Martian Gothic: Unification
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Originally a PC title, this third person survival horror in the vein of Resident Evil would see a release on the PlayStation nearly a year after the PS2 was available in all markets. Because of this late launch, as well as graphics and a control scheme generally viewed as poor at the time of its release, it's been largely overlooked by the mainstream.
Here's a rough estimation of the plot:
"In Martian Gothic, the player is able to assume the roles of three characters sent from Earth to a Martian base to examine why it has been silent for 10 months, after a base member broadcasts a final message of "Stay alone, stay alive." Upon arrival the player finds that all the residents are apparently dead and that the base hides a horrible secret."
That's right, you play as three different characters with different abilities. While they all control the same and use the same weapons, each has skills required to pass the various puzzles or sections of the game. All three begin the game from different hatches on the base, and are not meant to come into contact with each other. If they do, that nasty unification bit occurs, and the characters are killed instantly. As for why that happens, don't worry, it will be explained in this bizarre Lovecraft-esque science fiction story.
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Since the characters can never enter the same room together, items must be deposited in a series of vacuum tubes spread throughout the facility. Only four items can be put in the vacuum tubes at any time, and players can only hold limited items, so various item storage containers must be used. Unfortunately this means items can get lost and forgotten, though PC terminals will reveal what items are in certain containers around the base if necessary. You can still lose an item by putting it in the wrong location, so think before you stow something.
Maneuvering between these spots might also be difficult for some folks, as Martian Gothic uses the same "tank" control scheme used in the original Resident Evil, lending credence to the claim that this is just another poor RE clone. The game also uses pre-set camera angles, so enemies can sometimes be difficult to see(and it doesn't help that your basic enemy is a zombie). But Martian Gothic also borrows an interesting element from the first Alone in the Dark: you can't kill your enemies. You can put them down for a little while, but they do get back up eventually. This makes avoiding fights absolutely key, which can be extremely difficult in the cramped tunnels of the Mars colony. And even if you could kill some of these things, it's probably better to run from some of the nastier ones anyway.
To progress in the game, you'll have to listen to computer recordings, solve puzzles, and search corpses while making your way through the Mars base and eventually into Olympus Mons and both over and under the Martian surface. It's interesting to note that the game actually started life as a point-and-click adventure title for Windows, but was drastically rewritten and changed when author Stephen Marley(known for his Chia Black Dragon series) joined the cast as a game designer. This means there are lots of puzzles. And they're not easy, either.
The game wasn't exactly well received, getting a Metacritic score of 64. In other words, it's considered average, not spectacular. That said, it also tends to go for dirt cheap. While the Windows version was only released in the United States, the PlayStation version was put out in both the US and Europe.
Here's the intro to the PlayStation version:
