You know what you’re getting when you look at the cover of any House Of The Dead game – a house, full of the ‘dead’, which you’ll have to blast away mercilessly. Even the titles of many horror games give a general indication of what’s to come – The Last Of Us has the heavy implication of post-apocalyptic drama; Alien: Isolation suggests being stuck in space with a monster; Doom, well, suggests doom. But Martian Gothic: Unification (henceforth MGU) has a title so abstractly and mindlessly constructed, it’s enough to put players off even picking it up.
Developed by Take-Two Interactive (publishers of such varied big-hitters as Grand Theft Auto, Top Spin, and Bioshock), this third-person survival horror received average reviews upon release in 2000, pawned off as a rip-off of other popular games in the genre (namely, Resident Evil). But, if you can track this mysterious PS1 release down, it may offer a more fruitful (and frightful) experience than you think.
The central mystery of MGU is actually rather intriguing; written by sci-fi author Stephen Marley, it tells the story of three astronauts sent to investigate Vita-01, the first human settlement on Mars. For 10 months, the base has been dead silent – no communications whatsoever. Upon arrival, the crew, (Kenzo, Karne and Matlock), are given one very important instruction: “Stay alone, stay alive.” The horrific events which led to the downfall of Vita-01 unravel as you progress through the game, with one particularly haunting transmission warning: “It was a Pandora’s Box – all the evils of old Mars flew out.”
By ‘evils’, they mean a supernatural curse that has, unfortunately, for our obscurely named characters, awoken the previously dead inhabitants of the colony. So while they’re wandering the lonely corridors of the base, they have to put up with zombies, spiders and disgustingly realized monsters called Trimorphs, which vary from small pests that want to nibble at your legs, to huge body-tearing beasts.
Gameplay wise, it’s very similar to Resident Evil. There’s a fixed camera angle, a large inventory available to you and frustratingly difficult gunplay. But the key part of the game which separates this from the crop of 3D survival shooters is a good one; your characters can never meet. If you do, you’ll both ‘gruesomely merge into a Trimorph’ (you never see this happen, you just die). As such, you can take control of any of the three characters at any given time; which is handy, because to actually complete the game you need to do a lot of digging.
By a lot, I mean carrying around 100 inventory items, searching every shelf, drawer, and pocket, quizzing the in-game supercomputer à la HAL 9000 called MOOD (brilliantly voiced by Fenella Fielding), and if you care for your own sanity, taking plenty of actual written notes. In order to share necessary items with your team, you need to use vacuum tubes – a loot box-esque system that sends anything your team needs across the map. This becomes increasingly challenging when the impending threat of zombies becomes more frequent, meaning you often have to be pretty speedy.
There’s a lot to be admired for a game that blends such cerebral demand and shooting the undead. It could be argued it’s too hard for its own good, lacking on the more fun aspects you’d find in say, Resident Evil, or Silent Hill – but for enthusiasts of the genre, it’s a deeply and deftly thought out narrative, progressing much like a movie.
The cinematic comparison goes for the visuals too; considering this is a port of a PC game towards the bitter end of the PS1’s lifespan, the photorealistic surroundings and cut-scenes boast stellar graphics. The character design, however, is typically blocky, and some of the voice acting is truly hilarious, with Karne sounding like a really terrible impression of an American soldier stereotype. But just when that may be tipping your opinion of the game, the music saves the day – ominous and creepy, elevating the fear-factor of exploring the vacant corridors of this disturbing necropolis.
The opening titles are especially marvelous, evoking an immediate sense of looming dread, with a ghoulish accompanying voiceover. The game creates that crucial sensation when embarking through a survival horror outing; that sometimes you’ll feel the need to pause because you’re uneasy about what’s around the corner.
This isn’t a flawless testament to a forgotten game. MGU, like many games, has several issues – dodgy controls, a punishing disregard for how much humans can actually retain and game mechanics that eventually lose their novelty. But as far as atmospheric, in-depth, spooky space outings go, this will likely be a sorely missed treat for many sci-fi horror fans.