Mars First Logistics is one of those beautifully singular ideas that reminds you why Steam is ultimately a good thing. Shape Shop’s painterly, open-ended rover sim is all about constructing kooky robotic vehicles through a LEGO-like building system, used to solve logistical puzzles scattered around the Red Planet.
Arriving into Steam early access back in 2023, Mars First Logistics quickly garnered itself an overwhelmingly positive Steam rating. Since then, Shape Shop has quietly polished MFL’s solar panels and tinkered with its wiry innards, culminating in a 1.0 launch that brings a bunch of new features to aid your Martian endeavours.
Shape Shop headlines its 1.0 update with ten new contracts (i.e. missions) designed to test your rover-construction skills. According to Shape Shop, these contracts “have more of a puzzle focus” than the more creative or logistical objectives introduced across the early access period, placing greater emphasis on “figuring out how to use the tools you’ve already unlocked.” The update also introduces several new languages to play Mars First Logistics in, namely French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Russian and Brazilian Portuguese.
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The meat of the update, however, is found in a new automation system, implemented to facilitate more programming control over your build. At the heart of this is are virtual ports which Shape Shop says are “like a regular button input, except that [they’re] triggered by other parts.”
This is somewhat abstract, but Shape Shop provides more concrete examples of the systems’ functionality when detailing the new robot parts it relates to. For instance, you can now add sensors to your robot that trigger an output whenever it touches an object, such as having a “horn sound whenever you hit something.” Alternatively, you can add switches to certain parts of a rover to toggle outputs on or off. “You could use this to e.g. have a servo continually move by just pressing a button once, instead of having to hold it down,” Shape Shop explains.
Not every new part added in the 1.0 update directly ties to the automation system. Highlights here include a gravity suppressor that allows rovers to lift heavier loads than they otherwise would be able to, and two kinds of gimbal, which should prove useful if you want to keep certain parts of your robot level when navigating rough terrain.
Elsewhere, the update adds new achievement, new music and a proper introductory cutscene, as well as camera improvements and “less sensitive explosives”. To coincide with the release, Shape Shop is running a 40% discount for Mars First Logistics, bringing the price down from an already reasonable $20 (£16.75) to $12 (£10).
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