Screenshots & trailers
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (Metacritic) | – | 76 | 20 |
| All-time Steam reviews | – | – | 0 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | 72 | 131 |
| Backloggd ratings | – | 56 | 642 |
| Xbox store ratings | – | 57 | 244 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | – | – | 0 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 0 reviews sampled · 0 total reviews in window · weighted 0 up / 0 down · computed 2h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (39)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 83
“Surviving Mars manages to capture the poetry of K.S. Robinson's Red Mars, while also introducing new ideas and inspiration to the city building sim genre. There are some unpolished edges and missing menus but as a whole it is a relaxing and creative sim that has a lot of potential.”
read full review ↗ - 80
- 90
“Surviving Mars is a marvelous experience of city building, management, exploration and strategizing. Overall polish and good production values all around complete a deep and interesting package that will make genre enthusiasts and Mars fanatics very, very happy.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Surviving Mars, above else, is about hope. So many strategy games hold to their gameplay, eschewing any overarching themes or messages. But, as corny as it sounds, for those who believe in the majesty of spaceflight, for those who are keen to marvel at how pernicious our plucky little species can be, Surviving Mars is SimCity with soul.”
read full review ↗ - 78
“It is such a pity that Surviving Mars is infested by frustrating bugs, is at times unclear and has some resource balancing issues. Because, despite these problems, it is still a fun game, bursting with potential. ”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Surviving Mars is a lot of hard work, but managing a burgeoning colony never stops being compelling.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Engaging and surprisingly emotional. Even though Surviving Mars can be frustrating at times, because of how poorly it communicates it’s mechanics, it’s still a great resource management game whose combination of a sincere theme and involving mechanics more games should study. ”
read full review ↗ - 80
“Slow but hypnotically absorbing building strategy game. You will feel great while conquering the inhospitable planet, pity for designer’s mistake in not being able to connect the domes. [Issue#285] ”
- 78
“If you can stick it out through an unforgiving and poorly explained learning phase, there’s a lot of excitement, challenge, and customization to enjoy beneath and beyond the grand, glass habitation domes of Surviving Mars. I wish I’d had more reasons to care about the people in my colony than just the balance sheets for synthetic polymers and microchips, but at the end of the Martian day, it’s like a SimCity sandbox where everyone can die at any time because you made a minor miscalculation in your electrical grid. And that’s actually pretty exciting.”
read full review ↗ - 60
“Surviving Mars is treading old ground, despite the new soil. For better or worse, it offers a comfortable colony management experience that trades innovation for familiarity. ”
read full review ↗ - 73
“During the middle-game the process becomes blatantly boring: as your colony steadily grows, your biggest struggle will be with interface and lack of automation for certain tasks. After hours of going through the motions, you’ll wonder if moving to Mars was a good idea in the first place. [Issue#228, p.48] ”
- 70
“Surviving Mars is a very good city-builder game with a lot of upsides, but the early game is made unnecessarily hard by an absolute lack of tutorial, which forces the player to learn by trial and error.”
read full review ↗
GameWatcher
Eurogamer
GameSpot
Power Unlimited
PC Gamer
M3
IGN…and 27 more tracked reviews.