Update about a year after initial release:
The development team released several updates since the original release. The features in the free Green Mars DLC in particular are very welcome and are very much a step in the right direction. The terraforming and advanced agriculture part of the game is well thought out and breathes some much needed variety into the game, provided you can power through the early game to get there.

Which brings me back to the main problem with the game: the core base building portion still remains repetitive and fairly uninspiring. The number of basic and manufactured resource is rather small, with very limited interplay between the different production chains. Progressing through the tech tree makes your factories work faster, but that is the limit of advances you can gain from industrial technology. Colonist interaction is similar - colonists are still just numbers, only useful for turning food and water into "research points". Colonists have no other requirements - they seemingly have no needs other than food and drink, and are apparently just as happy living under a dome in the middle of a desolate landscape as they would be living on the shores of a Martian lake surrounded by lush forest.

Overall, I would like to upgrade my original review to a "neutral", primarily in light of the developers' recent efforts to improve the game and in anticipation of future content releases. Unfortunately, Steam does not give me that option and in my opinion this game does not yet warrant a positive recommendation.

Original review follows:

I tried to like it, but in the end, I just wasn't having fun. This game doesn't have the deep tech tree that makes 4X progression fun. It doesn't have the building interactions that make city-builders fun. It doesn't have the feature set that makes logistics games fun. It doesn't have the tradeoffs that make economic simulators fun.

The game goes into the experience of being an AI, but if you want to know what it's like to be an AI, there's plenty of other Sci-Fi out there that deals with the topic without all of the extra baggage.

In terms of the actual building, it mostly comes down to waiting. There isn't really a way to speed up resource collection (you can scan to find more resource patches, but that by itself is a long process that involves only waiting). The tech tree doesn't give you any cool new tech, instead opting for tech that merely gives your buildings +X production, but doesn't really change the overall approach. If you decide to make an outpost base, you'll find yourself repeating the same build over and over, since the resource progression locks you into a fairly rigid order that will have you repeating the same build order every time.

Update about a year after initial release: The development team released several updates since the original release. The features in the free Green Mars DLC in particular are very welcome and are very much a step in the right direction. The terraforming and advanced agriculture part of the game is well thought out and breathes some much needed variety into the game, provided you can power through the early game to get there. Which brings me back to the main problem with the game: the core base building portion still remains repetitive and fairly uninspiring. The number of basic and manufactured resource is rather small, with very limited interplay between the different production chains. Progressing through the tech tree makes your factories work faster, but that is the limit of advances you can gain from industrial technology. Colonist interaction is similar - colonists are still just numbers, only useful for turning food and water into "research points". Colonists have no other requirements - they seemingly have no needs other than food and drink, and are apparently just as happy living under a dome in the middle of a desolate landscape as they would be living on the shores of a Martian lake surrounded by lush forest. Overall, I would like to upgrade my original review to a "neutral", primarily in light of the developers' recent efforts to improve the game and in anticipation of future content releases. Unfortunately, Steam does not give me that option and in my opinion this game does not yet warrant a positive recommendation. Original review follows: I tried to like it, but in the end, I just wasn't having fun. This game doesn't have the deep tech tree that makes 4X progression fun. It doesn't have the building interactions that make city-builders fun. It doesn't have the feature set that makes logistics games fun. It doesn't have the tradeoffs that make economic simulators fun. The game goes into the experience of being an AI, but if you want to know what it's like to be an AI, there's plenty of other Sci-Fi out there that deals with the topic without all of the extra baggage. In terms of the actual building, it mostly comes down to waiting. There isn't really a way to speed up resource collection (you can scan to find more resource patches, but that by itself is a long process that involves only waiting). The tech tree doesn't give you any cool new tech, instead opting for tech that merely gives your buildings +X production, but doesn't really change the overall approach. If you decide to make an outpost base, you'll find yourself repeating the same build over and over, since the resource progression locks you into a fairly rigid order that will have you repeating the same build order every time.