Review of Deliver Us Mars – an impressive sci-fi story

From the first glance, it was clear that Deliver Us Mars has much greater narrative ambitions than the creators’ previous game, Deliver Us The Moon (which it follows in terms of story, but you can easily enjoy the second game without knowing the first one). The presence of multiple characters and distinctly cinematic scenes serve both to deepen the experience of traveling to the red planet, and mainly to deepen the experience of the complicated relationship between father and daughter, which can somehow remind of games like The Last of Us or Plague Tale (also plays a role here important sibling). The result is a very rich science fiction, which at the same time successfully works with the relationships and emotions of the main characters – and the player. All this supported by absolutely amazing music. Unfortunately, you’ll have to endure somewhat problematic gameplay in order to enjoy the mentioned advantages.

• Platform: PS5 (reviewed) PS4, XSX|S, X1, PC
• Date of publication: 2. 2. 2023
• Manufacturer: KeokeN Interactive (Netherlands)
• Genre: film adventure
• Czech localization: it is
• Multiplayer: it is
• Data to download: 14 GB
• Game time: 10 hours
• Cena: 710 CZK (Steam)

Father and daughter

In the not-too-distant future, global warming, pollution and overpopulation have virtually destroyed planet Earth, which is now ravaged by sandstorms, gradually consuming what remains of fertile soil – if you’ve seen the movie Interstellar, you have a very good idea. So humanity turns its hope to the stars, specifically to the moon of our planet and to the planet Mars. A trio of giant spaceships, nicknamed the “Ark” and equipped with the most advanced technologies for fertilizing and sustaining alien soil, are under construction. But a mysterious terrorist group called Outward hijacks these arks and flies them to Mars without the planned crew, after which they break contact with Earth. Your father was also one of the kidnappers.

You enter the story ten years later as Kathy Johanson, who is following in her father’s footsteps and training to be an astronaut. When a mysterious recording from Mars arrives on Earth, you become part of a last desperate expedition to the red planet in hopes of rescuing the kidnapped Arks and returning them to a dying Earth. But Kathy actually has an extra incentive – part of that suspicious recording contained her own nickname, given to her by her father. For a change, the daughter’s desperate attempt to reunite with her father and understand his motivation for the unthinkable is very much like a movie Ad Astrawhich, in addition to the plot, great dialogue and great acting, is further strengthened by the very similar music, which in this game is without exaggeration one of the best I’ve ever heard in games. It is wistful and mysterious, in addition to the soundtrack from the already mentioned film, its atmosphere resembles, for example, the music from the Blade Runner films.

The music is some of the best I’ve ever heard in a game.

What follows is also reminiscent of genre films in many ways – we see an emotional takeoff from Earth, an accident and tense crisis during a journey through space, a crash landing on Mars and a desperate fight for survival on the red planet, followed by a thrilling investigation of the wreckage of the previous expedition. There will also be the death of some key characters, and the overall unfolding of the history of the Outward expedition is depressing and grim. Just when you think the story can’t get any more emotional or dark, the game serves up some brutal twists in its finale that you probably won’t forget. So don’t be fooled by the relative simplicity of the character models, this is a very powerful human drama that will put you in front of some very difficult dilemmas and reflections on family, values ​​or the worst human traits. The impression of the story can be spoiled only by some apparently over-sweetened or cheesy scenes in the introduction (or in the flashback sequences), but more or less all these weaknesses can be traced to the character of the father, who quite possibly does not know how to get along with his daughters – apart from the obligatory gift of a plush “monthly bear”. However, this certain naivety of his relationship with his daughters will undergo a very dramatic development in the later stages of the story.

The story above all else

While I have nothing but praise for the story (and music), unfortunately the rest of the game doesn’t fare so well. The gameplay can be divided into two groups – the first is solving more or less repetitive puzzles involving plugging in the electrical grid, and the second is climbing walls with ice axes, be it rocks or the walls of a giant crashed spaceship. While the puzzles are relatively passable (it always takes a bit of time to find and line up all of their components correctly, but it’s never too frustrating), the wall climbing is downright awful – mainly because the control of jumping and bouncing to and from the wall is very imprecise, which will definitely get you killed a few times – and at the same time, the climbing itself is very slow, making repeating it after falling extra frustrating. It is a great shame, because some elements of climbing are successful in themselves and successfully evoke the feelings of the climber, who must carefully hold on and decide where to put his hand or foot next.

The plot of the game is full of contrasts, which is helped by the fact that you watch some sequences from the perspective of your own eyes and others from behind the back of your heroine. While the spaceship shots or Martian landscape views are mostly very impressive, the character models are much less successful – especially the eyebrows and beards look almost broken. It greatly spoils the impression of the otherwise very emotional moments between the characters. On the other hand, it is clear that the movements and facial expressions were filmed using complete motion capture and the acting performances of all the actors are top notch. There are fluidity dips on the PS5 in some of the vast exteriors, but not too much throughout the game. Either way, the main motivation for the game is whether you are interested in the very well-conceived plot about the survival of the human race through the colonization of Mars, and whether the main character wins you over to root for her until the end. Both worked for me (especially the English actress Ellise Chappell in the lead role of Kathy Johanson is absolutely superb – inquisitive, playful, vulnerable and brave), so despite the weaknesses I enjoyed the game as a thrill ride in one sitting, although I cursed at some of the climbing passages like starling. But by the end of the game, I was sure that the hardships were worth it.