Deliver Us Mars is the sequel to 2018’s Deliver Us the Moon and takes place ten years after the events of the first game, but does not require you to have played the previous game. Even though we immediately become aware that the story in Deliver Us the Moon has an impact on what happens in the world, and that many characters return, I never feel left out, precisely because no prior knowledge is needed.
It’s easy to get swept up in Outward’s mystery, the world, and the bleak but realistic future that Keoken Interactive (pronounced “Küken”) presents in Deliver Us Mars. In the not so distant future, the world is dying due to the actions and ignorance of mankind. It’s by no means an original idea, but the way Deliver Us Mars grounds its sci-fi in reality feels refreshing on several levels. Launching a rocket in particular proved tricky, with several tasks to do before simply pressing the big button that sends you off into space. Sometimes realism can equate to boring, but that’s not the case here and it only serves to deliver the kind of down-to-earth sci-fi that Keoken Interactive strives for.
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Our new protagonist Kathy gives the story a strong anchoring. She is not only well written, but feels genuinely interested in Outward and the crew sent out to track down the missing group that makes up the game’s story. Kathy’s point of view blurs the lines between the different perspectives of the story, and you’re never quite sure which is the “right” one to follow. What’s interesting about Deliver Us Mars is how I get to solve both the mysteries of what happened on Mars while also getting to delve into Kathy’s backstory, giving the player two varied plots during the journey.
This leads us on to the story in Deliver Us Mars. As a linear, short game that should only take you around eight hours to complete, a lot stands and falls with Deliver Us Mars’ story. More often than not, it succeeds, and the adventure starts with a bang, inviting you to explore the history of the Red Planet and complete the strange mystery behind Outward. During the first and second acts of the story, these mysteries will keep you busy as you fly into space looking for more information. The story keeps a good pace during these parts and moves forward quickly without feeling like it’s moving too fast. However, there are plenty of slower moments as well, allowing us to learn more about our main characters and build our relationships with them.
During the last bit, however, Deliver Us Mars loses its pace and suddenly feels stressful. The last hour or so feels like it’s about three hours of adventuring stacked into one, as I work toward an abrupt ending that leaves me feeling like I didn’t quite get the dramatic conclusion the rest of the game built up to. It never feels bad, but Deliver Us Mars is still a bit of an anti-climax.
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The game’s many chapters lead us through a puzzle-based adventure game, which involves either connecting a power beam to a point to proceed, or using two ice axes to work your way around the environments. The power beam puzzles are fun with just enough challenge to keep me engaged without becoming frustrating. Over time, however, the variety wears off, and it would have been nice if other elements could be added, or even a different type of puzzle. The climbing proves difficult at first and somewhat frustrating, especially when using a mouse and keyboard, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a solid game mechanic. It was never something I looked forward to, but I didn’t mind them either.
Something that often makes the climbing sections interesting in Deliver Us Mars is the game’s environments. The designs, from the dying Earth to the Red Planet, offer many different landscapes that are worth just looking at. However, these grand environments are set against the strange character models. Kathy and our main team are mostly innocent of these issues, but the other human character models come across as quite eerie and make it harder to take them seriously as you struggle to connect the strange face in front of you with a human. Impressive voice acting and good dialogue fortunately means this doesn’t detract too much from the overall experience, but the character models just feel dated, while the rest of the visuals measure up.
Deliver Us Mars has a lot I like. There’s a strong narrative core that runs through most of the adventure, backed up by good voice performances, especially from Ellise Chappell who plays Kathy, and that said, there’s solid gameplay and impressive graphics. But despite its good sides, there are some key factors that mean that Deliver Us Mars can never be called very good, where the pre-stressed ending and the somewhat monotonous puzzles are the worst culprits.
