Martian Gothic: Unification

Moby ID: 1679
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

It's the year 2017. The planet Earth sets up a research station, Vita Base, on Mars with the mission to discover if life did exist there. After a discovery there comes one last garbled message—danger, danger cliché approaching--“have opened Pandora’s box… all the evils of old Mars have flown out,” and a warning, “…if you do send a manned mission, warn the crew…Stay Alone, Stay Alive…” then nothing. So now it’s 2018, and your rescue mission to Mars crash lands. When you get to the base, the welcome wagon is made up of zombies and an alien virus that will make you look back fondly on the days of the Black Plague.

You control a team of three: Kenzo, Karne and Matlock. They enter the base from different airlocks and try to discover what happened. The reason for the whole "Stay alone, stay alive" warning is that if your team members come together they end up forming into a disgusting mass of flesh -- picture the thing from Leviathan -- called a Trimorph.

As you proceed though the base you find clues as to what occurred. In addition, you run into Trimorphs, some of the non zombiefied former base crew, that are bent on your destruction. They come in two sizes -- the small spidery kind which hack at your shins and jump on your face or the huge "better run like hell" monstrosities that will tear you to pieces.

Spellings

  • Готика Марса: Кровавая сторона планеты - Russian spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (Windows version)

46 People · View all

Mood
Matlock
Kenzo
Karne
Harroway
Ben Gunn
Other Voices
Recordings made at
  • Audio Interactive; Pinewood Studios
  • Headroom Studios; Notting Hill - London
  • Matinee Studios; Reading - Berkshire
Programming
Animation
Everything Audio
Script and game design
Backgrounds
Poly Models and Textures
Concept Art
Other Graphics
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 68% (based on 29 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 32 ratings with 1 reviews)

Resident Evil meets the planet Mars - but is this a good or bad thing?

The Good
Basically, this game is Resident Evil set on a futuristic Mars base, with zombies and grotesque monsters (which is a good thing) and a few very scary sequences that will make your heart stop. The puzzle element is quite unique in the way it is portrayed, but not very big. One atmospheric feature is salvaging audio recorders, which contain the members last moments. I liked some of the random-yet-weird comedy scenes in the game, although not used extensively (which is also a good thing). Also, the computer AI called "MOOD" was quite a lovable person, the way she speaks scary things. Probably contains the most scariest lines in PlayStation 1 history and plus, the starting sequence narration is quite atmospheric, which I simply loved. But the game's unique feature was; if any of your players meet face-to-face, they eat each other!

The Bad
Well, the graphics are terribly outdated for one thing, and the weapons arsenal is quite limited to only a few weapons (A POP GUN? WHAT ON EARTH-- or should I say, MARS!?) and the controls were quite weird, although with time, could seem better. The plot could have been improved, but that doesn't really matter compared to the scary elements.

The Bottom Line
If you've played this game, you either hate it or slightly love it, although you probably only love it for the zombies and scary stuff. If you're wanting to play it, I so very highly recommend you play the PC version as the PlayStation version is full of fatal bugs, the infamous one of which is one that almost always crashes the console, so get the PC version! If you don't know if you should get it or not, it really depends on if you're a Resident Evil / zombie horror fan, as this game practically copied it.

Windows · by Reborn_Demon (127) · 2006

Trivia

Development

  • Martian Gothic actually started life as a point and click adventure game. When Stephen Marley joined the team he re-wrote the storyline and changed the game to an action adventure game.
  • The Martian Mayhem was supposed to be a mini game which was eventually scrapped due to time constrain. In fact, there were many things that didn't make into the final product.
  • *SPOILER* The Necropolis had more areas to explore, the alarm clock in Judith's room was supposed to be part of a puzzle, a fourth character would come into play late in the game, more speech and alternate endings.

References

There's an amusing letter to be found on the corpse of a crewmember. It mentions how he is going to kill himself to stop them getting into his head. He concludes with.... "I leave all my worldly possessions to my ex-wife. The bitch will probably take them anyway."

Information also contributed by Mark Ennis.

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1679
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Matthew Bailey.

PlayStation added by Atomic Punch!.

Additional contributors: Rebound Boy, John Chaser, Stratege, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger.

Game added June 18, 2000. Last modified January 19, 2024.