Deliver Us Mars has a heavy focus on its story, which for the most part holds together quite well. However, there are several details - from inconsistent plot points to environmental oddities - that don't fit the established characters or setting. In most cases, they don't take away from the overall narrative, but they're just far enough out-of-place that they stand out when noticed.
We've listed all the details in Deliver Us Mars that made us do a double-take. Sci-fi stretches the bounds of believability to begin with, but these are the things that truly make no sense.
This article contains major spoilers - we highly recommend you complete the game before reading further!
6 Martian Gravity On Earth
The first chapter in Deliver Us Mars takes place on Earth, and serves to establish the main cast and the situation at home. Players follow Kat as she completes routine maintenance on a terrestrial energy relay. The scene lets players learn the basics of moving around, using Kat's equipment, and jumping.
That last one, though, feels a little odd. Kat can jump higher and falls more slowly than you might expect. This is because the game's physics are built with Mars' gravity in mind. We can't really blame the developers for not coding an alternate set of physics for a portion of the game that lasts less than an hour, but it's still strange to see Kat moving in Martian gravity on Earth.
5 Unsecured Tools On Zephyr-3
There's a lot that can go wrong in space travel, as the game reminds us time and again. Astronauts need to eliminate as many variables as possible, leaving nothing to chance if they can avoid it. Anything out of place could have unforeseen - and disastrous - effects.
When you're in Kat's sleeping area on board Zephyr-3 during the second chapter, look right above her pillow. One of Kat's climbing picks is floating unsecured in the corner of the room. There's no reason for it to be out of its case, and letting such a sharp object float around is practically begging for it to get lodged in a piece of equipment - or a person! We know Claire runs a tighter ship than that.
4 Unclimbable Rocks On Mars
Rock climbing is a major part of the game, and the first major climbing sequence takes place in Chapter Four. Kat has to navigate an abandoned quarry, often using her climbing picks to reach ledges and cross chasms.
For gameplay purposes, Kat can only climb on specific, porous rock surfaces. Her picks are designed to be all-purpose, not knowing what sort of climbing terrain might be necessary on Mars. Why can't she just climb wherever she needs?
This is a case making a better game at the cost of realism, another situation where it's hard to fault the developers. Of all the things on this list, it's the easiest to accept in spite of its strangeness.
3 Easily-Hacked ASEs
At the end of Chapter Seven, Kat uses her father's authorization code - which she memorized as a child - to transfer Rosa's ASE unit to Ryan. This gives Opera Team a useful tool in case they need it, but it throws the security of all WSA and Outward tech into question.
Kat's voiceprint doesn't match her father's, and the robot doesn't ask for any other authenticating factors. All it takes to hack a drone is a six-digit numerical password! It's really no wonder the Homeward rebels were able to take control of the ARKs' security.
It's even more perplexing that in the eight years since Kat saw Isaac, he apparently never changed his password and Outward's security was never updated. Considering how much access Isaac had to critical systems - and the possibility that the WSA might come after them at some point - it's pretty clear that Outward's personnel didn't include any security expertise.
2 Unfazed Colonists
One of the most dramatic reveals in the game is when the bulkhead at the entrance to Ark Vita opens, letting players see the lush Unison colony for the first time. A few minutes later, Kat is reunited with Isaac, who mentions that nobody knew he tried to contact Earth. As far as the colonists knew, they would never see another human again.
With that in mind, go back and watch the scene where Kat first enters the colony again. Not a single colonist turns, speaks up, or reacts in any way when she walks into their village. There are some people looking straight at Kat as she walks by - an unfamiliar face in a WSA spacesuit - and nobody bats an eye.
1 Indestructible Comic Books
Deliver Us Mars has eleven comic books to collect, one hidden in each chapter. Most are simply the discarded belongings of Outward colonists, but some turn up in truly strange places. A few, by all logic, shouldn't even exist at all!
During the SCUBA diving flashbacks in Chapter Two, young Kat finds a comic book at the bottom of the bay behind her family's house. It's a cool find for the young girl, but can't possibly be readable after having been submerged in dirty salt water for so long.
In Chapter Four, Kat finds a MarsMan issue on the ground in the quarry. Earlier in the chapter she comments that the area has been buffeted by wind and dust storms for a long time - the comic should be buried in Martian dust if that's the case.
Possibly the strangest case of all, though, is the sixth issue of MarsMan, found in Chapter Eight. Kat finds it on the exterior hull of ARK Labos after it crashes to Mars from orbit! The re-entry heat of the Martian atmosphere is estimated at 1300 degrees Celsius - the chance of a comic book surviving the crash and ending up on the exterior of the ship is infinitesimal.
We can only conclude that the comic books are secretly printed with indestructible materials - maybe they'll be the key to saving the environment back on Earth?