Ares Crossing
A survival trek across Mars — inspired by Oregon Trail, reimagined as a contemporary rover expedition.
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It's 2087. Your four-person crew is driving a pressurised rover 3,200km from the New Aldrin landing site to Meridian Basin Colony, the nearest permanent settlement. Manage fuel, food, water, and oxygen; watch your rover's condition; and decide how hard to push each sol (Martian day). Dust storms, solar flares, and mechanical failures don't care how far you've come. Some sols hand you a real choice instead of a dice roll — and if you lose someone, later outposts let you hire a replacement, for a price.
Planned route:
New Aldrin Landing
Route for the next leg
Drive to next stop keeps going sol after sol, and pauses by itself for decisions, bad news, arrivals, or new warnings. Rest heals the crew; Scavenge spends a sol searching the area for supplies — with some risk.
How to play Ares Crossing
- Enter your name, choose a difficulty and click Begin Expedition.
- Stock up on supplies, then depart and choose your pace and rations each sol.
- Drive, rest, scavenge and repair your rover to cross 3,200 km of Mars, with five outposts on the way.
About this game
Ares Crossing is a turn-based survival trek across Mars, inspired by Oregon Trail but reimagined for the near future: instead of a wagon, oxen, and a river ford, you're managing a rover, fuel cells, and dust storms. Each sol you choose a pace and a ration level, then advance — the trade-off is the same one that made the original a classroom classic: push hard and risk your crew and rover, or go easy and risk running out of time and supplies. Five resupply outposts break up the 3,200km route; random events (mechanical failures, solar flares, lucky supply caches) can happen on any sol, and some of them — a stranded rival crew, a beckoning shortcut, a distress beacon — stop the expedition and hand you an actual decision instead of resolving on their own, with a real trade-off either way you answer. Lose a crew member along the way and the mission doesn't have to end there: outposts beyond the one where it happened offer to sign on a replacement specialist, for a steep price in credits.
You don't have to click through every sol. "Drive to next stop" advances sol after sol on its own and pauses the moment anything needs you: a decision, an accident or shortfall, a death, arriving at an outpost, or a new warning such as supplies about to run short or a crew member badly hurt. At each outpost you also pick the route for the next leg — the surveyed road, a faster but rougher and more hazardous shortcut, or a slower, safer long way around — and the choice feeds straight into the forecast. When supplies run thin you can spend a sol scavenging the terrain for fuel, food, water, parts or medkits, at some risk of an accident.
Before you commit to a sol, the forecast box shows exactly what your current pace, rations and route will cost — and whether what you're carrying will get you to the next stop — flagging it in red if you're about to come up short. The route map shows your rover, every outpost (green once visited) and the finish line. Each outpost shop's "Stock up for next leg" button buys roughly what the leg ahead needs in one click. Keyboard: T drive, A advance one sol, R rest, S scavenge, F repair, 1–4 for decisions, U stock up and D depart at outposts. Easy, Normal and Hard change your budget and how hostile Mars is; Hard multiplies your score. Your best score is saved on this device, and the current expedition saves automatically.
Questions about Ares Crossing
Is it like The Oregon Trail?
Yes. It’s inspired by it, with a rover, fuel cells and dust storms instead of a wagon, oxen and rivers.
What is a sol?
A day on Mars, about 24 hours and 40 minutes.
How do I avoid running out of supplies?
Balance pace and rations: driving recklessly or eating full rations burns supplies fast, while going too slowly risks running out of time.
Can I save my game?
Yes. Your expedition is saved on this device; click Resume saved expedition.