Rain down asteroids and control gravity with this cheat-enabling Surviving Mars mod

Solid city builder Surviving Mars didn't ship with console commands, but thanks to one modder you can add any cheats you want in just a few clicks. Want to quickly erect three residential domes in a cluster and then rain asteroids down on them? That's an option. Want to remove all negative traits from your colonists to create a perfect oasis filled with hard-working, charming spacefarers? Yup, you can do that to.

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Grab the mod, called Expanded Cheat Menu, here. All you have to do is download a folder and place it in your game files, then enable the mod with the in-game mod manager. You can then use a number of different keyboard shortcut—detailed in the previous link—to open the cheat menu, the console, or an editor mode.

Digging into the photos on the mod's Nexus page suggests that your options are broad. You can play around with the gravity settings, automate buildings, eliminate the need for maintenance, cure all illnesses and make your drones' batteries last forever, among other things.

I wouldn't suggest it for new players but if, like me, you enjoyed the game and then drifted away from it then it could be worth popping back in for five minutes and playing around with the settings. I found the early game a bit of a struggle, so the prospect of cheating my way to the late game is pretty enticing.

And if you haven't yet checked out Surviving Mars, Fraser's review is a good place to start. If you're a beginner, then here's a list of tips and tricks.

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.