Create your own Mars colony

If you like simulation or strategy games and you’re interested in space science and sci-fi, then Surviving Mars is for you. The objective is to make the Red Planet hospitable for humanity by setting up your own colony and helping it flourish.

As the colony leader it is your job to choose a space agency to provide resources and get private funding to take you to Mars where you will scout the perfect location. Then on to building some retrofuturistic-looking space domes for your people and keeping them alive with adequate supplies of food and oxygen.

Not unlike The Sims franchise, this game is part city building and part managing individual “sims” (the simulated people). Two brand new expansion packs make it even better: Green Planet and Project Laika introduce the ability to add both vegetation (and therefore water and breathable air) and animals (cows, pigs and chickens, oh my).

Available on PC, Xbox 1 and PS4, the least expensive option at €34.99 is the Surviving Mars: Season Pass. This gives you the basic game while the pass allows you to add two full expansions (Green Planet and Project Laika) and two content packs, which are mostly just cosmetic add-ons and not worth purchasing separately.