Colony-building sim Surviving Mars is free on Epic, again
With gleaming domes and, of course, potatoes
You could live the life of a squillionaire by banging on about NFTs and posting bad memes, but you might find it less loathsome to quietly try establishing your own Martian colony with a free copy of Surviving Mars from the Epic Games Store. The colony-building management game was free on Epic way back in 2019 but if you missed it then, hey, here it is again. It's still a good game, and free is still a good price.
While our Surviving Mars review at launch in March 2018 was a bit lukewarm, mere months later Alec Meer was impressed by how it felt after a few patches. He said, "Subtle changes have massively refreshed Surviving Mars - with the game feeling this much better after three months, I'm so excited to see what it's like after a year."
We've since called it one of the best management games and the best building games.
You can grab Surviving Mars free to keep for Windows and Mac from the Epic Games Store until Thursday the 18th (at... 3pm? 5pm? My brain wonks out with the USA and UK switching to summer time on different dates). Sadly the giveaway doesn't include a free expansion like it did the first time, though those are on sale.
Epic's next freebie after this will be The Fall, a side-scrolling sci-fi shoot-o-puzzler where we play as the emergency AI controlling a combat suit with an unconcious human inside. In other freebie news, Metro 2033 is free on Steam right now (original, not Redux).
Publishers Paradox Interactive have continued the 'Surviving The...' series with the post-apocalyptic Surviving The Aftermath, though this isn't made by Mars devs Haemimont Games. Haven't heard from Haemimont in a while. Wonder what they're up to.