Mars or Die! has undergone a major overhaul, releasing today
34BigThings are excited to announce that their game Mars or Die! has undergone a major overhaul, releasing today. New Alien units, defensive structures, an entire new Campaign, revised game mechanics and a new Hardcore game mode are some of the features involved in this major update which, 34BigThings promises, will make the game better in every way.
“This patch upgrades and expands all the work we have done on Mars or Die!” says Valerio Di Donato, CEO of 34BigThings. “We were all downhearted with the project’s negative reception. The team morale was very low, but we managed to turn this into positive energy, and went back to the drawing board to conceive new ways to improve Mars or Die!, and I think we have succeeded”.
“Our first goal was to improve the strategic depth of the product” continues Giuseppe Enrico Franchi, Game Designer. “We streamlined some clunky mechanics such as building and upgrading, introduced new elements such as single-turret upgrades, new long-range and short-range defensive options, a new underground ambient, and of course, tons of bigger and badder enemies! We are satisfied with the end result and we hope players will be too”.
Mars or Die! is currently available for purchase on Steam. Here you can read the complete breakdown of all the new features:https://steamcommunity.com/games/859440/announcements/detail/2617045972333334578
The Supreme Leader was downhearted with the reception of its propaganda. After eating an unhealthy dose of chocolate, he called for a Great Warfare Maneuver to shake things up. After many fervent weeks of work, we are now ready to present the New Great Plan for conquering Mars! Of course, we will need to re-establish communications with our Explorers first…
NEW DEFENSIVE STRUCTURE: BARRICADE
To stop aliens from chewing on your defences, you’ve got to… give them something else to chew on first! These Titanium barricades with an integrated Energy Field can withstand terrifying amounts of punishment, allowing your turrets do their job.
NEW DEFENSIVE STRUCTURE: MORTAR TURRET
Get rid of those pesky swarms from a distance! The Mortar Turret drops shells dealing AoE damage. Its long range also allows to counter aliens shooting from afar. A must-have gadget for every interplanetary army!
NEW DEFENSIVE STRUCTURE: STUN TURRET
When it comes to hand-to-hand combat, every second counts. This revolutionary installation fires a strong audiovisual shockwave that overloads alien senses, dealing moderate area damage but especially stunning them for a few precious moments.
UPGRADEABLE DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES
A new Structures Upgrade System allows you to spend your Resources to strengthen your Turrets individually, up to level 10! From today, we won’t depend on crate-box supplies only!
NEW ALIEN: BOMBER
These strange, short creatures look like they just left Thanksgiving dinner. Problem is, they are basically mobile buckets of explosive chemicals. And, they run like stink!
NEW ALIEN: SNIPER
An extremely dangerous specimen shooting extremely long-range bullets with precision. Good Mortars can take care of them: otherwise, our Explorers will need to take them on personally!
NEW ALIEN: JETPACK GRUNT
These obnoxious creatures can drop anywhere on the battlefield. Usually, they tend to drop behind our defence lines. This is most unfortunate, especially because they are aggressive and tough!
NEW CAMPAIGN: LIBERATION. BIGGER AND BADDER!
There is a strange… mutation going on: we identified 4 new alien evolutions, considerably stronger and faster than the previous one. This new 9-missions Campaign will take you to the deep recesses of the Red Planet, to find out what is the source of this formidable threat. We will need every bit of our new military technology to survive the Infection!
NEW GAME MODE: HARDCORE
In case you need an even harder challenge, both the Conqvest and Liberation campaign can be played at Hardcore difficulty.
NEW RESOURCES MANAGEMENT: INFINITE CRYSTALS
Thanks to a more efficient extraction process, Crystal pools can be mined for longer. Also, once a pool is depleted, it will continue to grant bits and pieces of Crystals indefinitely: the income will be much lower, but this will grant more time to transfer your base to a more Hawaiian location.
We also found out that Aliens love Crystals as snacks, so they always carry some. Meaning, we get free Resources for each Alien we KO!
UPGRADE CRATE BOXES
They can now be researched on the spot. Just make sure a Research Center is up and running, find a Crate and pick it up. It will be automatically transferred to your base and applied!
BOOST-TURN
We realigned and optimized propellers, so Explorers can now turn while Boosting. Exploring Mars is a breeze! Wheeeeeee!
SCOUT BEAN SHIELDS OVERHAUL
Bean’s Shield is no longer damaged by alien projectiles. Bean can also bash enemies by boosting onto them while Shields are up. Show off your skills!
UI REVIEW
The last placed structure is automatically selected on reopening the Build Menu, making it faster to build a line of defence..
A better alignment between crosshair and bullets makes shooting smoother.
Enemy Health UI is now visible (can be turned off).
Remaining wave duration time is now displayed.
Minimap review: it now displays only Crate Boxes in proximity.
AI REVIEW
Companion automatically tries to reach an O2 tank when oxygen is low.
Companion always comes when called (removed minimum radius for the Follow command).
GAME CONTENT REVIEW
Reviewed classic campaign structure, duration and goals to adapt for new content.
Reviewed and recalibrated Endless mode difficulty to adapt for new content.
If you are *stil*l reading, phew! That was a lot to cover. We have read some legitimate, constructive criticism after launching the game and worked hard to give you a deeper experience, more content, more strategic variety and challenges.
There is much more we would have loved to do (but couldn’t, due to time constraints) but for now do let us know what you appreciate, what still needs work, and what you’d love to see in the game.
Mars, or Die!
