For several reasons in fact....... 1. Even though Mars is very cold, there is very little water in the atmosphere. So, no water, no ice. No ice, no white tint to the landscape. 2. (The science fiction reason) judging on how the sky on mars (in the game) is blue, would leave me to think that during the golden age, mars was terraformed to more closely resimble Earth's which would have warmed the planet's surface considerably and made the planet 's air breathable. ( although, i don't know why the entire planet is still a red desert, because with an atmosphere would have come a new ecosystem.....but wut evs)