It's just interesting enough, enjoyable enough, and polished enough to be worth playing.

Plus, it's cheap and only takes around 9-12 hours to beat.

This is one of those RPG's where:

-You have to roll non-stop and kite all over when fighting multiple enemies. (3-6 at a time)
-Your companion will ALWAYS die. Yes, in every fight it will drop to 1 or 2 enemies pretty quickly.
-So you really don't have any companion or help in this game, luckily it gets back up after combat ends.
-You can be fighting a mob of people or monsters and the guards/npc's will stand around and watch.
-It's primarily a melee game, you get scarce amounts of supplies to make some bullets, that go pretty quickly.
-The story is pretty straight forward, but a little boring. I didn't feel compelled to hunt out and do any side quests like you would normally do in most RPG's.
-The atmosphere is what initially lured me to the game, I like sci-fi RPG's. and on Mars? What a plus.
-Voice acting is awful, graphics aren't anywhere close to great, and the combat can be a little sketchy at times.

Regardless of the flaws, this game had me entertained enough to finish it. It's short, especially for an RPG, but if purchased on sale, I would recommend at least giving this game a try.
You will either hate it, or not mind it, but you won't love it. 6/10

Mars: War Logs is such a difficult game to review. On the one hand, I loved it with every fibre of my being, I was constantly reminded of when I was 11 or 12 years old playing KOTOR for the seventeeth time, the awe of playing a game that really, genuinely lived up to the promise of what a game could be, another world, a world that felt as real, or more so, than my own. The graphics are about on par with KOTOR, now that I think about it. But despite such promise, this game is not KOTOR. It is unpolished, hard to look at, and ends far too soon. The setting is probably the best part, a Mars torn by war over her most precious resource, water and split between humans and mutants used by the humans as slaves. We start the game a prisoner of war, and this prison camp is perhaps the most interesting area of the game, where we have to fight former allies and befriend former enemies in order to escape.

Shortly after escaping, we arrive in a generic sci-fi lite city, whose corridors are no less restricting than those of the prison camp we so recently extricated ourselves from. This reveals a major shortcoming of the game, which is the level design, made up of corridor after corridor of cookie cutter enemies, and the game never comes close to achieving the scale the story needed. Another problem affecting the game is the voice acting, which though it has supposedly been upgraded from its launch state, is still in a dearly sore state, with voice actor's deliveries ranging from flat to... flatter. One sometimes wonders if the voice actor's hired were actually fluent in the language spoken. And this is especially dissapointing because of how much dialogue there is in the game, you can easily spend around a third or so of the game listening to your companions or other NPC's and it can be grating to listen to sometimes. This is especially dissapointing because the written dialogue really isn't terrible so much as it is unsubtle, and at some points, at least before the dreadful third act, even good. While we're on the subject of story, it might be pertinent to mention that there are several companions you have the option to "romance", with all of these pairing being strictly heterosexual, and in addition, two of these companions are hidden behind specific story paths. All this really amounts to is some extra dialogue, and eventually, a "sex scene" between you and your partner.

Combat is another area where the game lacks quite a bit, with heavily Witcher inspired hacking and slashing dominated by the tactical nuance of hitting a button over and over, and occasionaly hitting another button to break things up. Most enemies only need running up to and hitting over and over while the occasional enemy requires that you flank them and hit them, over and over. The only challenge comes in the early game, when you don't have a gun, and you can be easily overwhelmed by enemies ganging up on you. But after getting a gun, the game becomes a cakewalk, with the action devolving to a couple seconds of clicking and then an eternal sleep.

Or not. The game early on introduces, a.... weird game mechanic, wherein after you mercilessly pummel and shoot your enemies, they don't actually die but merely fall unconscious and you have the choice to either drain their veins for extra currency and incur a penalty to your morality, or leave them flailing there, presumably to later get up and go home crying to their mommies. The morality system is a minor part of the game overall, with going evil giving you a general combat bonus and staying a goody two-shoes eventually leading to merchants giving you a massive discount, not that you'll ever really need it.

I'll be honest, this review has probably seemed fairly negative, and for good reason, but the game has such ambition, is such a unique experience, that if you remember KOTOR, or well... KOTOR fondly, I really think you should give it a shot, sale price or no. I can't imagine very many others liking it as well as I did, but hey, most of the other reviews seem positive right, so who knows?

Great setting and environment, indifferent gameplay. High hopes for the Technomancer sequel.

Mars: War Logs is a game of potential. The universe created by Spiders is certainly curious but is often let down by the badly written dialogue and pacing of the story, or the sometimes horrendous voice overs.

Graphically it is an appealing game and the environments and music is all there in a solid fashion. The combat is largely enjoyable and has a nice punch behind it, the skill system and crafting mechanics are nice but the lack of variety within loot is a letdown. In the end, Mars: War Logs is an above average game that will certainly be an enjoyable experience for those looking for a nice little third person RPG, and are willing to forgive it for its diamond in the rough state.

Full review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emM-sxmOx9c

This is not the best RPG out there, but I would be lying if I said it is not fun as hell. Combat is smooth, landscapes are gorgeous, and the story isn't too bad either. I'm aware when this game came out it was pretty bad, but they did an excellent job at fixing what needed to be fixed. So many of the negative comments don't apply anymore. However, many have said the combat and crafting system is a rip off from The Witcher 2. I will have to say false. Similar? Without a doubt, but not a rip off. This game takes it much more slow, and the option to use the techromancer abilities makes it its own. And a crafting system is a crafting system. Not much you can do there. Now, my impressions: I love this game. I was constantly entertained from start to finish. I love action RPGs and this game delivered. But not only that, the landscapes were amazing. The towns and such were nice, but you got tired of looking at them after a bit, but when you stare off into the distance, beyond the towns, you saw beauty. They made a boring red planet into something else. If you enjoy a not so hardcore RPG then by all means pick this game up. But maybe wait until a sale. I love the game, but $15 is still a tad high in my opinion, but nonetheless I think this game should be on any RPG lovers game library.

This game reminds me of several titles: Dragon Age 2 (how the maps are confined), Witcher 2 (combat), and Mass Effect series (story/quest branching). For a traditional RPG it's got some things right, but it has its share of problems.

Pros:
1. Tactical combat. Combat gets even more challenging and fun at Extreme difficulty, but at a price...
2. Nice setting and atmosphere. Mars here is like a remnant of some former colony; a fresh change from those high-tech ones. Everything is rusty, red, and make-shift. Put it another way, it's more like an apocalyptic Mars.
3. Your choices matter. People may die/live, quests may be locked/opened, etc... If you like replaying for different endings then this is for you.

Cons:
1. At Extreme difficulty, a bad selection of skills will make the game almost impossible. There seems to be some skills that must be unlocked first, such as Evade, Sneak, etc.
2. No crowd AI. At hubs you may get invovled in battle, but civilians do not react at all, even when the fight is happening right under their noses. This hurts the sense of immersion.
3. Some quest are hidden inside branching conversations and are easily missed if you choose the wrong reply (but you have no idea of the difference). Choose between "just say it!" or "ok ok i got it"?
4. Characters and lore are rather under-developed. For an RPG of this length (30hr for me), you only get to know a few of the characters. Some just pop up with little background info. The romance here is merely a filler.
5. In combat you only have limited control on your companion (only 4 "states"), which sometimes is not that helpful.

Despite the cons, I still enjoy this game a lot, primarilly for its combat and story. If you aren't that picky about graphics and AI and just expect a down-to-earth action RPG, this shouldn't disappoint you.

An imaginative role-playing game, the various pieces never quite come together into a satisfying whole. Its settings is poorly described, even after I read through the in-game journal and the documents on the game's web site. The characters feel shallow and - not helped by poor voice-acting and writing - I never empathized with their plight. Mars is gorgeously rendered, but the detail is only skin-deep; too-few NPCs, quests and maps results in an world that is artificial and empty. The combat and crafting are moderately entertaining but, again, the lack of content hobbles even this; a mere handful of weapons and spells did not give me much to play with. Mars War Log plays very much like a game where the developers had a great idea, but neither the talent nor the ability to bring that idea to fruition.

Mars: War Logs , I wrote this review after finishing the game most likely because I was so emotional and had to talk about it. Mars is an amazing game despite what the Meta score says. People complained saying it falls short of a great RPG because it's to simple , but that's the wonderful thing about this game - It's simple. Its gameplay and combat is like Witcher 2 with Slow-mo chosen abilities , blocking and rolling.

For someone that likes the idea of an RPG but doesn't have the time or doesn't like the complexity of RPG's ,this is the perfect game for you! You don't have 20+ type of stuff you can get items from , only enemies , crates and piles ( No max items slots or weight too) There are side quest but not so much that you will leave them later on , but instead you will most likely do them all.

An amazing SIMPLE wonderful RPG that deserves your attention. Buy it if your a fan of RPG's or when ever it's on special.
9/10

Spiders made a cyberpunk RPG borrowing the best elements of the Mass Effect franchise. Too bad the game offers only a short adventure. Although a complete walkthrough can be done under a dozen hours with all sidequests accounted for, War Logs offers replayability thanks to the variety of specialisation it offers along with the choices the player can make during dialogues.

Pros:
-- An interesting story that puts our protagonist, Roy, in the centre of a guild war. Two guilds are battling for the power on Mars where the most valuable source is water. Roy is a prisoner of war who desperately tries to escape the camp he's sent to by joining forces with others to plan the great escape.
-- Techromancy: The manipulation of electricity. Technomancers are the mages of this RPG. Roy later on obtains this ability and along with combat and stealth the door is open to the 3rd gameplay style.

Cons:
-- Horrid voice acting: Some of the voice acting is just awful. One particular example was when I needed to get rid of someone bothering a farmer. Intimidation was a good way to do that instead of a fight but the actor was so awful that I really felt like loading the last checkpoint and going for a fight. Also, sometimes the texts do not correspond to the sentences uttered. An example of why War Logs feels a rushed development.
-- Shortness: See the first section. The game is quite short considering it's an RPG. They could have included a couple of more missions and one or two extra chapters. The ending also felt rushed and while the epilogue was satisfying I thought the game could have offered a better antagonist.
-- Companions: Just like in Mass Effect you have companions. Sometimes one and sometimes two. The problem with them is that they die. All the time. I played the game on normal difficulty and a couple of hours into the game the enemies were so strong that they immediately took out my companion.
-- Taking sides: Again, a similarity with Mass Effect. You can take the good or the bad path. But what exactly is the result of this? I could not really find out as I became good but did something at one point that immediately rendered me neutral. This could have been more refined.

Well, I have more negative bulletpoints but make no mistake War Logs is an entertaining RPG. Coming from an indie developer it is a plus. Do give it a try if it has a discounted price.