Deliver Us Mars, we tried the demo of a fascinating space adventure
Deliver Us Mars
For many developers, publishing a game is like reaching the moon. KeokeN Interactive knows this well, since the genesis of his first project was eventful to say the least. Funded by a closed Kickstarter campaign for the broken headphones, Deliver Us the Moon was initially intended to be an episodic game, but a patchy launch and a lukewarm reception convinced the Dutch studio to get the project back on track and re-release it a year later. Among so many other games set in space, Deliver Us the Moon certainly did not leave its mark, but the result was enough to convince KeokeN to continue his space adventure by aiming even higher, farther.As the title suggests, Deliver Us Mars leaves the moon behind and takes off towards Mars, in an adventure that promises to be more ambitious in every aspect. At Gamescom 2022 we tried a demo of Deliver Us Mars, taking the first steps on the red planet and having a first taste of what are the greatest ambitions of this sequel.
Journey to Mars
Kathy Johanson, the protagonist of Deliver us Mars Set ten years after the events of Deliver Us the Moon, Deliver Us Mars reminds us that the Earth's hours are numbered. "What's happening in the world with climate change has already happened in our game," explains narrative director Raynor Arkenbout. "The Earth is now unlivable, floods are the order of the day and humanity has sent colonizing ships called ARKs to Mars, with the aim of finding an alternative or solution that can save the planet".In Deliver Us Mars you wear the suit of Kathy Johanson, an astronaut sent to Mars with the aim of recovering the ARK and, hopefully, the studies that could help revitalize the Earth. Despite the huge stakes, Deliver Us Mars is not just a space adventure that talks about great themes and civilizations in danger, but tells a more intimate story, starring a father and his daughter. Through the logs found on Mars and flashbacks from her past, you will discover what happened to Kathy's father, what is the relationship between the two and how they are linked by their love for astronomy and the stars.
To tell this story in the most engaging and cinematic way, KeokeN wanted to invest in making a game with the highest production values. The dialogues will be fully dubbed, the intermission scenes are made with actors in performance capture, while the faces of the protagonists are recreated in detail thanks to the use of photogrammetry. That Deliver Us Mars is a more ambitious game than the previous chapter is also clear when you find yourself wandering from one outpost to another, or stopping for a few moments to admire the planet.
A new climbing mechanic allows you to control the arms individually to pick off the rock walls to move from one side to the other: first one arm and then the other; the right and then the left. It is a slow and rather repetitive process, but it becomes almost Zen when done on a desolate planet like Mars. Later in the demo these climbs begin to get more complicated, requiring in some cases to drop and then fixate themselves on the wall again. Obviously, as in Deliver Us the Moon, we must be careful of the oxygen reserves, this time indicated not with a countdown but with small LEDs that flash and then disappear on Kathy's backpack.
One of the first puzzles of Deliver us Mars asks to aim a laser between two rooms As in the previous chapter, do not expect alien attacks or disasters to be foiled: the moments of exploration will alternate with various environmental puzzles, many of which will see Kathy activate switches and use the tools within the different plants. One of the recurring puzzles is reminiscent of the laser and projector games seen in Talos Principle, with the player having to correctly direct light beams and move objects to create obstacles or reflective surfaces. The demo ended with Kathy reaching for a means of transportation, and while we didn't have the opportunity to put it in motion, the game's trailer confirms that there will be times when it will be necessary to drive it to move to other areas of Mars.
Deliver Us Mars is a much more ambitious game than Deliver Us the Moon, both for staging and for the variety of game situations. From moments of driving to spectacular climbs, passing through environmental puzzles and cinematic cutscenes, the new game by KeokeN Interactive aims to tell a small and intimate story inserted within an adventure in space in where the future of humanity is decided. If a happy ending awaits us, for Kathy and the development team, we will know next February, when the game will be released on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
