Mars 2120

Developer: QUByte Interactive
Publisher: QUByte Interactive
Platforms: Windows (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox Series X
Release Date: 1 August 2024
Price: $19.99 USD / $29.50 AUD – Available Here

Overview

The Brazilian developer Qubytes recently released the action-adventure game Mars 2120. It’s a metroidvania that delivers much of what is expected of a game in this niche, like cool power-ups, numerous weapon and mobility upgrades, a lot of backtracking, and surprisingly, even beat ’em up mechanics.

In a simplistic attempt to classify metroidvania enthusiasts, I’d say there are players who consume anything and everything related to the niche, and those who seek a title that is cohesive in its production, even if it doesn’t bring anything new. In my particular case, I’m open to almost any game that doesn’t include the souls-like tag. Jokes aside, I believe Mars 2120 has the potential to please a good portion of fans and might even attract a casual audience.

Story

In the 22nd century, mankind finally makes its mark on Mars, establishing the first ever human colony on the planet. It doesn’t take long for things to go south, though. To address the situation, Sergeant Anna Charlotte is sent to investigate. Armed to the teeth, Charlotte must explore the colony and its various biomes to find the answers she seeks.

To say that the story in Mars 2120 is minimalistic would be a huge understatement. The game also doesn’t try to show more and tell less. In fact, there’s almost nothing to work with here in terms of story-telling, save for some brief audio logs mentioning aliens and failed experiments. Charlotte is the token strong woman with a cold expression. As they say, “silence is golden,” and I’ll take this silence if it means avoiding redundant dialogues and cheesy cutscenes.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Mars 2120 leans more on the Metroid side of things. The game combines various elements found in action-adventure titles across different sub-genres. That includes puzzles such as activating power switches, thereby unlocking previously inaccessible paths, or getting the right weapon upgrade to open specific doors. This makes exploration dependent on constant back and forth through areas. In fact, the focus on exploration is the game’s strongest point, encouraging players to want to see what lies ahead. Thankfully, the controls are responsive and varied, with a range of different commands available. Players can move quickly right from the start. It also doesn’t take long to find upgrades that allow Charlotte to zip through the air. Despite that, the platforming isn’t as precise as I’d have liked when in tighter spaces; often, the camera doesn’t keep up with the action, forcing the player to slow down a bit.

Your arsenal includes double jumps, punches, kicks, and an omnidirectional rifle. There are also special moves that, much like in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, need to be discovered by the player through experimentation. Additionally, there are plenty of elemental power-ups for Charlotte’s firearms and new moves that can be found in key locations. Combat can be fun, but it takes a bit of time to get used to the overall jankiness of close-quarter battles.

Enemies have an extremely repetitive and simple design, often being just color swaps with some variation in attacks. The difficulty is generally low. It’s often more advantageous to engage in melee combat and rain down punches and kicks on enemies than to engage from a distance. That said, many other ways to engage enemies are available later; freezing and shocking enemies as you change weapons on the fly feels rewarding. The bosses are large, as expected, but their design isn’t particularly impressive; their attack patterns are predictable at first, and they fall quickly. However, the increasing difficulty in this aspect is somewhat stimulating. Some set pieces can catch unsuspecting players off-guard, resulting in an untimely death. However, that isn’t enough to raise the tension as there’s always a convenient checkpoint nearby. Mars 2120 respects your time, perhaps too much. That said, there’s an extra menu with difficulty modifiers that can be enabled at any time. Having options is always good, but I did miss a predefined difficulty selector available at the beginning of the adventure.

Visuals

Visually, Mars 2120 is technically simple. Despite that, the art direction is solid, with some nice lighting and environmental effects. For the most part, the 2.5D graphics work well in synergy with the two-dimensional gameplay.

Audio

The soundtrack could use a lot of work. The compositions fail to impress and sound too much like low-budget cinematic triteness. Some bosses use chiptune arrangements that sound appropriate, but lack any real impact. Sound effects are good enough, but that’s all.

Overall

Mars 2120 offers a solid metroidvania experience with a focus on exploration, responsive controls and a variety of upgrades and combat options. However, the game falls short in certain areas, including its non-existent storytelling, lackluster and derivative enemy and boss designs, and a soundtrack that fails to keep up with the fast-paced action. 

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