Name: Terraforming Mars
Rating: 4.50785 (6437 reviews)

User Reviews for Terraforming Mars

4.51 out of 5

6.4K Ratings

1 year ago, J-Torrio

Workable to Clunky

Come on now… A slew of new improvements for this release advertised in App Store convinced me it’s time to reinstall, only to finally update and find it less stable than my 6+ month outdated version. I play this regularly on the solo challenge, and this update downgraded an already just okay user interface. Please test your application before releasing updates. That multiplayer bug you list “fixed issue where first player in X map freezes” about says it all. That’s a pretty absurd error. I’m stuck on a solo, where it won’t let me place a greenery and is flat stuck. Can’t click anywhere. Never happened before in my 2-3 dozen games. Yikes, man…. Love this board game, enjoyed the app enough to play before, disappointed to the point of actually getting my lazy self to type out a review. Edit/Update: downgrading to 1 star, do not buy if you plan to play solo with current release. Just froze and failed on a different game, different map, different tile placement and cannot move past error. The game worked well enough prior to update but is now failing 1/3 matches. Not playing going forward until update - very poorly QA folks.

4 years ago, nmarra

Good implementation needs a few things

First my brother and I have both played their actual board game so it was fairly easy for us to learn the digital version. As much as we loved it we couldn’t help but mention how difficult it’d be to learn the game because there were multiple things we had to search for in the Ui. However we were able to do everything we expected to through the game, it is a great digital version as it’s not lacking in any features we could find. My largest complaint is that it has no notification system so it is really only worthwhile to play if both players are going to play live. The online component gives the option to put time limits on turns but that doesn’t work great because you have to constantly go back into the game to check if it’s your turn. Even that wouldn’t be awful but it takes a good 15-30s to resume your game if you leave the app for ANY reason, even a switch to a respond or view a text message you have to sign back in and wait to reconnect. The game needs to implement notifications or have a way to see from the main menu whose turn it is. The only other flaw of the game is there is no undo, if you play a card or an action there is no way to back out of it even if it is still your turn. If those two issues were resolved it’d be a 5 star game

4 years ago, Blergan

A lesson in how to frustrate users

In order to add a friend you have to go through the chat tool. Not intuitive at all but whatever, I can deal with that. The really bonkers part is that your friend needs to be online in the app AT THE SAME TIME YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR THEM in order for you to be able to find them in the user list. Wuh? Notifications do not work at all...at least not for me on iOS. Cross platform, yay! Oh wait, it doesn’t matter if you don’t get alerted it’s your turn. I’ve tried turning off notifications and then turning them back on, power cycling my phone multiple times, I even uninstalled the app and reinstalled. Nothing helped. You get disconnected if you let your screen go to sleep for an instant or if you jump over to another app (even for only a second or two). Then you must reconnect and load your game again which takes FOREVER. I’ve played other ports where you get disconnected easily (CoB and the true TM, Terra Mystica) but with those you could jump to another app and back into the game after a few seconds and not have to restart. I wish I could review the gameplay but it’s been very difficult to even make it halfway through an online game. Played a few local games against the AI. The gameplay seems solid but even the expert AI is pretty bad (not unexpected for a game like this). So playing local games against AI gets stale quickly. In general, the app has promise but it is almost unusable for online games in its current state.

4 years ago, Joe Nathan Scott

Great adaptation of the real thing

Hey devs, I hope you’re doing well and thanks for all your hard work on making my favorite board game available for my iOS devices. I’ve literally played this game hundreds of times irl and online and I would like to ask if it would be possible to let the user decide the time restraints based off of 15 min intervals. So if I wanted to set the game for 1 hour and 15 min it would be easy to do so. Also there have been plenty of games where I was just moments away from seeing the score and I timed out and I felt like 2 hours of my life were wasted. Would it be possible to allow your opponents to grant you more time when you’re going to time out? Especially in private games when I’m playing with my friends. And finally there have been public games were my opponent leaves mid game with over half an hour left on his timer. I then have to wait half an hour for his timer to run out before the AI takes over. Can you give players a 5 min window to make their move and if they don’t make it they forfeit their rounds for that generation? I also wanted you to know that I would be willing to pay extra to play with the expansions. Jonathan Gomez

4 years ago, Keeeevv

Great single player, terrible multiplayer

If you are looking for a good solo mode or single player mode, this absolutely is one of the best digital adaptation. Terraforming Mars ranks amongst the top 3 in board games and the digital adaptation is just as satisfying. There can be some feature improvements like an undo button but there really isn’t much to knit pick on. Game is solid. In multiplayer mode, however, the game crashes almost every time. This is particularly frustrating especially right after you have spent 40 minutes building your engine. It either displays “you’ve been logged out” which is still reconnect-able or it’ll state “you’ve ran out of time” in which case you can no longer re log in again. I’m using an iPad Pro and my wife is using iPad Air, so I don’t feel like it’s my hardware issue. We are also dedicated gamers, so we do not shut/or switch to other apps while in game. So far we have gave the game 3 tries, and all 3 times we were logged out and unable to reconnect. Very, very frustrating, will not ever play multiplayer again online. If you are doing single player, this is great. IF you are buying for multiplayer, stick with the actual board game.

4 years ago, Hassjueuei

Glitches stop it from being 5

Updated: Solo Challenge score tracking/hiscores would be amazing - ie, being able to see your top scores with each corporation in solo challenge. Overall, accurate adaptation that works well on mobile. I’ve only played one game and ran into a pretty substantial glitch, though - the power infrastructure card doesn’t work at all. This is meant to convert energy into mC, but it simply doesn’t work. It uses up an action but no energy is lost and no money is created. Unfortunately, in this game even a single card not working correctly can be the difference between a win or loss (especially when I’m gaining 25 energy per turn, that could be converted to a lot of mC, and by association, VPs!). I’m sure there are others that people have mentioned as well. If these are ironed out then the game is pretty good as is. Other concerns are that there is no undo option, especially for city placements where there’s no confirmation - that’s pretty ridiculous, honestly. There is also no confirmation for playing tiles on the map, which should be an extremely easy implementation.

2 years ago, Rays0rRayRay

Great game, decent app

As someone in love with the physical board game who owns every expansion I feel very qualified to rate this. Pros? Can play my fave game of all time in line at Disneyland or waiting for food at a restaurant. Cons? Not all expansions available- please find a way to do that, especially Turmoil!- and more annoyingly, the game has a difficult interface. I frequently try to scroll around the map to find a place I want to put greenery or a city or whatever and accidentally click a spot then can’t undo. Also two of the global parameters are displayed in such a way that it looks like you can still increase them but can’t, then the game doesn’t stop you if you try. I have paid megacredits or heat to increase temp, lost said resource, then nothing happens and I realize it’s maxed but the interface doesn’t make it clear. Please fix this? Otherwise I am just happy to have a mobile version of my favorite game.

1 year ago, icedfate

recent update (mar 13, 2023) broke solo games(sort of)

first off, i highly recommend the game, even if you uave no friends to play with, it has ai opponents. however, when playing solo, and the game ends and it counts up your score, the game freezes and doesn't bring you back to the main menu or ask you to save your high scores. i noticed this happeneing a couple of days ago and thought it was weird and then today, i tried restarting ipad and it still happens. i tried reinstalling the app and it still happens . .and then i looked at the version history and see they just did an update and it says "many fixes". . but then they broke stuff. also worth mentioning, when looking at your list of saved scores, the game doesn't sort them in any sort of logical order. i would expect it to sort the highest scores to the lowest, in descending order, but it doesn't, so the list is kind of meaningless. it doesn't even show the scores unless you physically click(tap) on them. athough, there does appear to be 4 buttons on the side that look like sorting filters, but when i tap them, they don't do anything, except they do seem to collapse to the right, showing more stuff, but the stuff is cut off by the side of the screen, as if it's trying to go off the screen to the right. i have had this app formyears and this has NEVER been addressed. and for an app made for mobile devices, how the heck have they let something like stuff not fitting on the screen go for so long unfixed?

1 year ago, thirdcoastchiro

Fantastic game but needs work

I have always loved playing terraforming mars in real life so finding it in the App Store was just a bonus. However some things that need to be fixed: 1. I like the animations of people’s moves and the card showing up…. However why do I loose so much time waiting on the animations to finish. If I want to watch them I shouldn’t be forced to loose time which when I first started playing didn’t even know you could turn the animations off. This lead me to be unable to finish my first 4 games that I got kicked out of while watching the animations being done. Instead the only way to play and keep up is to constantly check the card log of the other play rather than the game show you what has been played. Overall I like the concept of the timer to make games move fast but when the timer activates and stops should be fixed especially if you want to see the animations 2. The game bugs out a lot. I have had several games since the last update that I’ve had to forfeit because I couldn’t get the card screen to move or it would let me do any action and the timer would just keep ticking…. Please fix 3. Would love to see the ability to play the computer and not only when someone quits the game. Especially since when people quit the game the ai only works half the time. The other half freezes and you just have to leave the game. If these 3 things can get fixed it would be perfect. Thank you!

4 years ago, beetlover418

Great game, app is frustrating

The app has a lot of frustrating features. For example, you get logged out of an online game if your phone goes dark or you get a notification. Also, online games have you set a time limit per player, defaulting to 30 min, which is much too short. There is no way to keep track of how much time you have left, and it automatically kicks out any player who goes over the time limit. So frustrating for everyone playing, there should be an option to extend the time. It takes a long time for the online games to load if you have to resume. I’ve also had several bugs with certain cards not working how they should, like on my last game, my power infrastructure action just stopped working halfway through the game. Also, I wish you could play locally with several devices, so several people in the same room, but on multiple phones. Finally, in many places it asks you to confirm, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to go back if you don’t want to confirm. I love this game, wish it was easier to play on the app.

4 years ago, snoozefest

Multiplayer Asynchronous is TERRIBLE!

Solo mode is good, and the multiplayer AI game is OK (though I don’t think I’ve lost to them yet). But wow, the asynchronous implementation is just horrible! - It seems that players must be online at the same time to even play a game together! Even when they are, though, many created game invitations seem to disappear somewhere into the ether! - Well, they mostly disappear: I still have a list of games I’ve tried to create in my “Resume Game” screen ... which the invited opponent doesn’t see and which I have no way to delete. - when it’s your turn, you get a notification (oddly silent for some reason) but if you have multiple games going, you have no indication as to which one you need to open!! And opening a game is so slow that it’s painful! - there’s no option to play back other people’s turns! Yes, there’s an event log, but it’s not exactly detailed! - playing draft mode: how the heck are you supposed to know which direction you’re passing? It would help so you know which cards to hate draft away! - when playing draft mode, if you open the game before the other player(s) are done, you are repeatedly taken to the buy card buttons. You can select your cards and hit buy, BUT IT DOESN’T STICK — you have to do it all over again and again! The asynchronous multiplayer game, the main reason I bought this, is utter crap. Hopefully a future update will improve this ....

5 years ago, oucfhkcyfc

Is this a beta????

Local single player play has no take back function so when you accidentally play a tile on the wrong hex you can’t back up. Unless you look at a card you should be able to take back your last action. Also only 25% of my games will save. So your forced to play the game through otherwise you most likely will lose it. There should be a save button. I’m almost ready to call my credit card company to force a refund on this app as it is like testing a beta. Also Saturn Systems comes up around 80% of the time in local play. AI is week on the highest level. Most of the time they won’t pick steel or titanium production and their placement of green tiles is dumb as they keep leaving me great options to put a city down next to their greens. I could go on, but I’m frustrated I paid for this. I’m not sure why it has all these 5 star ratings, must be trolls.

4 years ago, vagabot

Love this game!! Few minor shortcomings and no expansions yet.

This is probably the best board game out right now, and Asmodee did a terrific job with the port. If I could, I’d give it 4.5 stars because of two oversights that I think would vastly improve the game. First, It lacks an undo button for cancelling actions that you mistakenly begin (I appreciate not having an undo action for completed actions though). Second, it often auto selects your own resources when removing for asteroids, when you clearly would rather select an opponent or nobody... leading to easy dumb mistakes. And third, it doesn’t track your high score in solo mode, so when you’ve gotten tired of beating it, it doesn’t get any more challenging. I absolutely love this game though, and can’t wait to purchase additional expansions because I’m starting to tire of the map.

4 years ago, BlueLoyalty

Glitches but Good Overall

I’ll start my review with I really love this board game, so I went out of my way to purchase this game. Overall, I like the product. However, now that I’ve played the game many times I really dislike the tags glitch. Specifically, science tags do not get recorded correctly. Many cards have a specific number of science tags as a requirement. I’ll purchase 5-6 science cards and play them, then when I check my tags tab I have 3. This is super irritating. Especially when I’m required to have 4 or 5 to even play a card. From what I’ve seen this glitch is mainly on multi-tagged cards, +-2 cards, or gain one or two cards card. Please fix this glitch. It’s really taking my enjoyment from the game. I almost want to get a return on my money. I even bought the prelude expansion hoping the glitch was fixed. Alas, it’s not. And after spending over $12 I would hope that these things are fixed quickly.

3 years ago, Re300

Good could use some work

The app works a lot better than many reviews have claimed. Probably due to updates and the fact that I’m using an updated phone (11 pro max). I also haven’t played multiplayer online, so we will see then. Overall a very pleasing experience. However minus one star for the fact that I’m paying $9 for the app and there are no statistics for wins/losses and other data that other games like this have within their app. Expansion packs are additional money, but for this price I feel they should be included, but really my minus 1 star is due to the lack of additional features one would expect at a game/app at this price point . overall fantastic

5 years ago, Blyler

I want to play this game SO BAD!

Developer: please let me play this game, I’m begging you! I just want to play this game with my friends, that’s it! But your game fights me trying to play it at every turn. If i close and re-open the app sometimes the entire UI disappears, rendering the game useless. If i close the app and come back, i have to go through 3 - 4 steps just to get back in the game *if* the UI sticks around for me to play. I’ll pay you money and evangelize for your product and get you lots of new customers if you will just make this game work. Please improve the multiplayer experience. Why do i have to add my friends to my buddies list before i can start a game with them? Why do they HAVE to be online at the same time as me before i can add them as friends? Why do i have to click “done” the “send” when sending chat messages? Really, all i want to do is play your game that you made, and tell others about it, but your game makes that practically impossible! I’ll give it 5 stars and get hundreds of people to buy it if you will just fix ALL the problems!

4 years ago, JRocket84

Beautiful Adaptation, Terrible Multiplayer

The game looks and plays beautifully. The app did a great job presenting the information of the game and the animations make it engaging and fun. Unfortunately, the multiplayer system leaves a lot to be desired. Playing online was the reason I bought this game, hence the 2-stars. The entire multiplayer system is premised on the assumption that players will play one game at a time and stay in the app for the duration of the game. This makes sense if you’re playing Starcraft or League of Legends but makes little sense if you’re playing a long board game. Every other app adaptation of a board game seems to understand this. I would much prefer to be able to join multiple games and play my turns as it became my turn, which I would be notified about with a push notification. Perhaps the draft mode wouldn’t work well this way, but that’s why it’s optional.

4 years ago, 911 Doc

Great solo game - needs work for asynchronous multiplayer

I love this as a solo game (either actual solo mode or against AI). It doesn’t have an undo feature, and it chews up battery like a puppy with a shoe, but it’s still really good. Where this flops for me is on the asynchronous multiplayer online mode. Things that Really Annoy Me: - It can take two minutes to load the game every time you want to play your turn. Even switching to another screen for a moment then promptly returning kicks you out of the server, so you have to do a multi-minute reload. - Turn notifications (i.e., “It’s your turn!”) don’t work for me, and judging by other reviews, it’s not just me. That means I have to spend a few minutes logging in to find out if it’s actually my turn yet. - If it turns out it wasn’t my turn, I have to replay what I just did. Groundhog Day was an okay movie, but I certainly don’t need to live it and keep buying the same cards over and over until all players have taken their buy action. - The server seems a bit unstable. I can be logged in for several days, then have to re-log thrice in 20 minutes. - If it’s true that the final score is only visible to the player that took the last action (still haven’t gotten there!), that is also a silly thing. Solo: 4.5 stars! Asynchronous multiplayer: 2 stars :( I’d still buy it again, though.

1 year ago, Phredd3

Broken Since Latest Updatr

This app now routinely stops the game when looking at cards already played (which you need to do from time to time) and occasionally when new cards are drawn mid-turn. The only fix is to close out of the game (and for the first problem, restart the entire app), and then reload the game, which takes an amount of time proportional to how far into the game you are, so sometimes a very long time. Also, every game, even the ones you win, don’t complete. I tells you you’ve won, then won’t close and update. It just hangs until you forfeit the game. It has done this since the last time an update was published more than two months ago. The developers replied to my support request that they were aware of the problem. They have not fixed it. I tried to follow up, but they closed the ticket. I can’t highly rate an app where the publishers knows about a major game play problem and can’t be bothered.

4 years ago, OmniDroid 9000

Crashes OFTEN

I would love to rate this game 5 stars. It is very fun, even to the point of mildly addicting. This game can make 2 hours feel like 10 minutes. Plus the tutorial is great for anyone new to the game such as myself. Unfortunately the game crashes a LOT. I have gone through about 6 or 7 games now and have yet to experience a complete game that hasn’t crashed on me at least twice. The most recent game I’ve played I can’t seem to go more than 15 minutes without it crashing. This is on two different iPads with fairly different specs too. If this was a free game I wouldn’t complain. However, since I’m paying almost $10 for it I would expect a crash free version, especially since there are plenty of other game options out there that can offer better results. To any developer who reads this, please fix this issue and I will gladly change this review to 5 stars.

4 years ago, Devilchaser

Surprisingly well implemented and enjoyable

I have found that Asmodee does not make very refined digital adaptations of board games, Scythe being a prime example. Their work on Terraforming Mars is a far better adaptation and generally looks, plays, and sounds quite good. There are definitely “quality of life” issues, such as not being able to get info on tiles on the board, not being able to see what is contributing to production values, confusion on wether cards have immediate or lasting effects, and most importantly, the lack of an undo button and no end-game fanfare or stat tracking. There is also a lack of “late stage polish”. For example, a more refined version would show the atmosphere and background landscape transforming as terraforming goals are met. Overall, I have enjoyed Asmodee’s digital adaptation and recommend Terraforming Mars to others.

3 years ago, Optoutname

Two major issues on this great app

This app should be getting five stars, from everyone, but I paid $9 for it, my friend paid$9 for it, and neither of us can friend the other in their "chat" page or (probably the "players" tab under Chat is what they meant, but u can't their either). Also, I can't see my cards on other players' turns. Sometimes they are just completeley disappeared. Othera you aren't allowed to click on them, or have to fool the app by checking Cards Played first and then try your hand again. When you can view your own dang cards, the app is constantly interrupting u, but even of just that worked I could play the game. As of now I have an $18 solo game I run out pf time on bc I can only see my cards when it's my turn. I want our money back and a notice when u guys are out of beta.

4 years ago, Negeta76

A worthy buy

I picked this up a week or two ago, and have been playing the Solo mode a lot. I‘ve played the board game many times with friends, and this is a faithful adaptation. I find myself going back to play a match of Solo rather than playing other games I have available. I’d love to see the expansion that added the other side of Mars as well as the southern pole. I believe there were also some neat cards in the Venus expansion that didn’t require the Venus track or floaters that’d add some more variation to the game. Failing the addition board, it’d be nice if we could randomize the placement bonuses on the board to vary up Solo mode a bit. I find myself doing the same placement strategies, which make future plays a little samey.

4 years ago, 5HLee

Bug: does not apply selected steel or titanium resources

In certain payment contexts not involving direct card play, the game does not apply the user-upped payment with available steel or titanium but rather subtracts payment from mega credit resources. Discovered during several solo games where at the end I’m left with loads of steel and titanium that I had tried to use in payment through a small pop up window. Also, minor quip—at the end of greenery conversion at the 14th generation, it would be nice to view the final O2/Temperature/Oceans metrics. Game ends without being able to view these. Bought the app yesterday to checkout playability from a phone towards multiplayer play. We have the actual board game and this app is a nice adaptation with cool graphics. Would appreciate a fix to the bug. Thank you.

4 years ago, worker10202020

Lots good, but lots broken

My review is similar to many here - the single player version way exceeded my expectations. The graphics are nice, interface makes sense, and it a great adaptation of the board game. The online version is really difficult to use because it is riddled with bugs. The main two that have made it close to unusable for me and my friends: 1) Authentication. About 80% of the time a reopen the app to play my turn it logs me out so I need to sign in almost every time I want to play one turn. It also takes a bit of time to enter each game 2) Time limit. This got us a few times but there is a default time limit to an online game which is set to a low value. Since it takes about 10 minute per turn with all the other issues you need to set this to the highest value to get even close to finishing a game

2 years ago, nudibranch1313

Great game but buggy app

I love the tabletop but this is frustratingly buggy. The timer doesn’t turn off in opponents turns and doesn’t count fairly- I played an hour round where my timer ran out ant the other player still had 58 minutes. I wish there was a timer free mode, there are a lot of cards to read. Sometimes it doesn’t let you play eligible cards or give correct awards. Sometimes it freezes altogether. Once I thought I was playing and AI took over my game even though my internet was fine. My last game froze completely and didn’t let me play or pass but the timer keep counting. It’s also frustrating that you can’t easily see your cards and plan your move during opponent’s turns. The only thing that has sorta consistently worked is solo mode.

5 years ago, Winston Smith IV

Decent adaptation crippled by poor online

They really nailed the vibe. It feels great! The UI is slick and fluid, the sound is fantastic .. I actually like playing with headphones on! Where it complexly falls down is online multiplayer. First you will constantly be logged out.. want to login and use password auto fill.. logged out.. switch over to resend to a text.. logged out.. if the app basically isn’t ever the foreground active app It logged you out of the game and you have to go through the menu and join again. There is little to no indicator of it being your turn! You may get a push notification but that’s it. There is no app icon badge, in the resume games list there is no indicator of whose turn.. you have to actually load the entire game.. the maybe it will one of the players is play.. depending on the game state. There is no replay of what happen sense your last turn.. there is a game log buried in a menu in the top left but it it’s a tiny log not the animation of actually flow of actions like you get it your online while the turn happens. I could go on and on.. Go play “through the ages” even if you don’t like the game.. it is the best online async intuitive digital adaptation I’ve experienced. Getting async play down is critical for these games especially on a phone!!

1 year ago, MSVanguard

Terraforming Mars Rocks

The developers have done an amazing job taking a complex game and making it easy to play with the app. The preludes expansion is a real bonus, but I sincerely hope they figure out a way to add the colonies expansion!!! This is a must have when playing TM. Devs… please, please… you have to shoe horn the colonies expansion into this game! I’ll pay you double for it.. just offer it! :) Feb 2023, recent update broke some things. Can’t view map when needed sometimes, and can’t place cities on the board after playing a card that requires you to do so. Something went awry in the latest update… hope they figure out what they screwed up.

2 years ago, legendaryFail

Endless problems

The game has been plagued by bugs since it’s inception 4 years ago. The developers and programmers do not seem to care. They don’t listen to customer feedback, and the game and gaming community suffers. Many players cannot even start a game because of glitches in the program. Many games, once started, crash before completion. There are broken cards, incorrect rules, poorly designed timers, and terrible User interface decisions, All of which make a terrific game very frustrating. The programmers release patches, updates, and new DLC without even doing a single play-test, thus missing severe and obvious game-breaking errors. They repeatedly create new bugs and problems that aren’t even related in any way to whatever they were “trying” to fix. It’s shameful, and you can’t even ask for a refund if you play more than 2 measly hours, which most people do.

2 years ago, KelseyK0527

Game Keeps Crashing After Latest Update

Normally I love this game, but after getting the new expansions my game keeps crashing. Somewhere in the middle of a match (usually when I have a good engine built) text will pop up and say “Buy up to {0} cards”. It appears under the standard projects menu. When my cards menu is opened text appears over it and says “No cards played”. The cards cannot be sorted by the tabs anymore and they can’t be paged through with the arrow. So frustrating as the only thing you can do is forfeit. I tried closing the app and reopening the game but the issue immediately pops back up. This has happened to me on at least six different occasions. I normally play vs one medium AI player. All occurrences have been on the Hellas map, but not sure if it would do the same on other maps.

2 years ago, jillkuck

Very fun, one bug is bugging me

We have this board game and my long distance daughter and I were thrilled to be able to play against each other online across the country! It plays very true to the board game, and we had the interface down after just a few games. My one bug complaint…. If I get a “battery is low” message on my iPad, or if I leave the game for too long and my backlight goes out, or if I plug the iPad in mid game, or anything else that has to do with power, the game freezes and I can’t do anything but reboot and lose the game. I always have to be sure I have well over 10% power or be plugged into an outlet before I start the game. Other than that, we are very happy!

3 years ago, Sophistar25

Overall good, but corporate era rules mode crashes

Overall, if you’re just looking to play against AI with the simple rules, then it’s an excellent app. The AI ranges in difficulty and will challenge you as you learn to play. If you’re playing a local game, you can easily add another “human” player to play on the app. However, the “corporate era” rule mode is incredibly unstable and games in that mode constantly crash. While your progres will be saved, the game won’t load fully, will consistently crash, and you’ll never be able to finish the game. This is especially frustrating, if you’re using the app to try to better your normal board game skills, since the “corporate era” cards is the most common way to play.

1 month ago, djcrenn

Mars

My brother and I consider ourselves to be very adept board gaming people. Of all the hundreds of boardgames we have played. We still agree that Mars is the best organ this app does the game Justice. No matter how many times you play it every single game is different. So many variables. Different corporations all have the different benefits. Once you download the ingame content different preludes to give you different bonuses. And as you expand your abilities in the game, Venus expands options and creates even more diversity. I’m looking forward to future expansions. Colonies would be wonderful.

10 months ago, JuggerButz67

Great game getting worse

Devs, this is an awesome game. It’s beautiful, captures the essence of the board game, and is so smooth. However, with each update the time between starting a game and unplayability decreases. I’m struggling to make it to the third generation before the game crashes in multiplayer. You have to take care of the core multiplayer functionality before the player base moves on to something else. The most common issue is the game will crash and then freeze when loading in, frequently at the 89% or 94% load point. Please fix these issues sooner than later; the patches and hotfixes take way too long to get pushed out. I miss my 2 hours a day playing with friends and would prefer to not have to move on. Thanks-

3 months ago, Jason Mark

Conceptually great but so slow

It's a a slow click and count to 3 before anything happens on my last M1 iPad Pro, and also on my M3 Mac. The Mac is newer with lots of RAM and processors, so I thought it would be faster. I know it's not made for it so that's fine, but the iPad is also so slow for e v e r y t h i n g. Lots of other little issues such as: * The view game state button often doesn't work * You can't tell if there's one space or two in the various tracks to get to the bonuses. * There are many card where you have to go back out of the card and select each opponent for. For example "one for every space tag your opponent's have" doesn't tally it up for you, so you have to manually tap out of the card, then wait, then tap into an opponent, then wait. Then tap into tags and wait. And then to the whole thing again with opponent only to go back to yourself (wait) and your cards again (wait). If it was snappy it would be much more acceptable. * There's no undo for warning when you play a card that "reduces someones ... production" when you're the only one who has that production, so you're halfway through playing the card and realize it's a waste.

3 years ago, Yet Another Old Gamer

Fantastic implementation of a great board game

This is a fantastic implementation of one of the best board games I’ve ever played. The digital version takes care of accounting for all the “fiddly bits” in the game, really streamlining game play. The bug fixes rolled out over the last year addressed most of the problems I experienced in early releases. The tutorial is a better introduction to the board game than the game’s rules, so I recommend new owners of the physical game buy the digital version to more quickly learn the mechanics. The only thing preventing my fifth star is the lack of expansion content. Prelude is great, but I really miss the alternate maps (which provide variety in milestones and awards) and the Turmoil expansion (which adds depth for experienced players).

4 years ago, Mateorabi

AI is horrible, Asmodee can’t keep multiplayer server up

As much as I love the boardgame and want to like this app, the quality just isn’t there. The AI on “hard” isn’t much challenge and does stupid things like buying ghg bacteria when heat is already maxed. Or upping energy production on the final turn. This would still be fun practice for real games but it requires your app be logged into a horribly unreliable server. My profile is constantly getting “logged out”. And about 1-2 a month it spins forever and doesn’t let you log in. A friend has had to reregister his account four times now. The game also has occasional crashes (worse on older devices like an iPhone 6) and reloading the game takes 4x longer than starting a new one.

5 years ago, Troymk1

Seems Buggy and doesn’t save

This is a longer game to play and the app seems to like to crash at times The main problem with that is a game you are literally hours into will be wiped out with no save point I’m not sure how in 2019 such a thing could be possible (Erased rant) Edit 1. Rewards for hitting targets on O2 and Temp tracks are not actually rewarded Edit 2. I’ve now completely lost upwards of a dozen solo games due to crashes (and no saves). Whose career defining decision was it to not save games automatically nor allow a manual workaround. Edit 3. the game seems to need an online connection when none should be needed. (Perhaps for the saves that aren’t happening? 😂, I’m not playing multiplayer) Edit 4. The app loses my log in information randomly and there is no ‘remember me’ functionality so full user name and password are required each time for a game which should happily just sit on my iPad with no online presence unless I ask for one. reduced rating to one star Seems sloppy Edit 5. Emailed as requested....... And I’ve deleted the app. Honestly, I assumed at that price point that I’d be purchasing a polished product. Instead I’ll be noting these developers and avoiding their products like the plague. Asmodee; Choose better partners as the buck stops with you .

10 months ago, King Agricola

Game bugs

I have two bugs that need to addresses. I have noticed the AI can be “tricked” into not completing or terraforming the planet when the opportunity exists. I have, on several occasions, been able to keep all of the ocean cards so the AI can’t play a card to place the last ocean. Or, today, I was able to play against Helios and there was one step left for temperature and the AI would never spend energy to get the last increase. This caused the second bug, I was able to run the game out of cards and during the draft, the game just froze and I could not do anything, including ending the game. I took a screenshot of it in case the developers need it.

4 years ago, Ray 4512

Good adaptation but bugs ruin gameplay

There are a couple of bugs that make this really annoying to play. It’s too bad because the game is good and it’s adaption is well done in general. The biggest issue is science tags not being counted properly. Seemingly at random, you will play science cards and your tags don’t increment. This is incredibly frustrating when your strategy is based on unlocking a certain card. Another issue is that the AI players are not very good. They have very simple basic strategies and it is too easy to beat them on the advanced setting. For example, in deciding what prize to purchase they look at the resources players have and not at their production. Hope the developers can address these basic issues and make this worth playing.

9 months ago, Ab14d87

Great game. Note to creators/devotees within

Really great game. The app itself is sometimes glitchy which can be annoying, but it’s worth it to be able to play games online with friends across the country. I love the ability to not have to set up the physical game and have to keep track of all the point tokens, scoring, ect. I do wish the creators/developers would add an undo button to the game for the multiple times I accidentally place a city or greenery tile in the incorrect position. Also could please try to fix the glitch so We can remove previous games? I have so many games that have ended that I cannot get off my game list.

1 year ago, B Magic

Completely wasted my money on a broken game. 😔

Bought the game and expansions and halfway through a 2p game with an Ai bot, I passed my turn and the bot then got virtually infinite turns—the game ignoring that it had no credits left and it took continuous standard actions over and over. I watched in amusement as IT TERRAFORMED THE ENTIRE PLANET (the planet was less than half full at the start of my turn). No joke, the glitch allowed the Ai to terraform virtually every empty tile spot on the planet, as well as systematically take milestones and awards that same generation as it did so. Because I had passed my turn and it had a turn left, it just got turn and turn after turn until it literally had nothing left to do. Of course this completely breaks the game and makes it worthless. Total waste of money including the cost of the expansions I paid for.

1 year ago, Vladimir419

Make the AI harder.

Awesome game and awesome app. I’ve only experienced one local game that crashed and have probably played dozens of matches to this point. My only request is any adjustments possible to make the AI more difficult. I haven’t delved into online multiplayer yet but I love to play against the AI. The only problem is I haven’t lost a match in quite a while, and I almost always win by at least 20 VPs. The AI is pretty predictable and often makes terrible first moves during mid to end game. I don’t know if this is a common issue but it would great for an increased challenge. All in all still fun and a superb app adaption of my favorite board game. Thank you!!

4 years ago, Npbonner

Multiplayer is terrible. Single player is smooth.

This app is plagued with connection issues. I get turn freezes starting around generation 5 or 6. This forces you to back out of the game and re-enter or restart the game altogether. Meanwhile the game continues with the AI that will ruin your plans or waiting will eat up your time. If this happens enough times the app will drop the game and then you can’t re-enter the game. Their karma ranking system will then give you a hit for this because you “quit” the game. I’ve had cards disappear on me as well when I try to re-enter a game. There is no back button within your turn. Which has more than once hurt my gameplay as I mistakenly tap on something. Online multiplayer is just about unusable and then punished your ranking for their bugs. Offline play is smooth but the AI is a bit dumb even at the hard levels. It’s a good take on the board game. I want this app to do well because of its potential but it needs a lot of bugs fixed and UI improvements.

4 years ago, MacLavish

I want to be BLUE!

I should be able to select my character color. Chris should be green not purple and I should be BLUE not green! It is so distracting to play as the wrong colors. The colors of the players should also be jewel tones. Other than that the game play is very similar to the board game and the graphics are beautiful. I would like a little bar added to remind you what you chose to do. I have a horrible short term memory and sometimes I forget that I chose to place a city instead of a greenery tile. I have to take notes on the side to remind me. I would like an undo button when I realize that I picked the wrong action before I complete the action. I LOVE THIS GAME!

1 week ago, DomSchrec

Can’t play online games

Been using the app for a while. Its always been a little clunky but if a game crashes or kicks me out or anything I could always just restart. It can be annoying but at least I could go back to playing. Today though online games just became completely unavailable. A game I had going with friends just seemingly disappeared and we can’t get into it and if I try to start a new private game with friends it doesn’t show up. This is very frustrating and would like to be able to play online again. Edit: It’s now been weeks and can still not create an online game. Any time I try just nothing shows up this really feels like it should’ve been addressed by now if the developers cared.

1 year ago, EmptyEm

Decent implementation

Decent implementation, could use some UI improvements. (1) Actions and cards that have no effect can be activated with no warning; such as actions that add a water tile when all the tiles have already been played. A better UI would disable completely non-operative actions and cards. (2) The advancement track UI gives zero indication of exactly what thresholds need to be met to get bonuses. Only *after* one gets to -24 Celsius is there an indication that a bonus happened. If one doesn’t have the 4 advancement breaks memorized, the user is out of luck. (3) There’s no way to back out of an action or card play partway if it turns out that a mistake was made. For example, if you play a card that drops a city tile, and when the UI displays the possible city tile locations you see that all the choices are bad, the only way to cancel the action is to quit and restart the game. (4) Sometimes the game gets stuck displaying a card list. Some affordance to close a card list would be nice.

2 years ago, Anaximandar

Stay Away if looking for Async Online play

This is my second attempt to play a board game in an app with some real life friends. The first was Through The Ages which might have spoiled me with the excellence of that app, and definitely spotlights the shortcomings of this one. I absolutely love Terraforming Mars on the tabletop, so my one star review is not based on the merits of the game itself, but in the implementation of the app. I could not finish multiple online async games. The draft variant, not only is badly implemented, but frequently causes the game to get stuck and you can’t finish. Some quality of life updates wouldn’t hurt either, like being able to see who you are sending cards to, or in what state is the draft. Besides that, having the draft hang in the middle of a game is frustrating and downright not acceptable. If you want to finish an online game, play without draft. The app looks nice, but takes a bit to load and the buttons are small. There is no undo button and no notification that you have unspent actions at the end of your turn. But really, it’s the bugs that kill it. It’s just not with your time or money unless they fix the draft variant.

11 months ago, Jane Silverberg

Disappointed with the update

I was excited to use the update today. As you can see, the list of bug fixes was wildly extensive. This app not only has a lot of bugs, but a very unintuitive interface as well. A huge frustration came for me when it didn’t recognize I already had additional purchases, and the “restore purchases” button did absolutely nothing. When I went to look, for how to report a problem of course it’s a long and arduous process that no one wants to bother with. Just give me my prelude cards back, and stop having the world’s worst interface. This is a great game and when the app is working it’s super fun to play. I just can’t believe how poor the development of the application is.

1 year ago, Jbott37

Great game, but end game scoring is inoperable for local matches with 2 or more users (iOS)

I love the board game, and this digital adaptation is stellar, outside of one relatively major issue, which is that it freezes 100% of the time for me at the very end of the game! It’s like the animation for score tallying bugs just before it’s about to begin counting. I’ve played five rounds now, all with minor tweaks to eliminate variables, and have never made it to the scoring successfully. It does however seem to work with single player local matches, as well as online matches. Is this something the developers have been made aware of? I will happily update my rating if there is a fix, or something I can do on my end to get around this bug! Thanks,

Description

CREATE LIFE ON MARS Lead a corporation and launch ambitious Mars terraforming projects. Direct massive construction works, manage and use your resources, create cities, forests and oceans, and set rewards and objectives to win the game! In Terraforming Mars, place your cards on the board and use them wisely: - Achieve a high Terraform Rating, by increasing the temperature and oxygen level or creating oceans... Make the planet habitable for future generations! - Get Victory Points by building cities, infrastructure and other ambitious projects. - But watch out! Rival corporations will try to slow you down... That's a nice forest you planted there... It'd be a shame if an asteroid crashed right on it. Will you be able to lead humanity into a new era? The terraforming race begins now! Features: • The official adaptation of Jacob Fryxelius' famous board game. • Mars for all: Play against the computer or challenge up to 5 players in multiplayer mode, online or offline. • Game variant: Try the rules of the Corporate Era for a more complex game. With the addition of new cards, including 2 new corporations, focused on economy and technology, you will discover one of the most strategic variants of the game! • Solo Challenge: Finish terraforming Mars before the end of generation 14. Try new rules and features in the most challenging Solo mode on the (red) planet. DLCs: • Speed up your game with the Prelude expansion, adding a new phase at the start of the game to specialize your corporation and boost your early game. It also introduces new cards, corporation and a new solo challenge. • Explore a new side of Mars with the new Hellas & Elysium expansion maps, each bringing a new set of twists, awards and milestones. From the Southern Wilds to the Other Face of Mars, the taming of the Red Planet continues. • Add the Venus board to your game, with a new Solar phase to hasten your games. With new cards, corporations and resources, shake up Terraforming Mars with the Morning Star! Languages available: French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish Having an issue? Looking for support? Please contact us: https://asmodee.helpshift.com/ Find all the latest news for Terraforming Mars on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TwinSailsInt Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwinSailsInt YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/twinsailsinteractive © Twin Sails Interactive 2019. © FryxGames 2016. Terraforming Mars™ is a trademark of FryxGames. Developed by Artefact Studio.