$29.99Deliver Us Mars The Rescue Mission That Feels Like a Film
Fly to Mars, climb through the ruins of a lost colony and uncover a story about the family you left behind.
Is Deliver Us Mars worth it?
Deliver Us Mars is worth it if…
- you want a story-first sci-fi adventure you can finish in a couple of evenings
- you enjoy puzzles that ask you to think, not to sweat
- you care more about characters and atmosphere than about fast gameplay
- you played and liked Deliver Us The Moon and want to see where the story goes
- you like games that feel like controlled, directed films
Screenshots
A mission to save what is left of humanity
Ten years after the Fortuna mission, Earth is closer to extinction than ever. Then a distress call arrives from Mars, and Kathy Johanson, the youngest astronaut on the planet, joins the crew of the Zephyr for one last flight. Their goal: recover the ARK colony ships stolen by the mysterious Outward, and with them the survival of the human race.
You board the Zephyr in a launch sequence that takes its time, from Earth all the way to the red surface. The stakes never let up, and neither does the question underneath the plot: what drove the people of Outward to steal humanity's future in the first place? The story is told through cutscenes with motion-captured performances, and it leans into family drama and hard moral questions. Fair warning: the story divides players, and the character animations can look rough even as the worlds around them look great.
Brains, ice axes and a laser cutter
Between story beats you get a steady run of hands-on work. Puzzles revolve around steering energy beams to their targets, watching both the direction and the amount of power, with splitters and resistors joining the mix as you go. None of them are brutal; the question is usually how, not what. You also cut paths open with a laser cutter and pilot a small flying robot to reach places Kathy cannot.
The newer mechanic is climbing with two ice axes, and it appears often. It works, but it is slow and deliberate, which can clash with the more urgent moments the story stages around it. There is rover driving across the Martian terrain too, and it is as calm as it sounds: press a couple of buttons and watch the red hills roll by. The whole thing is linear and singleplayer, roughly ten hours with some extra time if you poke around for collectibles.
What do you actually do while playing?
What do you actually do while playing?
Mostly three things. You solve puzzles that send energy beams to receivers, later juggling splitters and resistors so the right amount of power reaches the right place. You traverse the environment: climbing rock faces with two ice axes, cutting through obstacles with a laser cutter, driving a rover across Mars and sending a small flying robot where Kathy cannot fit. And you watch and steer the story, which comes through frequent cutscenes, hologram fragments and conversations with the Zephyr crew. It is a slow, deliberate game rather than an action one, closer to a puzzle platformer wrapped in a film than a shooter.
Do you need to play Deliver Us The Moon first?
No, but it helps. This is a direct sequel set ten years after the Fortuna mission, and several characters, including Kathy's father Isaac, carry over from the first game. The Mars story does fill in its own background, so you can follow it cold. If you plan to play both anyway, start with Deliver Us The Moon: this one both continues and recontextualises what happened there.
How long is it, and is there anything to do after the story?
Around nine to thirteen hours for one run, depending on how much you explore and collect. The game is strictly linear and built for a single playthrough: once the story is over, there is no reason to replay it. If you like hunting every collectible and log, budget a couple of extra hours on top.
Is it difficult?
Not really. The puzzles build up steadily but rarely get hard, the climbing and platforming are more about patience than reflexes, and checkpoints are generally fair. That is part of the design: the game wants you to keep moving through the story rather than get stuck. If you want a challenge, look elsewhere; if you want a story you can actually finish, this is on your side.
