Terraforming Mars
Skip · Strategy · 2018
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 33, under the fair line, at $6.99.
- Length
- 1.9h
- Value
- $3.68/hr
- Reviews
- 71% positive
Watch this gameOne alert when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 4 GB of memory, 246 MB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS.
The taming of the Red Planet has begun! Corporations are competing to transform Mars into a habitable planet by spending vast resources and using innovative technology to raise temperature, create a breathable atmosphere, and make oceans of water.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
January 2026 is where it bottomed out, at $6.99. It has been discounted 51 times in the 8 years tracked here, typically at 50 percent off, with about 6 weeks between sales.
Value puts it in the top 41 percent of the games it competes with. It is pricier than 91 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 66 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactics ($2.99, scores 61) beats it on value, while it beats Tharsis ($14.99, scores 27).
Steam's global achievement data puts 61 percent of players at this game's ending achievement. The median game this site can measure sits at 15. 4 of the 800 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written April 2023 to September 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 46 percent of the 156 reviews written there were positive, against 71 percent overall, and those are 3 percent of everything written about it.
The main story runs 1.9 hours. Doing everything runs 34, 18 times as long.
It carries Valve's Deck Verified rating and runs 1.9 hours, about as long as a handheld game wants to be.
The drop-off
68% start to 61% finishSteam counts a larger share of its players at the ending achievement than it does for most games this site can measure. Steam global achievements
Players
374 players online when we last checked, on Sep 29, 15:47 UTC.
Player counts from the Steam Web API.
What players say
I like playing the actual board game with my kids but when they are not around and this is a great way to enjoy what is one of the best board games out there. The expansions are definitely additive. I mainly play on my iPad so I have a lot more hours on it than shown here.
I highly recommend this game for everyone who likes a bit more complex board games. Core idea of the game is to predict return on investment for each played card. First 2 games can feel very confusing but things start to make sense piece by piece. One game against 3 AI players takes about 1 hour. 8 / 10
The game is fine but the software is horrible, bugs upon bugs and one crash after another, embarassing.
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
Terraforming Mars scores 33/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Oct 2, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/800270/terraforming-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 Sep 17, price as of Oct 1.
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