Surviving Mars is free to play this weekend for all Xbox One gamers with an Xbox Live Gold subscription. The free play period has already begun and lasts until Monday.
As with previous Free Play Weekends, all gameplay done during this period will save to the cloud and be available should players choose to buy the game and play it in the future. Xbox Achievements are also unlockable while playing it for free.
Surviving Mars is a city-building title in the same vein as Sim City. Players are tasked with colonising the planet Mars and building a thriving city while dealing with city planning issues and the dangers of building on a dead planet.
Here’s the official list of game features:
- Building a sustainable colony in space: Building on a planet not fit for human life challenges you to build a smart, functional colony. Bad planning isn’t about traffic jams, it’s about survival of your colonists. You really don’t want rolling blackouts in a city constructed in a place without oxygen.
Individually simulated colonists: Each colonist is a unique individual with problems and strengths that influence the needs and behavior of the other colonists.- Things can get really interesting if your chief scientists develops alcoholism after one too many long nights in the lab.
- Futuristic Space Dome construction: Retro-futuristic super structures housing colonists, factories and commercial buildings with their own “neighborhood personality.” Create colonies that value science over everything else, while tired workers drink their pay away at a local bar, or attempt a utopia among the stars.
- Exploration of Mars’ secrets: Inspired by the classic sci-fi of Asimov and Clarke, Surviving Mars holds many secrets. During each playthrough players may encounter one of Mars’ individually crafted mysteries. Uncovering these secrets might bring your colony great fortune, or terrible ruin.
- Randomized research tree: Combine static and random research through exploration, which allows for a different experience for each journey through the game. Attain new scientific breakthroughs by exploring the uncharted terrain of Mars’s surface.
- Unique retro-futuristic aesthetic: A sleek, modern take on the bright futurism of the 1960s. A time of exploration and adventure.
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