And so we reach month 12 and game 12(ish) of my 2025 Year of Gaming challenge. This month, I decided to play another game that’s been sitting in my library for a while; something a little different from what I’ve played recently.

Reminder: For the Year of Gaming Challenge, I have to play one of the many games I’ve bought in Steam sales and never got around to playing. I must give it a fair chance and write up my thoughts by the end of each month. (That may not sound like much of a challenge, but as a father with a lot going on right now, it will be hard to fit in!)

The previous entry in the series, Deliver Us The Moon, has been on my wishlist for a while. It seems like the sort of thing that should be right up my street: an atmospheric, sci-fi, single-player story. So, I snapped up the sequel when it was available for free on the Epic Store and decided to give it a try.

Disclaimer: I haven’t played the previous game, so I cannot comment on how the two experiences compare or whether the stories are connected.

Deliver Us Mars

This game is an action-adventure game by KeokeN Interactive, released in February 2023. And it’s yet another example of the fact that “action-adventure” tells you absolutely nothing!

It’s what is sometimes referred to as a Ghost Train Ride: a linear story where you have to solve puzzles or do some climbing between each story scene. And, of course, you end up directing laser beams, because that’s a requirement for every puzzle game since Portal! Don’t think that’s me talking it down, though. I’d rather play a good, well-crafted linear story than a bland, open-ended one.

Story and Writing

You play as Kathy Johansen. As a kid, your father stole a spaceship and buggered off to Mars. Decades later, you’re part of a mission being sent to find out what happened. It’s hard to discuss much more about it without spoilers.

I will say that it felt oddly paced to me. There’s a fairly lengthy prologue; I beat the game in nine hours, and it was three hours before we arrived on Mars. But they also skip over bits of the story, including one moment where Kathy escapes and steals a rover, where it felt like content had been cut out.

A screenshot from Deliver Us Mars. The main character is using a pair of ice picks to climb across the wreckage of a spaceship while her spherical robot companion watches.

Also, as soon as we got to Mars, it became apparent that… Okay, I won’t spoil the actual details, but it was pretty obvious how it was going to play out.

That doesn’t make it bad, however. It’s a very well-written and voice-acted game! And it was an emotionally satisfying ending, even if I was left with some unanswered questions.

Gameplay

It’s a sometimes first-person, sometimes third-person game. There is a range of activities, which elevates it above a walking simulator, but they’re mostly contextual, i.e. you’ve got a cutting laser, but you can only use it when there is something nearby that you can cut. Occasionally, you’ll do a zero-g space walk. These sequences look amazing, but they suffer from the same issue as Hardspace Shipbreaker, in that you feel like a decapitated head, floating around in space without a body. There’s a pretty great launch sequence, where you have to press various buttons and levers to configure and fire up various systems to get the ship into space, and the transition from Earth to space is gorgeous. But you mostly explore abandoned bases, looking for a button to press to advance the story.

There also didn’t seem to be much reason to explore off the beaten track. I did look around, exploring areas that felt like they should have secrets in, but I learned pretty quickly that the game didn’t seem to want to reward me for it. There are some chat logs I didn’t find and objects I didn’t scan, but also a lot of empty dead ends.

Craft

This is where the game both shines and occasionally lets itself down. The levels and environments are gorgeous, as is the lighting. They’re really good at environmental storytelling, and as I said, the voice acting and writing are top-notch.

Most of the time, it is clear where you are supposed to go next, but there were other times when I had to check the objectives and see where the next marker was. But the occasional frustration or disorientation is preferable to so many games that lead you by the nose. There were also some sequences where they were clearly running out of time, money or coffee, where they resort to hanging yellow flags to indicate the path forward, a variation on the yellow paint that lazy level designers use in other games!

There are a few areas that are not so well polished. The beginning and ending of the story both feature fully-realised human characters. However, there are times when they do not look their best. Their movement can be a bit stiff, and the facial animation a bit lifeless. I’ve got a note here that says “they look like the humans from the first Toy Story”, which is possibly a bit harsh. For the rest of the game, the story is told mainly by expositional holograms, which are crudely modelled and animated. It’s clearly a budget constraint, and I don’t mind it for the most part (but what is weird is when the holograms show up in dream sequences!).

It has some rough edges, but not as many as you might expect from a small team and limited budget. Occasionally, your pet robot won’t follow you into an airlock and then pops into existence on the other side. There were a few times I got stuck on geometry or hit an invisible wall blocking a seemingly valid path. I also had an objective that I’d completed stuck on screen for a whole chapter. There were also some buttons in one of the launch sequences that I could highlight before I should have been able to press them. Finally, I noticed some textures popping in late. I’d much have preferred that they just loaded them all first; it’s not like the loading screens were long!

None of this was game-breaking, just a little immersion-breaking. And breaking immersion is a big deal in a game like this! But, despite some jank, I was absorbed enough to see the story through to the mostly satisfying ending.

Stats

• I got the game for free on the Epic Store. Its full price is £24.99, and I’d recommend it at that price, though it is currently on sale for £6.24 (75% off).
• I played it for just over 9 hours and have completed the story.
• There were a few collectables and logs that I didn’t find, but I currently don’t feel motivated to replay it to find them.

Final Thoughts

Deliver Us Mars was a good little game, which I enjoyed despite not having played its predecessor. I keep arguing that there should be more single-player, story-driven experiences in gaming, and so I’m glad to see that some companies are still making them instead of bloated, over-stuffed, always-online, open-world garbage.

It manages to feel both like sections of the story are missing and a little padded out at times. And it is clear that it was produced on a limited budget. But it was a mostly enjoyable experience, with a good, well-written story and interesting characters. The upcoming sequel, Deliver Us Home, is now on my Wishlist, and overall, it’s an easy recommendation for anyone wanting an absorbing, atmospheric sci-fi story.

And that brings me to the end of my Year of Gaming challenges. 12 games (sort of!) in 12 months, done! I’ve had mixed feelings about many of the games I’ve played, but on the whole, I’m glad I did it. I’ll write a full reflection post that will be out sometime over the next few weeks, possibly in the new year.