Terraforming Mars stands as my favorite sci-fi deck-building game, and with good reason. The title combines robust board development mechanics, a sense of persistence, and a generous helping of lore and flavor to produce a compelling and highly replayable experience. It’s no wonder then that developer Stronghold Games’ attempt to introduce a campaign-driven legacy variant of the title has resulted in significant crowdfunding success, reaching the $2 million (£1.48 million) mark with almost a week left to go.
The basic box is available at a $109 (£81.01) pledge level, while the deluxe edition, complete with some gorgeous 3D tiles, will set you back $249 (£185.06).
Terraforming Mars: The Legacy of Mars represents the next step for what is, to my mind, one of the best board games of its type. The core gameplay loop is easy enough to understand. You play as a corporation with its own agenda on the red planet, intent not only on terraforming Mars itself, but on spreading its own political and economic influence. Legacy of Mars promises to take this a step further, offering you four missions over which to develop your corporation of choice into a bespoke capitalist powerhouse.
The first of these missions takes place on Mars and promises to be the most familiar to fans of the original board game. However, Legacy of Mars promises different environmental constraints as well as new risks and cards for each of the subsequent missions. The second mission will take place on the Icy moon of Ganymede in orbit around Jupiter, while missions three and four remain classified.
In a pleasing departure from other legacy titles, Legacy of Mars promises a replayable campaign, where you won’t have to tear up cards, write on boards, or change your playset in any irreversible way. Speaking as someone who had to quit a Pandemic: Legacy campaign halfway through back in the day, this represents a breath of fresh air.
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Source: Wargamer
