Designing rovers for awkward cargo
Mars First Logistics is an open world physics simulation where you build mechanized rovers and drive them across Mars to deliver cargo. The editor is tactile and straightforward: you assemble parts onto a chassis and the result is simulated for real, so springs, hydraulic cylinders, servo motors and rocket engines all behave the way you'd expect. Over 100 parts are available to combine, and you can keep a rover simple or pile on complexity until it does exactly what you need. There's no single correct design, so a job can be solved in whatever way your group finds funny or clever.
Cargo is what makes each delivery interesting. Loads are heavy, fragile, bouncy, or trying to float away, and the terrain is rugged and procedurally generated, so a rig that worked last time may need rethinking. Successful deliveries earn funds, unlock new parts and blueprints, and open up infrastructure you can build with: roads, powerlines, monorails and water pipes. Buildings spring up as you complete deliveries, so the map visibly changes as the Martians' settlement grows.
Playing together in online co-op
You can tackle the game solo or with up to 3 friends in online co-op. In a group, the building side becomes a shared task: you can split up the design work, argue over whether a job needs rocket engines or just better suspension, and test the rover together before committing to a delivery. Driving duties can also be shared across a session, with one person handling a tricky stretch of terrain while others focus on the next build.
Co-op also helps with the open world structure. With friends along, you can spread out across the procedurally generated map, take on deliveries in parallel, and pool the funds and unlocks that come back from each one. Since the terrain keeps throwing new obstacles at you, having extra people to brainstorm a solution tends to speed things up.
What to know before starting
The physics simulation is the core of the game, so expect rovers to tip, bounce, lose their cargo, or fall apart in ways that are part of the fun rather than a failure state. Budget time for iteration: most jobs involve building something, driving it, discovering what's wrong with it, and going back to the editor.
Two modes are available. Standard mode is the regular progression of deliveries and unlocks, while creative mode lets you build without those constraints. Individual game settings can also be tweaked, so a group can adjust the experience to match how they want to play. The world is open, so there's no forced order to deliveries — pick a job, build for it, and go.