Colony builder Surviving Mars gets underground-focused expansion next week

Paradox Interactive's colony builder Surviving Mars, which officially resumed development earlier this year under the watchful eye of Abstraction Games, is getting a brand-new "premium" expansion, titled Below and Beyond, next Tuesday 7th September.

Surviving Mars - which challenges players to rejuvenate the wastes of the red planet, transforming it into a thriving colony of shimmering domes - was well-received when it launched in 2018. A selection of DLC followed, but Below and Beyond will be the game's first major expansion since 2019's Green Planet. A free tourism update released earlier this year.

Below and Beyond, as its name implies, takes the colony builder to new locales, going below Mars' surface and beyond its horizon so that players may turn their attention to building underground bases, mining asteroids, and gathering rare resources.

"Tunnel beneath the surface and construct subterranean bases below the colony or in nearby underground caves," explains Paradox in its announcement. "Enterprising players can attach rocket-propelled buildings to passing asteroids and mine exotic resources, but you'll need to make it back to the Red Planet's surface before the asteroid leaves orbit or else you lose your stuff and your colonists."

New underground-specific buildings are promised (players will need to expand cautiously as cave-ins have the potential to destroy everything), and further buildings, vehicles, upgrades, and locales can be unlocked via the Recon and Expansion research tree.

Surviving Mars: Below and Beyond will cost around £15.49 when it comes to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC (via Steam, GOG, Epic, and the Humble Store) on 7th September. Surviving Mars' Mars Lifestyle Radio Pack, featuring 16 original tracks and 70 minutes of "chill roving tunes", launches on the same day for around £2.89.