If you catch us 101 most anticipated games list last weekend, you’ll know that 2023 is the year every developer and their dog will go to space. The next 12 months will be an iconic year for interstellar adventures, and kicking us off in less than four weeks on February 2 is KeokeN Interactive’s Give us Mars. As I learned last year, Deliver Us Mars looks like it will be quite a step up from its prequel, Give us the mooneven its brain, Pulse racing puzzle solverand its change from a silent, first-person protagonist to a fully-voiced, third-person heroine, Kathy Johanson – a fact that game director and co-creator Koen Deetman told me that was done a long time ago.
“You have to remember that Deliver Us The Moon is our debut in the gaming industry,” he told me. “We envisioned many ways to make this the best game of all time, but to some extent you’re bound by reality and what you can do within your budget. book and time, so some of these decisions were made out of necessity, which is why the story and its scale have grown dramatically with Deliver Us Mars – we had the opportunity to spend more time and attention to that aspect of the game.”
As you may recall, Deliver Us The Moon sees you stepping into the shoes of a lone astronaut tasked with getting the moon’s power relays back to work to save the Earth from a crisis. There is an energy crisis going on. Set in the year 2059 when our home planet is nothing more than the husk of its former self, Deliver Us The Moon is a story about climate change as well as exploring the depths of a lost lunar colony. its fallow. Now, Deliver Us Mars is continuing that story ten years later, placing you in the space shoes of Kathy Johanson, the daughter of one of the former colonists on the moon and now a member of a growing team. Try to save the Earth once again from the brink of destruction. Only this time, its salvation lies on the Red Planet, with the lost Ark technology.
When I asked Deetman how it felt to be back in the world of Deliver Us again, he said, “Honestly, we’re really happy to leave all the gloom behind! As much as I love my own celestial body, it’s a dead rock. So the possibility of adding ‘color’ to the palette is a welcome change.”
He also told me that KeokeN Interactive had always had the intention of making a sequel: “From the moment we founded the studio and the franchise, we’ve never seen [Deliver Us The Moon] as a single-player game – when it comes to the story of the series or when it comes to our development as developers. but for us, it represents a commitment to our players. The hope, too, is that every time you add a chapter to that story, you’ll get more players on the ride. That’s part of the reason Deliver Us Mars can be enjoyed as a standalone game as well as a sequel.”
If you haven’t caught up with the events of Moon yet, Deetman revealed that they will have “an interesting way” to recap the events of the first game for context, but emphasized that Deliver Us Mars is the last. together talk about a variety of “difficult topics,” including climate change, the environment, and human existence as a species. This time, however, they will explore these themes through a more “personal lens”, focusing on Kathy and her quest to find her missing father – something that is immediately apparent when we first saw Deliver Us Mars at Gamescom last year.
This shift in perspective is also what prompted the game’s biggest technical shift: the move from first-person to third-person. “This game is about a family and their struggles during a dangerous time for humanity,” Deetman said. “As such, it makes much more sense to give players a fully-formed, talking protagonist like Kathy, not to mention the other characters around her.” So the team wanted to put Kathy first and center, with Deetman saying they wanted to treat her “like they were the Ferrari in our game.”
“We love Kathy’s character design, so we wanted players to be able to see her throughout the story whenever possible,” he said. “However, we know first-person perspective also allows you to experience something more intimate and up-close. So we’ve moved that to third-person perspective in this game.” quotes how Mars’ camera moves closer or farther away from Kathy depending on what she’s doing. For example, exploring the area up close will see the camera tighten “so the player feels like they’re looking around with her,” he says, while the platform sections will zoom out so you can keep an eye on them. Kathy’s feet and where she lands – something I considered hugely important when I scaled the side of the rickety spaceships in my preview build late last year.
Speaking of Kathy’s athletic climbing abilities, I asked Deetman if their decision to adopt a more physical approach to Kathy’s movements was a direct response to the natural climbing pattern. Safe, outstanding action that we often see in third-person action games like this. Compared to your Tomb Raiders and Uncharteds, I find moving Kathy’s arms one by one and squeezing the right and left trigger buttons to sink in and hold her axes in place all the more exhilarating at the moment. this, and Deetman says that kind of response is exactly what the team is aiming for in development:
“Like its predecessor, [Deliver Us Mars] doesn’t use any easy conflict/conflict resolution mechanics like shooting 60 enemies for fun or evoking natural pressure (not that we don’t like those games either!), “he he said.” that’s not only related to the story of exploring a relatively unknown environment like Mars, but it’s also something that gets you excited as a player and makes the stakes feel very high. Getting Kathy to hang from the side of a cliff with unstoppable pressure is a great way to do it. Documentary ‘Free‘ really sparks the idea of that danger – and the feeling that this will be your last ride if you let go.”
I’ll most likely be doing that ride on my desktop by launch time, as I doubt I’ll be able to play it on my Steam Deck will make it my last if I try to take Kathy’s hike with me on the go. The large size of Valve’s mobile PC is becoming increasingly difficult to match my small arm span when it comes to fast-paced action-adventure games, but for those with larger digits, there is a good news. Deetman told me they are indeed aiming to verify the game’s Steam Deck at launch.
“Steam floors are a nifty piece of hardware,” he says. “Valve is putting a lot of effort into making sure it’s accessible to players, which is amazing. The power of the Deck itself is pretty phenomenal, as are the games being increasingly tailored for that. However, you have to make sure that you take into account what is needed to make the game work. It’s unique in many ways – but a very enjoyable way to experience it. a game like Deliver Us Mars.”
I’m sure Deliver Us Mars won’t be the only one space game hoping to land in that coveted ‘Verified’ area this year, and when I asked Deetman why so many developers are aiming for the stars in 2023, he said that “with great concern” With the growing interest in space travel, the trend towards more science fiction than games is inevitable.”
He added that “we’re in an era where traveling to Mars is something that interested people spend a lot of time thinking about”, though for him and his brother (also co-founder of KeokeN) Paul, it was their grandfather’s career as a telescope builder that truly rekindled their own love of the stars and outer space.
In a sense, it’s the shared familial love of the great unknown that Deetman hopes will set Deliver Us Mars apart from its interstellar rivals. “There’s a lot of drama and spectacle waiting for players as they leave Earth and journey to Mars,” he said. “You get the extraordinary audiovisual experience of being on a planet you’re not familiar with. But at the same time, this story of a family and climate change is very special to our game and that’s it. It’s something we’re really proud of. It’s what sets us apart and hopefully it will leave a meaningful mark in the hearts of players.”
Deliver Us Mars will launch on February 2nd and will be available from Steam and Epic game store for £25/€30/$30.
