Martian Gothic: Unification

Overview

Martian Gothic: Unification is a survival horror game developed by Creative Reality, that was released on the PC in 2000, and the Sony Playstation in 2001. The story in this game was created by science-fiction writer Stephen Marley.

With fixed camera angles and character-dependant controls, Martian Gothic bears similarities to other survival horror games, such as Resident Evil or Nocturne, but unlike those game, it largely failed to receive the same critical and commercial success. This may have something to do he fact that keys are inexplicably consumed when used to unlock doors, Zelda-style, so if players unlock a door requiring a green tag, they will need to locate another green tag to open the next green door. It also likely suffered because of the nature of the game's primary enemies, the "Non-Dead". These enemies cannot be permanently killed, and after being shot, will re-animate and resume the attack the next time the player re-enters the same area. Given that there is a limited amount of ammo in the game's world, and an unlimited amount of enemies, fighting the Non-Dead is an exercise in futility and frustration.

Story

The year is 2018. Players control a team of three specialist astronauts, sent to the Vita-1 base on Mars from Earth, to ascertain exactly what has happened to the Vita-1 crew; no communication with this base has been heard for many months. On the basis of a garbled message sent by an astronaut on the base; "Stay alone, stay alive", it is clear that something dreadful has happened. Following the cryptic advice of the message, the three astronauts enter the base through three separate airlocks, and find themselves confined to separate sections of the base by sealed bulkheads. When the specialists explore the base they find it deserted, with mutilated corpses scattered everywhere, and it is unclear what caused the downfall of the base. One thing is clear however; Vita-1 hides a dark, terrible secret somehow related to Mars' distant past...

Characters

The game features three playable characters, who the player can switch between at any time. Time continues to pass for all three characters, so if the player leaves a character in a room with an enemy, that enemy will take the opportunity to murder that character while they stand there helpless. The game ends if any of the three die.

Kenzo Uji

An infomesh computer nerd, Kenzo's technological knowledge will come in handy on the mission. Kenji's skills are particularly useful when it comes to communicating with MOOD, the base's main computer network, whom Kenji can use to ascertain passwords to locked doors, and gather useful information.

Diane Matlock

An expert in the biomedical field, Matlock was sent to Vita 1 in case the lack of communication from the base was as the result of some form of biohazard. She has her own agenda on this mission, as she knew some of the scientists at work on Vita 1, and is determined to discover exactly what happened to them.

Martin Karne

Karne, a military strategist, volunteered to take part in this mission so that he could search Vita-1 for his estranged wife, Judith Harroway, who volunteered for the assignment on the Martian base following the death of their son. Karne's job description is to provide protection for the other two team members from anything dangerous that might be found on the base. Despite this, he agrees to the 'stay alone, stay alive' plan, and separates from the scientists, leaving them to fend for themselves in a very hostile environment.