Per Aspera

I would give it a maybe. Bought it on sale for £4 and got my fair share of fun for the money, but at full price you're getting a game where you spend 80% of your time just waiting for the resources to be gathered before you can progress to the next stage.

Per Aspera was something I thought was absolutely fresh and new. Upon playing it further, it's kind of not, but at the same time still retains some appeal from games similar to this series. In essence, Per Aspera is similar to games like Bulwark and other expanding node type building games. The player is tasked with harvesting material, refining it, and building with it. In short, the game isn't bad, but I can see how it may not appeal to everyone. Per Aspera's [b]gameplay[/b] is alright overall. Nothing over the top to keep the player's attention darting back and forth, but enough that the player is required to check up on their base/colony, unless it's been properly built and supplied. Only then can a base be left alone without supervision. Play time of the game can also be paused or slowed down at any moment when the player requires it, which is a neat feature. The [b]controls[/b] will mainly demand the player to use their mouse to achieve most of their goals in the game. This is sort of what made the game sort of mundane during my play; there was a large demand to keep expanding, however it seemed like this was all there was to the game. Fortunately, there were some other additions that do add some shine to Per Aspera. The player can zoom out from the planet and find that there are other icons they can interact with orbiting Mars. Such actions include scanning of new surfaces, launching new bases in new areas of the planet, exporting or importing material, and a few other events that have to do with the story. It's nothing too - too interactive, it's more like click, assign, and let it happen type of deal. There is another edge to the game where there are hostile forces that are present. They can be eliminated (to a certain degree and depending where the player is in the story) and upgraded through a technology tree. The more colonists the player brings in the more technology points they get for each research station discovered or built.  The [b]graphics and visuals[/b] are appropriate and flow well together with the entire game design. Although not Unreal Engine type realistic, it still provides animations to demonstrate to the player that there is movement and actions occurring in the game. Minor animations are not visible, but given the distance the camera is from the surface I guess it makes sense. There are other minor details such as battles that are visible during drone skirmishes, but didn't quite see any smoke trails or after burners. The terraforming visuals do occur gradually as the player heats up and adds CO2 to Mars, which of course is a nice addition to a game that literally requires the player to change a planet. The [b]sounds and music[/b] are okay. At times the music sounds like a nice relaxing piano back track then at times it seems like there are hints of NES music with a slightly modern twist. Sometimes a little odd, but interesting to say the least. Some of the sounds can be redundant and annoying as clicking the same building or creating new pathways may lead to repetitive "PSHHH" sort of noises.  Overall, the game is decent. I won't - won't recommend it, but won't also strongly recommend it. I do have to say the campaign does provide an interesting philosophical twist at the end which I enjoyed. I got it for a decent price on sale and perhaps would've given it a thumbs down if I paid more for it. The game is not bad, it seems like it was really fleshed out and properly cared for (such as roads being adjusted or made as new buildings are placed). It's just an average game to be frank. There seems to be an effort to include as much as possible in regards to [b]gameplay[/b] mechanics such as trade, colonist migration, new landing locations, satellite launches, and orbital weather modifications, but again, it's a simple point and click sort of deal. The game stops to show any event animations to signify to the player something happened, but again - again, doesn't feel like much is happening. The game has a decent [b]gameplay[/b] loop, but I can certainly see some players being like "OK - there is not much going on here for me". My suggestion even with a thumbs up review is to do your homework accordingly and see if this is something that would interest you.  [h1]RATING: 7.35/10[/h1] [table] [tr]       [td]Gameplay[/td]       [td]C+[/td] [/tr] [tr]       [td]Story / Campaign[/td]       [td]C+[/td] [/tr] [tr]       [td]Visuals / User Interface[/td]       [td]C+[/td] [/tr] [tr]       [td]Sounds / Music[/td]       [td]C+[/td] [/tr] [tr]       [td]Replay-ability[/td]       [td]C+[/td] [/tr] [tr]       [td]Overall [/td]       [td]C+[/td] [/tr] [/table]

Per Aspera is a slog that attempts to insert a cliche story through painfully bad dialogue that is poorly delivered. The game lacks motivating progression and meaningful strategy. One of the selling points was how people boasted of the story in the game. I found it to be a weak copy of a slew of games that came out with the exact same premise. This is only made worse, being an overplayed cliche story, by the very poorly written dialogue and even worse delivery. I eventually downloaded a mod from the workshop that removed much of the dialogue, as it was putting me on the edge of quitting the game. The layout and design of the game is interesting at first glance, but lacks any meaningful reasoning or logic. There is an attempt to insert variety by the addition of research locations, but they tend to be more shallow and meaningless than is worth the effort. By the end, I only finished it to get the achievement. The only positive that I have about the game is also the biggest setback. The concept of having a colony along with the terraforming is a nice idea, but they end up being just another number and an introduction to one of the most insufferable voice actors in the game. A psychiatrist who dreamed of terraforming Mars and leading the mission for the colonist. Really? HR is leading the way for future according to Per Aspera. In all, Per Aspera is a game that lacks imagination, execution, and especially lacks any concept of what human nature or humanity is. I do not recommend this game at all.

Per Aspera - прекрасная игра. Ну правда. Где еще вы сможете отыгрывать роль ИИ, созданного с комплексной целью - сделать Марс пригодным для жизни человека? Здесь присутствует множество интересных механик, как развития инфраструктуры, так и терраформирования планеты. Есть интригующий сюжет, имеется так-же дух исследования. В игре, для меня, замечательно всё, кроме, разве что, явного преуменьшения роли колонизации планеты всех, кто не пиндoc. Тут разработчики, западному потребителю, пoдлизали, конечно, знатно. Но это проявляется, в основном, в исследовании разбросанных по планете баз и прочей хай-тек утвари. И если вас этот факт не особо заботит, а идея колонизации манит, и вы обожаете игры подобной тематики, то не проходите мимо, ибо Per Aspera способна подарить вам десятки часов залипательного геймплея.

While more mixed than a hard no, I can't find myself saying yes or really even wanting to continue the game. There is a great framework here, and it's exciting at the start, but the game just lacks an engaging gameplay loop. It is very hands-off so while you can place buildings, that's all you can do. There is no micro for workers, districts, or factory chains. You can micro storage but with everything else so hands off what's the point? Because of this, the game boils down to finding resource nodes, placing mines, and just letting the AI move stuff when it feels like it. The game really just lacks any meaningful choices for you in building. The story is serviceable but by stage 3 it pretty much just stopped. At this point I honestly can't tell if my game is bugged or just there is not enough content here, because no one bothers to talk to me anymore. There needs to be more buildings instead of placing the same ~10 buildings down 1,000 times. For the lack of general content, I then question why this game has combat? When you played the game, you'd hardly know because it comes up ~5 hours in, and after that one fight it has literally (in all senses of the word) never come up since. It'd be like in Tropicio if there was just literally no enemies but the game asks you to build units? Why have this entire tree dedicated to something that is barely in the game at all, let alone one that isn't even deep to begin with? Ultimately I realized most of the times I played felt hollow and I only ever got on in hopes that, "this is where it gets good." So sure, it's not a bad game by any means but compared to the other city/world/kingdom builders out there, Per Aspera just falls short of having enough content and QoL features to keep me going. If you look at the game and don't mind a simple gameplay, then you'll probably have a fun time, but if you're looking for an engaging game I'd have to say look towards a different city builder.

While I've enjoyed my time playing the early stages of this game, I found way too many frustrating setbacks that stacked up so high that it makes me hesitate to boot it up again. [h1]General Overview[/h1] The game is very much city-builder-lite. You're managing the gathering of resources, colonists for the research trees, and long-term goals to eventually terraform Mars. You don't have any sort of budget to keep in mind (aside from building/unit limits) so the most consideration you will have in placing buildings is putting them close enough to other buildings and having the electrical bandwidth to power them all. As someone who's not the best at this kind of genre, this is nice. It's really satisfying seeing my bases expand and potentially build new ones on other parts of the planet. The story itself has been pretty compelling as well! Not to dive into any spoilers but it's a story around an AI (You) building the necessary tools to aid in the mission of terraforming mars and diving into its many mysteries while the AI contemplates their own existence and purpose. Very existential stuff. All voice acted too with great performances which is a plus. [h2]My biggest problem: The UI[/h2] My problems arise when you get to a big enough base that keeping track of everything becomes nearly impossible both visually and technically. Hope you have good eyesight, because once your base is big enough, good luck looking for anything specific because the icons representing buildings and what resource they generate when zoomed out are SO TINY that I spent most of my time [i]SQUINTING[/i] at the screen to find the specific resource mines I want to place new factories around or buildings I want to shut off to save power. Some icons are far too similar to each other, how am I supposed to tell the difference between a solar farm and a battery? I can't, they both have the lightning symbol and a background that blends in with the white outlining of icons and roads. Sure I can click a resource from the bottom row to highlight factories and mines that produce/use them, but all that does is create a two thin white lines around those buildings [u]WHICH YOU CAN'T SEE BECAUSE EVERYTHING BLENDS INTO EACH OTHER.[/u] The problem gets exacerbated when you have more than one base. That bottom row of resources also gives you graphs that show you the rise and fall of productivity for each item on a global scale. Overall, this is great for micromanaging what factories and resources to focus on! Number go up and green is good and all that. This immediately falls apart the second you build a second base. Want to know if that second base is being self sufficient? Nope, when you select that bases "district" menu, all you get are flat numbers of its inventory, no graphs. That district has 0 computer chips in its inventory? could that be because they're all being used too quickly to notice? or are they not being produced at all because of some other problem (such as power, another thing that is hard to spot because of its tiny icon over the building)? who knows! Does my second district generate enough food/water to support their colonists long term? Maybe! the first district is inflating the numbers of my global scale that I don't know if district 2 is on the rise or decline. Overall, I see some glaring flaws in this games UI design that it feels too much of a chore to power through to the later stages where I will need to rely on the information the UI gives me to properly manage everything rather than eyeballing it. [h2]Managing your hive swarms are frustratingly bad[/h2] Dealing with combat and my swarms are the bane of my existence, its like herding cats. For one, it's so annoying switching between swarms when I have to right-click MULTIPLE TIMES before I can select another swarm less I accidentally redirect the course of the currently selected swarm to merge with the other. I hate that as soon as a swarm fully wipes out an enemy swarm, it returns back to base immediately on its own with no regard of other enemies around them. I have to keep a close eye at every encounter to make sure no one leaves the fight early, leaving my buildings wide open for the slow-ass towers. It's also annoying not being able to assign groups of swarms to readily intercept any oncoming swarms, it all needs to be done individually. This then circles back to the frustration that is selecting and deselecting units. It's also frustrating that merged swarms don't split up when returning to base. Each Hive tower holds 100 at the start, but never readjusts themselves when a swarm returns with more than that. Leaving some towers understaffed and underprepared for the next invasion due to the swarm unit limits. This then leaves to more annoying busywork readjusting them yourself. Overall, I feel that this game should have just left out combat all together and focused on its base-building aspects and simulation. It all feels like an afterthought.

这两天玩《Per Aspera》还挺感动的。剧情上其实主角就是一个AI。带一些物资和一个无人机去开拓火星了。然后地球上分成两个阵营，你懂得，一直在打。 AI是西方阵营的。 玩到火星已经有大气和户外植物的时候。AI自己这边儿阵营找了一堆理由要AI给关了。 然后东方阵营的人给了AI破解程序。接着就是说是准备防御地球的阵营过来报复。所有火星的人，团结起来。 我在这个节点前就倾尽资源造了6台太空电梯。决定火星独立之后，全力造轨道防御系统。直接完成了火星独立！ 10/10满分！ 去他妈的政治！ 人类的政治就是放屁，在自己规律面前不值一提

1:作为建设经营游戏,本游戏需要频繁的拆除重建,但没有针对这方面的设计优化 2:作为模拟游戏,科技树过于拍脑袋,导致频繁开最高速挂机 3:AI比较智障,由于产业链中每一步都需要工程车进行操作,导致产业链完全是混沌的,作为生产游戏,我居然无法保证产品的稳定产出,导致我只能盲目扩张各级产能,导致游戏进度极慢 4:过于花费时间,无论是道路升级还是科技树,还是产业链体系,通通在拖时间,实际大部分时间都在开16被速度挂机 5:总结可玩性不足,建议此类游戏爱好者八折起步时入手,仅一次通关产品