Mars: War Logs

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Mars: War Logs review
Christopher Coke

Review

Put it back in the oven

Dodge-based Combat


I am not a fan of the combat system in Mars: War Logs and that surprises me. The game mimics other games in the action RPG genre, most notably The Witcher 2. You can attack with weapons, use bombs and traps, dodge to avoid damage and outflank your enemies, and even throw sand in their eyes. Later, when the technomancy tree opens, you can cast electricity-based spells for a good zap and sizzle. Best of all, the game can be played with a controller or keyboard and mouse to equal effect. Sounds good, right?

The big problem is that the entire system feels stilted. Enemies hit far harder than you, so dodging is a necessity. The early game can feel difficult but the late game feels easy when skill trees have been plumbed through. Technomancy also feels less powerful than it should be and plays second fiddle to straight melee in sheer effectiveness. All of this is a result of a fundamental mismatch between skill tree and enemy scaling as the game progresses. War Logs does try to mix things up by adding in different enemy types but not nearly enough to see the game through.

NPC companions are also nigh on useless. Entering a battle with them usually plays out like this: you rush forward with them by your side, they act as a fleeting distraction, and then fall to the ground dead leaving you to clean up the mess. I don't recall a single case of a teammate killing an enemy I didn't attack first. That said, the technomancer ally is a capable combatant when she can manage to hit enemies instead of you.

Authentic World, Interrupted


If there is one thing Spiders succeeded at with War Logs, it was creating an interesting setting. Exploring Mars is fun, even if limited on its small maps. The world they created is borne out in the visuals and feels like an actual place. The graphics are not the most high-res but so what? Walking around, even from the outset, feels authentic. Sand crunches under your heels, panels hang from walls exposing arcs in the wiring, and up above a dust eddies from red cliffs.

Why the developers felt the need to constantly interrupt the experience is beyond me. Every few minutes, control is wrested away to trigger a cutscene. Even mundane actions, such as opening doors and climbing ledges, aren't immune to this, though their animations are thankfully short. Harvesting serum is much worse and quickly becomes grating. Each of these can be skipped but it begs the question of why include them in the first place. After the fifteenth time of watching the serum be sucked from a downed enemy, even the most steadfast serum-sucker just wants to move on. Before long, I was hitting the “skip” button before the option even appeared on screen.

Final Thoughts


Mars: War Logs aims high but ultimately falls short. Ironically, aiming so high highlights how short the game really falls. Ideas are introduced but not seen through. Combat is a mixed bag that slides from too difficult to too easy and character development only initially seems interesting. The real success of the game is in its setting. It feels authentic and kept me coming back for more, even when the poor writing begged me not to. Recommending the game is a challenge. As a follow-up to Of Orcs and Men, War Logs is a let down. If you only have $20, however, supporting a studio as intrepid as Spiders is worthy endeavor and there is fun to be had here. Still, caution is advised.

5.5

fun score

Pros

Interesting setting, good attempts at big budget concepts

Cons

Underdeveloped systems, juvenile story