Deliver Us Mars

Lore & Background

Players control an astronaut named Kathy, whose father Isaac left Earth years ago after abandoning a mission to save it from ecological disaster. As Kathy travels to Mars in search of Isaac and technology that may still help save Earth, players learn about her relationship with her family. Exploration involves solving puzzles in first-person and platforming in third-person perspective.

Reader's Guide

Deliver Us Mars received mixed reviews on Metacritic. PC Gamer said its limited budget caused it to fall short of its potential but recommended it to fans of single-player games with a strong story. Rock Paper Shotgun praised the story and platform game elements while disliking the puzzles. IGN enjoyed the puzzles but disliked the platforming, calling it 'a chore,' and praised the voice acting and story despite performance issues and poor graphics. Game Informer wrote, 'A gripping narrative fuels gameplay that otherwise feels functional but underbaked,' comparing it to Macbeth performed by poorly-made animatronics. Push Square praised its 'entrancing sci-fi story' and voice acting but criticized terrain pop-in, poor performance, software bugs, and tedious platforming. The game was nominated for best audio at the 2023 Dutch Game Awards. A sequel, Deliver Us Home, was launched on Kickstarter on June 11, 2024.

Did You Know?

• Deliver Us Mars is the sequel to Deliver Us the Moon.
• The game was developed by KeokeN Interactive, based in the Netherlands.
• It was nominated for best audio at the 2023 Dutch Game Awards.
• A sequel, Deliver Us Home, was launched on Kickstarter on June 11, 2024.

A Daughter's Search for a Father

Deliver Us Mars places players in the boots of Kathy, an astronaut whose personal journey is inextricable from the fate of the planet she calls home. Years before the game's events, her father Isaac abandoned a critical mission designed to avert an ecological catastrophe on Earth and simply vanished. The narrative unfolds as Kathy sets course for Mars, driven by two intertwined goals: locating her estranged father and recovering technology that might still offer a path to saving Earth. Along the way, the game peels back layers of her family relationships, revealing the emotional weight of abandonment and the complicated love that persists despite it. This storytelling approach earned consistent praise across the critical landscape. Reviewers at IGN, Push Square, Rock Paper Shotgun, and PC Gamer all singled out the narrative and voice acting as the game's strongest pillars, with Push Square describing it as an "entrancing sci-fi story." Even Game Informer, while critical of the execution, acknowledged the narrative as "gripping." The story's emotional core is what anchors the experience and gives its mechanical elements purpose.

Split Perspectives: Puzzles and Platforming

Deliver Us Mars employs a dual-perspective design that shifts between first-person puzzle-solving and third-person platforming, giving the astronaut Kathy two distinct modes of interaction with her Martian environment. The first-person segments invite careful, methodical thinking as players untangle environmental challenges, while the third-person sections demand physical traversal across the alien terrain. However, this split design became a flashpoint in critical reception, with reviewers dividing sharply along the puzzle-versus-platforming axis. Rock Paper Shotgun enjoyed the platforming but found the puzzles frustrating, while IGN took the opposite stance, relishing the puzzles yet dismissing the platforming as "a chore." Push Square similarly found the platforming tedious, and Game Informer characterized the overall gameplay as "functional but underbaked." The consensus suggests that while the mechanical framework serves the narrative, neither mode consistently delivers the polish players expected, leaving the gameplay layer feeling secondary to the story it supports.

A Tale of Technical Struggles and Narrative Triumph

Despite its compelling story, Deliver Us Mars arrived on February 2, 2023, burdened by technical shortcomings that colored much of its critical reception. The game earned mixed scores on Metacritic, with a recurring set of complaints spanning terrain pop-in, poor performance, software bugs, and underwhelming graphics. IGN noted that even the praised voice acting and narrative could not rescue the experience from its technical issues. Push Square echoed this, listing bugs and performance problems alongside their criticism of the platforming. PC Gamer attributed the gap between ambition and delivery to the game's limited budget, suggesting it fell short of its full potential while still recommending it to players who prioritize single-player storytelling. Game Informer captured the tension with a memorable comparison: the experience felt like Macbeth performed by poorly-made animatronics, a gripping script trapped inside a lifeless production. Yet the audio work stood apart, earning a nomination for best audio at the 2023 Dutch Game Awards, a recognition that underscored how the game's strongest elements were those least dependent on visual fidelity.

From Dutch Studios to a Growing Franchise

Deliver Us Mars is the product of a small but ambitious European development pipeline. KeokeN Interactive, a studio based in the Netherlands, crafted the game as the sequel to their earlier title Deliver Us the Moon, expanding the scope from the lunar surface to the red planet. Publishing duties fell to Frontier Foundry, which brought the title to Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S simultaneously on February 2, 2023. The multi-platform launch reflected an intent to reach a broad audience for what remained a story-driven, single-player experience. The game's reception, while mixed, kept the franchise alive. Most notably, the Dutch Game Awards recognized the project's audio work with a best-audio nomination in 2023, a home-country validation for the team. The franchise's momentum carried forward when Deliver Us Home was launched on Kickstarter on June 11, 2024, signaling that KeokeN Interactive intended to continue Kathy's story beyond Mars. The trajectory from a modest sequel to a crowdfunded third entry suggests a studio finding its footing and building a dedicated following around its character-driven sci-fi vision.