Published , by Ozzie Mejia
Published , by Ozzie Mejia
It wasn't that long ago that developer KeokeN Interactive reached for the stars with its debut effort, Deliver Us the Moon. After a breathtaking journey into the cosmos, the development team has returned for a follow-up that aims slightly higher. Deliver Us Mars is set in the same world, but follows a new main character with a new mission. While I can't hail the story as anything groundbreaking, I can at least say that the journey was visually stunning.
Deliver Us Mars follows rookie astronaut Kathy Johanson, who's the youngest member of an expedition team setting out for the big red planet. The team's goal is to reach the location of technologically advanced vessels called ARKs, which were taken by a rogue group.
This primary objective happens to intersect with a more personal mission for Kathy, as her father is among those who assisted the Outward faction take the ARKs. Deliver Us Mars will mix in several playable flashback scenes from Kathy's childhood, illustrating her bond with her father and further feeding into the mystery of not only his actions, but also of what exactly is happening to Earth.
While I appreciated the attempts to flesh out the main narrative with these flashbacks, they didn't really fix some of the core issues with the story. Other cast members, like Kathy's sister, Claire, felt underdeveloped or even unnecessary to the story. Over my time with Deliver Us Mars, I gradually began thinking about how much more effective the story would have been with Kathy going off on a solo expedition. With that in mind, the story was not the worst I've seen, but I did feel like it could have been better.
Deliver Us Mars is mainly a linear narrative game with a string of puzzles and some occasional platforming. Many of these puzzles involve stringing together energy beams with the aid of Kathy's helpful droid partner, Ayla. Ayla can also be used to help get through smaller spaces and give players perspectives that they can't otherwise get with Kathy.
Where Deliver Us Mars truly shines is with its visuals. The landscapes throughout the journey are breathtaking. An early sequence that has Kathy venturing outside the team's space shuttle to deal with debris caught in the thrusters was a fairly rudimentary sequence. It was the view into deep space, the lighting, and the distant celestial objects that were almost hypnotic. If anything, the view almost distracted me, which probably wouldn't have been ideal, since Kathy had a rapidly depleting oxygen supply.
The same can be said for the surface of Mars. There were several instances in which Kathy had to utilize a pair of climbing axes to maneuver around walls and cliffs. In many cases, the camera will pan out in such a way that the gorgeous environments come into view. It was enough for me to forgive some of the wonkier controls with the axes, which led to some errant deaths.
Of course, Deliver Us Mars isn't a complete visual masterpiece. In fact, some cases go to the totally opposite end of the spectrum. Character models don't look particularly good and some faces are borderline ghastly. When I went into my first flashback scene and saw young Kathy's face, I nearly leaped out of my chair. The faces didn't get much better from there. Character animations had their own quirks, as I had a few instances where some of the other characters looked like they were running in place. It's a good thing the environments looked so good, because the rest of the game wasn't so easy to look at.
Deliver Us Mars is a decent narrative adventure, even with a fairly unmemorable story and some dull characters. The puzzles were simple enough and the beautiful environments were enough to make me want to keep going. Some control quirks and unpleasant character models did bog the experience down slightly, however. This game isn't bad to the point that I'd want to blast it into the sun, but it has enough quirks that it never fully reaches the stars like it should.
This review is based on a Steam digital code provided by the publisher. Deliver Us Mars is available now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox for $29.99 USD. The game is rated T.