$29.99Per Aspera Terraform Mars, uncover its past
You are AMI, an artificial consciousness tasked with terraforming Mars for human colonists. You lay out mines, factories and colonies across the whole planet, balance resources and research, and make story choices that shape the ending. Slow, planet-wide building with a dark mystery underneath.
Is Per Aspera worth it?
Per Aspera is worth it if…
- you like slow, planet-scale building where small choices compound
- you like keeping supply chains balanced and watching Mars turn green
- you like story-driven colony sims with mysteries and moral choices
- you like sandbox modes and mods for replaying your own way
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Terraforming Mars, one network at a time
You start with a barren map built from NASA data and end with oceans, air and green ground, if your supply chains hold. You place mines, factories, power plants, worker hubs and colonies, then link them into a resource web where every building feeds another.
You set research to unlock new terraforming tech, seed water and life, and push temperature and atmosphere toward human levels. You mark one building high priority and watch worker bots haul goods across long travel times. Progress is slow, with long stretches of waiting while drones work and percentages climb, so it suits patient planners more than hands-on optimizers.
An infant AI with humans depending on it
You do not play as a settler. You are the system watching over them, an infant AI learning self-discovery while colonists rely on you for survival. The campaign feeds you dialogue, moral choices and planet-wide consequences, with voice acting from Troy Baker, Phil LaMarr and others.
You dig up relics of failed missions, learn what went wrong, and face a threatening presence that attacks your colonies. You build a single type of military unit to defend them, though that fighting stays simple beside the building. The dry joke is in the job description: no room for human error, because there are almost no humans in charge.
What should you know before landing?
Do you control individual colonists?
No. You play as AMI and manage buildings, robots, resources and colonies at planetary scale. Colonists depend on you for survival and leave if support fails, but you do not assign jobs to named settlers or track their hunger and mood one by one.
Can you play the story solo?
Yes. The narrative campaign is single-player, told through dialogue and decisions that affect how the mission concludes. Co-op for up to four players is limited to Sandbox Mode, where you can shape the Martian landscape without story pressure.
What is the difference between campaign and sandbox?
The campaign ties building to terraforming milestones that unlock story beats, relics and choices. Sandbox Mode drops the plot and lets you craft the planet freely, test research paths, and use mods. Mods disable Steam awards, which matters if you care about those.
