Ack-ack-ack! Sorry, something in my throat. What I meant to say is, Mars Attracts is a newly-announced theme park sim set in the universe of Mars Attacks. The Martians have been capturing humans to take up to their dusty world to plonk onto a custom-built amusement park, where people are themselves the amusements – for good and ill. Think Planet Coaster, Rollercoaster Tycoon, or Jurassic Park Evolution, but in space, with lashings of human-centric cruelty.
Announced during the Future Games Show during Gamescom, Mars Attracts lets you play as the Martians who, unlike the aliens in games like Destroy All Humans, are looking to have a bit of fun with homo sapiens. This management game has you creating your own theme park, with you building customizable habitats for your captives so your customers can come and gawk at the hairless apes.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Mars Attacks title without some degree of cruelty involved and there’s plenty on show here. You can just study humans in recreated natural environments, or you can subject them to horrifying experiments. If you want to play as a benevolent Martian CEO then you can make sure your prisoners are happy in enclosures that mimic their homes from the time periods you’ve stolen them from. If you want to indulge in a bit of scientific research, however, you can employ your devious side to push your human charges to their limits – and then further.
There’s risk and reward, however, as just like in games like Jurassic World Evolution you can run the risk of your inhabitants getting loose. No visitor to a theme park wants to see a Roman or an astronaut breaking free of their habitats, running amok, causing chaos and upsetting your paying punters.
If this all sounds like your thing, Mars Attracts is coming to early access in 2025. You can head over to Steam right now to add it to your wishlist.
Or should you prefer something else, our guides to the best simulation games and the best space games will keep you occupied for a long time to come.
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