History YMMV / SurvivingMars

* GameBreaker: The Mars International Mission. Zeus rockets can carry more, colonists never become Earthsick, food carried in passenger rockets is greatly increased, and rockets slowly synthesize fuel on Mars. The Easy Mode sponsor recommended for first-time players, but experienced city builder types might find this too much of a breeze. Some tutorial videos even suggest new players to ''avoid'' it, as the difficulty of the game would be increased several times the time they try another sponsor.

* ScrappyCreator: Abstraction Games' taking the reins from Haemimont didn't really go down that well with several fans. To wit, many consider the patches Abstraction made to the game after they took over [[GameBreakingBugs game-breaking]], introducing new issues that weren't there before. And Unlike Green Planet, Below and Beyond was met with lukewarm reception when compared to the former.

* GameBreaker: The Mars International Mission. Zeus rockets can carry more, colonists never become Earthsick, food carried in passenger rockets is greatly increased, and rockets slowly synthesize fuel on Mars. The Easy Mode sponsor recommended for first-time players, but experienced city builder types might find this too much of a breeze.

* SlowPacedBeginning: The pre-colonist phase of a new game can be a bit on the slow side, even with the game sped up. Unless more concrete is shipped from earth, obtaining the hundreds needed for the first dome and its infrastructure can take a very long time (and that isn't always an option, as rockets are limited and the ability to create fuel requires a prefab or research). Later versions gave the International Mars Mission a self-sufficient dome prefab to speed things along a bit before new players got bored. But even then, starting with only 12 founders is extremely uncomfortable since the game doesn't let them work multiple shifts- they will only work one 8 hours and 20 minutes[[note]]remember that one Martian day, or sol, is approximately 25 Earth hours[[/note]] shift a day and that's it. Granted, the effect can be minimized by vetting your passengers carefully, but it is still nerve wrecking to see the morale bar hover between the high 40s and low 60s depending on time of day.

** The fact that tourists can sneak aboard ''your very first rocket'' is insanely annoying. You finally touched down, your drones are beginning to set up basic infrastructure, everything is going well... and then it's GameOver because some harebrained idiot hitched a ride to a not-yet-habitable planet with no life support and of course suffocated, and since the game considers him/her part of the Founder stage, you can immediately start a new game.

* ConstructAdditionalPylons: You'll be reminded you have a food shortage ''very'' often. This is because, unlike almost every other resource in the game, you don't gain food at a steady rate over time. Instead, you get it in a lump sum when it comes time to harvest from your farm or ranch. This means that sometimes this alert can be ignored since you'll soon get enough food that the food shortage won't be an issue, and sometimes the next harvest is too far away and you really do need more food urgently.

* ConstructAdditionalPylons: You'll be reminded you have a food shortage oh so very often. This is because, unlike almost every other resource in the game, you don't gain food at a steady rate over time. Instead, you get it in a lump sum when it comes time to harvest from your farm or ranch. This means that sometimes this alert can be ignored since you'll soon get enough food that the food shortage won't be an issue, and sometimes the next harvest is too far away and you really do need more food urgently.

* ConstructAdditionalPylons: You'll be reminded you have a food shortage oh so very often.