red planet where things are heating up. Take a deep breath of that newly pressurized oxygen as we take the plunge into oceans of fun with Terraforming Mars.
So what is the point of this game" The title suggests that terraforming, or making a planet livable, takes a big role in what we’re doing on the 4th rock from the sun. While it is true that the terraforming process is happening through the course of the game, your main goal is primarily to profit off of the process rather than ensure that it gets done. Like most modern strategy board games, there are a number of ways to gain this profit. A game is over when oxygen, temperature and ocean count all reach a specific threshold.
Thematically this makes sense because carbon based life forms in general need to breath, need water, an...