All the while you’ll be upgrading your attributes, from your skills with architecture and computing to food and agriculture and engineering. Gameplay is a case of driving your machine to one point, before collecting an item or doing some drilling and then heading off somewhere else. The game looks pretty good visually – though not quite as good as this screen when in motion. You can then upgrade your space suit to enable you to carry more resources out and about with you, so this is a game about constantly improving your capabilities of longer periods of exploration. The ultimate goal of the game is to upgrade and expand your base, adding in new features like a water collector to ensure your continued survival and a Hydroponics Lab to grow your own food.
Sadly, that’s a feeling which doesn’t hold out for long in JCB Pioneer: Mars. Taking one giant step for man will never not evoke feelings of wonder. Space exploration has long been at the forefront of plots in both films and games.
