Mars: War Logs. Wars: Lar Mogs. Lars: Mor Wags. Yes, Mars: War Logs’ name may be easily transmutable into extremely silly sounding phrases (I like the last one because it makes me think of some upper-class so-and-so commanding their dog, Lars, to wag its tail better), but it actually looks quite intriguing as far as Captain Commando McSpaceBiff adventures go. In short, Lars: War Mogs tells cyberpunk-y role-playing to get its nanomachine-enhanced ass to Mars, and the result looks like a surprisingly stylish fusion of Mass Effect and RAGE. Moving pictures and moving words after the break.



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And here’s a teensy bit more.



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Right then, so what’s with all this war logging business? Well, at its heart, the Spiders-developed sci-fyberpunk adventure sounds like a fairly traditional action-RPG. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Just probably don’t go in expecting genre-redefining mechanics.

“Mars: War Logs takes you to the red planet over a century after the catastrophe that threw the planet and its colonists into chaos. Water has become the most precious resource on the arid planet with a few companies fighting a perpetual war for its control. In the middle of this struggle, players take on the role of Roy Temperance, a renegade with multiple talents, and plunge into a thrilling cyberpunk RPG on the Red Planet!” “Players develop Roy and his combat style by choosing among dozens of skills and perks, and fight for his life in dynamic real-time combat against the fearsome creatures of Mars. The crafting system lets players create and modify equipment to maintain an edge over enemies. Dialogue choices as well as actions and decisions made will influence the destiny of the people Roy crosses paths with… and perhaps the fate of all colonies on Mars.”

Spiders’ most recent output, meanwhile, was the spirited but ultimately middling Of Orcs and Men. Jim wasn’t the biggest fan of its stifling linearity, lack of depth, and general lifelessness, so there’s reason to fear that Mars could end up stuck in a similar mire. I’m crossing my fingers for this one, though. Spiders has shown quite the talent for dreaming up out-of-this-world settings, so I really hope they can deliver on all the promise this time around.

Murghalurghalarwogalogs is slated to war some logs in spring 2013.