System: Valve Index, HTC Vive & Oculus Rift
Price at Time Of Review: £10.99
Comfort Rating: Yellow
Genre: Interactive Experience
Input: Tracked Motion Controllers, Keyboard & Mouse
Best Playing Position: Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: 15+
VR Shop Score 1/100: 80
Description: Suit up for the first manned mission to Mars! MARS 2030 is a virtual reality simulation that gives players the opportunity to explore the mysterious red planet like never before. MARS 2030 centres on open-world exploration. Taking on the role of an astronaut, players traverse Mars and collect geological samples that uncover the planet’s past. Make discoveries across 40 square kilometres of open Martian terrain, accurately-mapped and -modelled using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE satellite data. Along this journey, players discover a world rich in history that, much like our own planet, once looked very different from what exists today. MARS 2030 can also be experienced in non-VR.
Review: If you have any interest in space exploration you should find Mars 2030 is right up your street. It is a short exploration game in which you get to walk and drive across the Red planet itself. While I did enjoy the walking part it is the driving that really made me love this experience. While very linear in nature it still felt amazing as you drive around looking out the window on the red surface below. Graphically this app ticks all the right boxes as does the sound effects and music. But it is the content amount that will put a lot of people off. I would suggest you try and pay half the £10.99 asking price and that way you get a good hour for your money and you won’t feel so short-changed. For any NASA fan, this is a must and one of the most polished space educational apps I have seen so far.
