Mars: War Logs is a sci-fi RPG that takes place on Mars where almost a century ago the planet was colonized by humans in hope of creating a new Earth. Five decades ago, Mars shifted its orbit and moved closer to the sun changing its atmosphere and the planet became radioactive. As a result, humans and animals started to mutate. The next years, a war began upon the most important resource on the planet, water.
You will play as Roy Temperance who has escaped from prison with the help of Innocence Smith. Out of the prison you must face different factions and fight various creatures.
Branching Story
You will also encounter various characters that will help you progressing through the game. The choices you make in the game will affect your relations with these characters, such as accepting or decline side quests, various conversation decisions or starting a fight or getting into one.
Scavenging & Resources
After the Turmoil, technology was lost or destroyed and you must rely on looting dead bodies, recycling metal, leather or rare materials to survive. The most important resource on the planet is water, over which two major factions are battling: Aurora and Abundance.
Crafting
You may find in the environment weapons and armors, which through the crafting menu can be used along with other required elements, found by scavenging, to upgrade your items or create new ones. You can also create other items from scratch, such as ammo or injections.
Combat
Facing an enemy is inevitable, and for that a good strategy could be the difference between life and death. You can get help from your friends, each with unique skills.
Your health bar, indicated in the upper left, can be improved by upgrading your items and skills. You also have a limited mana pool, indicated by the bar by your health, to use your abilities, which regenerates during over time.
The confrontation with your enemy is a little hard and requires a good strategy to be developed before you engage into a fight. The full attack with your weapon spamming auto attack won't do the trick and for that you will have to combine block, parry, counterattack, auto attack break attack or skills. The combat is very complex for a real time sci-fi game so watch your back and think twice before you make a move.
Leveling Up
Leveling up requires a certain amount of experience, gained by killing enemies. Once you gain a level, Roy will receive two Skill Points, two Character Feats points and you can chose between upgrading Stamina, Health or Magic.
The two Skill Points can be used to upgrade or gain new abilities in the skill tree menu. You can invest points in any branch: Warrior, Renegade or Technomancer. Each skill can be researched one time and upgraded twice. To do this, hover the mouse over any ability and click it to see the details then click again to invest the point.
- Renegade - Focuses on stealth and effectiveness of potions and gun damage.
- Warrior - Focuses on health, evasion, armor, parry from all sides, break guard, etc.
- Technomancer - Focuses on damage output through mana abilites.
Character Feats
Feats are upgrades for your character. You can unlock them by defeating enemies, looting opponents and crafting. These upgrades can be bought by using feats skills to boost experience gain, chances of finding loot on corpses or obtain new crafting recipes.
