Martian Gothic: Unification

Martian Gothic Unification

I made my first attempt at this game not long after it came out and uninstalled it after 30 minutes.
I was not used to action in my adventure games, but after having played games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil I decided to give it another go. My second attempt was a very powerful experience and I can truly say it is a game that resides among my all time favourites. The best part of the game is the story and ambience.

PC Releases

Xplosiv: Budget release

Playstation Releases

HELL WILL BE REBORN IN THE HEAVENS

Three Lives. One Disease. One Future.

Epic lines for a grand opus ready to unfold.
This poster is another part of the brilliant creation of this game's atmosphere. With two screenshots and the boxshot in the middle, this is a perfectly designed advert.

Main Menu

When presented with the main menu the usual options are displayed:
New Game, Load Game, Options (more on that later) and Exit.

Nothing really exciting, but wait....the music, it is ..haunting...
Inviting you to play.

Brilliant, best Main Menu ever.

Introduction

The introduction tells of a three-manned crew on its way to Mars to investigate a radio silence from a research camp named Vita Base. There is a mysterious female voice talking about bad dreams coming true. Who is this woman and why was the radio contact cut off? We will 'soon' find out.

Bad start

With the introduction behind us, Martin, Kenzo and Diane find themselves stranded in separate airlocks. Only Kenzo's door opens to the base and here we encounter our first horror, Kenzo's voice actor...Well, an oriental guy saying the words. Yes, it is bad, but what is worse are his lines: "Is anyone around? Anyone alive? Or dead? If you're dead, don't answer." Okay, why don't we just say, Suspense be gone! But let's move on quickly. Through one of the doors you will find a computer which unlocks Martin from his Airlock. But in doing so, you wake up the napping non-dead. With no weapon available and no experience with the controls, this is gruesome torture. And a good reason for me to uninstall the game eight years ago.

Take 2

But wait....let's play on for just a bit longer, as we still don't have any answers.

Luckily puzzles come quick and fast and once the story and the atmosphere have come together, you have forgotten all about its slow start and want to progress no matter what. And like any good story, it gives you just enough to keep you coming back for more.

And this is where Martian Gothic stands out and lures you into its enormous dark caverns. There is a huge body of information to be found and every character has his own take on it.

Pandora's Box

This game was originally designed as a point and click adventure. Later in the project the action/shooting was added (as well as the suffix Unification). This is why people accuse it of being a bad Resident Evil clone, which it isn't. It's an adventure game with action elements.

The game is has a plethora of puzzles. Inventory-based puzzles are the norm, which are mostly logical, sometimes bizarre and sporadically horrific.
With the lack of ammo (think Alone in the Dark 1) and the vast distances you have to travel, a simple use-this-there-puzzle will turn into a strategic battleground. This builds up the tension in the game quite considerably.

There are only a few character interaction puzzles, but the biggest puzzle for me was to stay on the map, because this world is huge! With countless of rooms, doors, codes, objects, clues and obstacles it reminded me of Rhem, where I had to jot down most of the items/clues just to stay ahead.

Some puzzles can only be solved by the expertise of a certain crew member, which helps to strengthen the relationship with the characters.

Music and Sound Effects

The music in this game reflects the environment you are in, with beautiful ambient like acoustics in open spaces and suspenseful score when the enemy is breathing down your neck. As you can hear, the main menu theme sets the MOOD quite brilliantly. Sound effects are limited, but feel realistic and add depth to the scenes.

This sample is taken from the PC version, it is the Main Menu theme. It is the work of Jeremy Talor (AKA firQ), who also took care of the Playstation version, although it differs quite a bit from the PC version. No official soundtrack was ever released to my knowledge.

Graphics and playability

I played the game on Windows 7 32-Bit connected to a 32" LCD screen and it looks great considering its age. The artwork, colour scheme and setting are just perfect. Since I do not like to use a keyboard when playing any game, a PS3 controller was used to control the characters instead, mapping all the right keys with Joy2Key software. But again the main driving force is the story. You want to know more.. you want to progress to Level 2. It keeps you up at night, racks your brain, it also frustrates you and confuses you, but in the end it is all worth it.
That is why this game is pure gold. Well, ....maybe not pure.

CONS

- Stupid camera angles, making some rooms very hard to find
- Annoying clipping, getting stuck behind objects
- Bug that froze the game (Patch needed to fix it)
- Some illogical puzzles
- Re spawning enemies
- Limited communication via the radio with other team members

Stop the Press!!

I can understand why the game has gotten such poor reviews. It is not for everyone. It is hard to get into. I for one just couldn't stand the voice acting and the annoying zombies. But at that time I was just not ready for this monster of a game.

Extras and other info

Interview with Stephen Marley, the Writer