Mars: War Logs

Lore & Background

The game is set on the colonized planet of Mars, a century after a great cataclysmic upheaval called the Turmoil. Having lost all communication with Earth, powerful water guilds fight over scarce water sources. Two of the most powerful guilds are Aurora and Abundance. The player takes on the role of Roy Temperance, an Auroran man with a mysterious past, who finds himself caught between powerful factions. Roy must survive the hostile nature of Mars and battle mutant creatures created by the planet's radioactive environment. The game begins at Camp 19, an Abundance POW camp, where Roy teams up with a young prisoner named Innocence. They escape aboard a prison train, and during the break Sean, an Abundance technomancer, is killed by the train crash or other circumstances—not directly by Roy. Technomancers are soldiers armed with pre-Turmoil technology that allows them to channel and discharge electricity. Equipping Sean's gloves, Roy reveals himself as a renegade technomancer.

Reader's Guide

Mars: War Logs received a mixed reception. The PC version scored 59 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 32 reviews, and 59.50% on GameRankings based on 20 reviews. The Xbox 360 version scored 61 out of 100 on Metacritic based on six reviews, and 61.67% on GameRankings based on six reviews. The PlayStation 3 version scored 60.00% on GameRankings based on two reviews. IGN praised the game as one that 'shoots for the moon,' attempting an epic in the style of Mass Effect or The Witcher 2 on a fraction of the budget, but criticized its clumsily handled storyline, silly 'virtue' names, stiff characters, and lack of focus. PC Gamer bemoaned the need to wrestle with an exuberant camera and criticized the UI design, 'stance' gimmick, uncanny valley facial animation, subtlety-free script, and rushed final act, yet recommended the game, calling it a budget title more entertaining than its complaints imply, with a B-movie charm and genuinely fond moments. The game was followed by The Technomancer in 2016.

Did You Know?

• In June 2013, a new English localization was released with rewritten game text and rerecorded dialog.
• The player can romance Mary in both story lines, while Aria (for the Aurora path) and Mona (for the Abundance path) are exclusive to whichever faction Roy joins in the latter half of the game.
• The game was followed by The Technomancer in 2016, a spiritual successor set in the same universe, not a direct sequel.