Reviews / previews
Imagine yourself in an abandoned space station. The bodies of the crew line the litter-strewn corridors. Sent as a member of a three-person team to investigate the deaths, you are cut off from the rest of your party and wander the dark halls alone, searching for clues. Suddenly, in the distance one of the dead crewmembers begins to rise
Martian Gothic: Unification is the latest entry in the survival horror genre. While it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Resident Evil series (which itself was wholly inspired by the Alone in the Dark series), Martian Gothic's compelling story and unique gameplay features are sure to make it stand out from the pack.
Martian Gothic's most interesting feature is the ability to switch between the 3 main characters at will. Because the crew was warned to "stay alone, stay alive," they have entered the station through separate airlocks and are completely cut off from each other by bulkheads, which were automatically sealed during the mysterious epidemic that killed the crew. Fortunately your team members, however, can communicate with each other via radios and transfer items through the station's vacuum tube system.
A major part of any survival horror game is the fright factor and in this area Martian Gothic is right on track. Parts of the space station evoke a haunted mansion, with gothic style architecture and strangely patterned carpets and wallpaper, while others rely on the cold steel of the space station's empty corridors to instill a creepy atmosphere. Adding to the chills is a spooky soundtrack, complete with eerie music and whispering voices echoing through the halls.
Martian Gothic features plenty of exploration and puzzle solving, much of which involves the 'find the key that fits the door' variety, although in this case the keys are pass cards and each card will open a variety of doors. Other puzzles will require utilizing the skills of specific team members, like one character's ability to pick locks with just a paper clip. Guns and ammo can be found lying around the space station, so there will be plenty of zombie-blasting action, as well.
Given the success of the Resident Evil series, it's surprising that there haven't been more games like it. We'll find out if Martian Gothic: Unification will bring a unique experience to the survival horror genre when it shuffles into stores in May.-- Brian Wright / GamePro
"Stay alone. Stay alive." Those are the last words of the message from the Vita 1 base on Mars just before things went quiet months ago. The warning refers to a virus that mysteriously infects those who group together. A landing party of three is sent to investigate, entering in separate airlocks and making sure they do not meet up in the corridors of the station. This sounds like the premise of the recent mindless movie Mission to Mars, especially when the crew shows up unarmed and without some basic supplies due to difficulties while landing.
The similarities to other movies, and especially games, do not end there. The style of play and other elements of the game make Martian Gothic seem like a Resident Evil clone and not too far off the mark of System Shock 2 either. The game's shortfall is that it just does not have the horror factor to leave gamers scared while exploring the mysteriously empty base of Vita 1. The halls are strewn with corpses and some of the crew's quarters and areas of operation seem a bit disheveled, but there is nothing really menacing lurking about in the Mars station. Sure, there are zombies that come to life and suck your blood, but that is really more of a distraction than a purely evil monster.
During gameplay, you can toggle between the three characters (Kenzo, Karne and Matlock) by using the function keys, which adds to the puzzle of the game rather than having the game choose when to change for you. Another interesting feature of the game is the use of not only lockers for leaving supplies for the other crew, or for rescue later, but vacuum tubes as well that transport items like key cards and ammo to other parts of the station.
Though there are some interesting features in Martian Gothic, the adventure just does not live up to other titles in the same vein. The problem here is that the game appears to really have been developed for the console, but then ported to the PC with little adaptation. Martian Gothic can be played with the keyboard, though the gameplay is better suited to a gamepad, and there is no mouse support. Also, the console-style save points force players to replay the same tedious sequences, only to face the same zombie attack again and again to get to the next save point.
Additionally, Martian Gothic is a bit buggy out of the box and pretty much requires a patch just to play it. Without the update some of the speech will not play (although playing with the subtitles on is recommended anyway) and it is virtually impossible to fend off a zombie attack. Even with the patch, the title reveals a lack of play-testing, which is surprising considering it was previously released in Europe to some success. One would think that these types of glitches would have been fixed before the game's U.S. distribution.
All in all, there are not many redeeming factors in Martian Gothic. I was disappointed because I expected it to be good fun, with the space station, mystery, and mindless zombies to contend with. I think that with the right patches, fixing some of the glaring errors, the game could be fun enough to spend some time on. But with so many other titles out there, and something solid like the new Alone in the Dark coming out, fans of this genre might want to pass on Martian Gothic.-- Enid Burns / GamePro
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