Mars Attracts
Outlier
Mars Attracts is a park management sim set in the iconic universe of Mars Attacks™. Play as the devious Martians as you construct detailed enclosures, manage staff, and most importantly – abduct and experiment on humans for the entertainment of your Martian guests!
Mars Attracts is the latest park management sim to release on Steam. Although it’s still in Early Access, it’s already showing considerable promise. It feels like a classic theme park game while adding a unique twist that perfectly matches the Mars Attack universe. Developed and published by Outlier, this is their second game, and it’s quite different to their last game. However, Mars Attracts already feels like it could be a full game despite there still being a lot of work left to do here.
Set in the Mars Attack universe, your job is to abduct humans and entertain your fellow Martians with ridiculous and mostly painful human attractions. Build and manage new theme parks with disgusting human attractions for Martian families to enjoy, including zoo enclosures to keep humans as display animals.
There is a campaign mode here but it doesn’t need anything deep as the game already has its charm. The overall story is pretty entertaining by itself and fits the theme perfectly. A deeper story could be nice, but Mars Attracts follows in the footsteps of classic theme park sim games, where a story just isn’t needed.
The core of the game is a classic theme park sim with all the gameplay elements we love: building attractions, managing the park, making visitors happy, staff management and all the other classic elements. However, Mars Attracts also adds in what can only be described as a zoo simulator for a science lab.
Pros
Classic Mars Attacks jokes
Theme park management
Lots of content already
High replay value
Awesome gore (what most theme parks miss haha)
Cons
Minor bugs
Unpolished
Missing animations
More Ack Acks needed 😀
While the humans in the zoo appear to be well-treated, it’s not quite the case. Players need to collect humans from across time, build enclosures for them based on their historical time period and provide them with different necessities and luxuries to make them happy. But the Martians also want to understand humans a bit better. There are all kinds of experiments you can perform on humans to entertain and educate your visitors. In Mars Attracts, most of the experiments are different forms of torture, ranging from humans being beaten up by a boxing machine, all the way to humans being cut into pieces. It focuses more on the ridiculous cult humour side of things.
Human subjects are abducted during expeditions, and décor can be grabbed from different time periods and then placed in enclosures. The test subjects/display humans will try to escape or trash the park if they’re unhappy with their living situations. Experimenting on them will generate biology, chemistry and physics points, which can be turned into new rides or amenities for the park through the research menu. It’s also possible to just hire a scientist to research things. Performing any fatal surgeries on humans will reward you with Specimens, which can be used to discover new rides in the workshop with a second research system.
The shops and the human food sources in enclosures need to be restocked by porters who can be assigned to different storage facilities. However, the sources seem to deplete rapidly and never refill completely, which reduces the happiness levels for human exhibits and Martian visitors. It’s an extra micromanagement step that isn’t needed and can become annoying. However, it forces you to make careful staff hiring decisions instead of just grabbing any worker. All employees have positive and negative traits.
For my overall gameplay experience Mars Attracts is awesome park management sim with a little extra Ack Ack attached. The gameplay so far is solid and enjoyable. This is still in early access, so there are some issues with the game. There are a few bugs causing problems, and it lacks the completed game polish. Imagine Rollercoaster Tycoon but the rides are various kinds of torture or study of humans, while little green men watch and eat popcorn. I had lots of laughs and the price tag is well worth it. I’m excited to see the game develop and with the reliability so high its an easy 4/5 stars. Win for theme park enthusiasts and win for Mars Attack film fans!!
Overall ACK! ACK! Rating Â
