Development studio Choice Provisions has confirmed that "Tharsis" will debut exclusively for the PlayStation 4 console on Jan. 12, 2016. In addition, the company also posted the game's official trailer on YouTube and revealed details of the upcoming turn-based title's storyline.
Through a new post in the PlayStation Blog, Mike Roush, the co-founder of Choice Provisions, wrote that "Tharsis" will arrive early next year. With its official release date set within the second week of January, it could become as one of the first titles that will come out for Sony's next-gen console in 2016.
According to Roush, the gameplay of "Tharsis" revolves around the first manned mission to Mars. The main objective of the astronauts is to find the source of a strange signal coming from the red planet. However, during the course of the mission, the spaceship carrying the astronauts gets damaged after colliding with a meteor, Christian Post reported.
As one of the stranded astronauts aboard the ship, the player must execute drastic decisions and actions in order to survive. These include cannibalizing other crew members of the ship just to stay alive.
Roush noted that it took the development team two years to finish the game. He also said that its dark take on the concept of survival was inspired by a historical event.
"The biggest inspiration was the story of the whaling ship Essex, that was sunk by a whale in 1820," he wrote in the comments section of the blog post. "The crew floated around for weeks and ended up doing 'whatever it took' to survive and reach land."
For the actual development of the game, Roush and his team turned to the gameplay elements of traditional board games, which generally involve the use of paper and dice. As shown in the recently released trailer for "Tharsis," gamers will have to roll virtual dice to carry out certain actions in the game.
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