"Tharsis is not a game about facing the odds. It’s a game about changing them." — Choice Provisions
(never have I seen a developer name so perfectly match the essence of the game 👌)

This is important. Because the odds are against you. If I would have to summarize what the game is about with one word, it would be prioritizing.

People who bash it either don't understand the concept of Tharsis or aren't adept at prioritizing and planning in advance, which are traits that could hardly be better complemented than they already are with the board game mechanics such as are. If you are capable, you will mostly win, on any difficulty. Granted the RNG factor does occasionally lead to impossible situations, but that's rare.

It objectively deserves a much higher overall score.

So plan for events ahead of you, accept the losses as an outcome of a difficult, unpredictable situation ("Bad games need higher risks." — Inventarius) and embrace the satisfaction when you overcome real tough journeys to complete your mission.

https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2119013010

THE magnum opus of Zachtronics.

If you recognize a certain facet of beauty in devising elegantly refined systems resolving complex problems, watching solutions unfold will satisfy the brain in a way few games can achieve, because few games present the problems as multi-layered and simultaneously as openly approachable as SpaceChem does.