Waking Mars
Worth it · Action · 2012
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
WAIT.
Worth it today. The Winter Sale opens Dec 17, and it was discounted in 6 of its last 8 seasonal sales; 75% in the Winter Sale 2025.
Today
$9.99Worth it
Typical seasonal cut
$4.9950% offWorth it
- Cost per hour▼
- $1.49/hr
- Reviews▼
- 89% of 1,202
- Critics
- 79 players 10 higher
- Genre rank
- Top 3% Action
Holding it back: Cost per hour, Reviews
Why
Watch this gameOne alert at $4.99 or less.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 6.7h
- To 100%
- 8.7h 1.3x the story
- Finish
- 13% reach the ending
- Achievements
- 17
Price and sales
- Sales
- 56 on record
- Typical cut
- 80% off
- Steam low
- $0.99 November 2017
- Sale every
- 67d last October 2026
Players and genre
- Online
- 0 now
- Cheaper than
- 24% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 94% of its genre
Price and player charts
The drop-off
47% start to 13% finishA normal fall-off for a game this long. Steam global achievements
The value story
The value story
56 discounts in the 14 years on record, a median of 80 percent off across all of them, roughly 10 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended about 4 weeks ago.
Its score sits in the top 3 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 76 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 94 percent. Among the games that feel like it, The Swapper ($14.99, scores 70) beats it on value, while it beats Airscape - The Fall of Gravity ($4.99, scores 63).
More about Waking Mars
Critics scored it 79. Players sit 10 points higher at 89 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.
Steam's global achievement data puts about 13 percent of players at this game's ending achievement. On a 6.7-hour game, the hours short of it still count in its price per hour.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Next discount: likely in the Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4, at about $4.99 (50% off). Predictions like this were right 87% of the time when tested on 70 past weeks.
Last discount ended 31 days ago.
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
What players say
played this game growing up it was fun for what it is now excuse me while i tend to my phyta zoa like they are my babies which they are my beautiful, unapologeticly suicidal babies
1 more review
One of my all time favorites, so I had to replay it on a steam deck This is not your usual plant and crop farm game, this is building an ecosystem, that lives on its own, and your decisions may change the environment dramatically.
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
About the game
In 2097, life is discovered on Mars. When your mission of first contact becomes trapped by a cave-in, you must master the alien ecosystem to survive. Soon you stumble upon more than anyone expected, and with time running out, you will make a decision that determines the fate of a lost planet.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 512 MB of memory, OpenGL 3.0, or OpenGL 2.1 with framebuffer extensions, 399 MB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Cite this score
Waking Mars scores 68/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/227200/waking-marsReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Nov 1, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.