Martia Termina

Mars and Earth are at war. Mission 193 was just another mission sent to the Red Planet. Its objective was to take control of the Martian military.

It didn’t go well. To avoid bad press, Mission Control claims it was successful.

But you’re not buying it. And so, you’ve infiltrated a government database to find out what really happened.

A Bare-Bones Jam 2025 entry.

Gameplay
Mission 193 left five soldiers isolated on Mars. The gameplay involves listening to their individual audio recordings. These are listed by last name. Mitch. Fox. Rook. Olsen. The fifth is Lain, but she doesn’t have any.

UIF_M_193_W1 : Sol +7, 17:30:26 MLT : User: S. Mitch

This is not a database that you search and explore. Logs are made available in groups, or “waves,” and must be listened to in order before you can access the next wave.

[Team Logs now available]

I’d categorize Martia Termina as a passive investigation game. You’re just there to read the logs. Interactivity is surface-deep. Progress is made by tapping/clicking on the screen to read each passage. I’m not against this. However, games that follow this format can have a harder time maintaining the player’s attention. This was the case for me.

At first, I couldn’t follow the story. This is partly my own issue. I need to read things more than once before it clicks. But the implementation certainly didn’t help. For one thing, the screen only displays whatever is currently being said. It then disappears.

A. Olsen [What did you want to ask anyway, Fox?]

The “history” feature displays a transcript- extremely helpful- but only for recent dialog. If it has a scrollbar, it doesn’t work. Furthermore, when you access a new wave, everything before it is no longer available. As for autoplay mode, the slider that controls its speed is stuck at the slowest setting. All of this makes replays a drag, even with the single save file.

Story
Backstory is minimal. Mars is inhabited by an alien species whose tech is sought after by Earth. Mission Control serves as Earth’s leadership, or at least where the Mars-Earth conflict is concerned. Its personnel are quickly discarded once they are no longer useful.

It took me a while before I could follow the outline of the story because the logs aren’t always in chronological order. Out of curiosity, I want to know what players think:

Characters
I don’t think the PC is ever identified. Our role is to be an anonymous protagonist who simply witnesses the truth. And we sure do.

Martia Termina focuses on building tension between characters. Take a group of soldiers and isolate them on Mars after a tough mission. Next, have them answer to an entity that cares more about material gain than human lives. Finally, add distrust, in-fighting, clash of personalities, ulterior motives, and you will get this game. Oh, (Spoiler - click to show)and some of them may have been involved romantically.

These tensions are effectively conveyed. The odds are stacked against them, and we feel it. But it also can get rather caustic. Character interactions have a nastiness that may take players by surprise. It feels like everyone is this close to snapping. (Spoiler - click to show)Some do.

Visuals
Bare-Bones Jam is perfect for this game. The rules require games to use their system’s default appearance. No customization. Martia Termina is made with Video Supertome, which means a black screen with white text in a digital-looking font. This appearance, combined with the lack of thrills, pairs well with the game’s military sci-fi genre. The black-and-white artwork on the game’s itch.io page is awesome.

Final thoughts
If you prefer story over gameplay or are a fan of military science fiction, play Martia Termina. Despite being a passive listener, the recordings provide a front row seat to the drama that goes down. It can get intense.

Tough characters who don’t get along are stuck in a dangerous alien-made facility and forced to rely on leadership that only cares about PR and profit. You have your (Spoiler - click to show)designated “evil teammate,” though they all seem to occupy moral shades of grey. Reminds me of a few sci-fi films…

Otherwise, whether you enjoy it will likely be hit or miss. I was all for the story, but it was the implementation that wore me out. I needed to play this multiple times to understand the story. Unfortunately, its design does not inspire replays. Only exhaustion. At least fix the autoplay feature. That would be fantastic.

Three stars, but a strong three stars.