Reshaping Mars

Reshaping Mars is a colony simulation game set on Mars, Earth's cold and barren neighbor. As the human base commander, you arrive to create a habitable planet for humanity, starting by gathering resources, storing food, accepting immigrants and building a better colony together, all while developing powerful technologies to reshape Mars and keeping the residents happy.

The game uses a full, real Mars terrain database, with geographical naming and altitude fields consistent with the actual planet, so you can scout for a good landing site, ideally somewhere high to catch strong wind and stay clear of the future Martian ocean, and study the real distribution of mineral resources. You then mine, build materials, run power grids and water pipes, construct houses, recruit people, build factories and conduct research. You can directly control engineering vehicles but not the inhabitants, who have free will, so you regulate behavior through wages, rents, market prices and policy, while still giving the workers a decent life. Matter is conserved, so digging a mine leaves a pit and filling a sea creates a path.

The ultimate goal is to terraform Mars: fill the atmosphere, modify the magnetic field, raise the temperature, rebuild the oceans and plant trees. The workload can feel daunting, but once the Martian ecological cycle takes hold, nature helps complete the transformation. New games offer different story backgrounds, from building a mechanical empire to a planet of the rich, each with different settings for a different journey.