The spaceship Iktomi is three weeks away from arriving at Mars, and things are going much better than expected. The remaining crew members are of good mind and health, and the food supply is stocked just enough to get us through. I think we’re going to make it.
There are reports of a blocked passage in the maintenance bay which could cause injury to personnel if they try to fix it, but would compromise the ship's integrity if left ignored any longer. Looking at my roster, I still have one competent crew member unassigned, and by all accounts they should be able to repair the damage and be home for dinner. I send the order.
Five enormous dice roll across the outside the Iktomi’s hull--the alien nature of which I am still unsure. I hold my breath as the final die comes to rest, and then my heart drops. Four of the die have landed on the number five. I slam my desk and my colleagues give me a sideways glance.
The universe has decided that rolling a five in this random scenario means that my crew takes damage. I’ve rolled four of them. My crew member takes four hits and screams as he dies instantly. With the damage unfixed, the ship explodes. Mission Failure. I yell in disbelief and walk as far away from my computer as I can.
This is Tharsis--a turn-based roguelike that draws you in with its well-executed spacefaring theme coupled with tough strategic decision-making, but constantly makes you feel as if the universe is slapping you in the face. Tharsis’s systems of interaction are reminiscent of player-versus-game board games like Pandemic and Dead of Winter, but because of that, it makes every failure feel as if it occurs randomly through pure chance--a literal roll of the dice.
Like those board games, the number of rules, possible actions, and possible outcomes in Tharsis are staggering, and it can be difficult to get your head around the variables in the first few attempts. Each game begins with your spaceship being hit with numerous disasters during a journey to Mars. With limited resources, the goal is to prioritize these problems while keeping the ship intact and at least one crew member alive until you reach The Red Planet after a total of ten rounds.
With the exception of crew members, who are independently chosen, parameters for play are randomized. Each crew member begins in a random location, at a random state of well-being, and can have up to five actions to perform a number of activities at a single location. These actions are represented by dice. They deplete each turn unless replenished with abilities, so the effectiveness of your actions are determined by how many dice a crew member has and the numbers you roll at the beginning of each turn. Incidents occur in random ship compartments at the beginning of each turn, which will cause harm at the end of each turn and rapidly move you toward a failure state unless resolved. Each incident has a randomly generated repair number associated with it, and using dice against this number will reduce its value until the repair is eventually completed.
Dice can also be used to activate crew or ship abilities if they meet certain requirements. For example, if your crew member is in the greenhouse, they can use rolled die of the same value to generate food. If your crew member is the psychiatrist and has a die equal to or greater than five, he can use it to reduce the stress levels of everyone in his compartment. You can also put die into a persistent pool for "research," allowing for a variety of