Martian Gothic: Unification
Encyclopedia
Martian Gothic: Unification (a.k.a. Martian Gothic) is a survival horror game for the PlayStation and PC
. It was developed
by Creative Reality and published
by Take-Two Interactive
. Programmers Neil Dodwell and Martin Wong, designer Stephen Marley
, animator David Dew, modelers Julian Holtom and Paul Oglesby, and music & sound effects by Jeremy Taylor. The PlayStation version was one of a number of "budget titles" released near the end of the that system's lifespan that debuted at only $9.99 MSRP
In terms of player control, Martian Gothic is very similar to the early Resident Evil
game titles: the Vac Tubes function the same way as Item Boxes, and the control of the characters and the camera angles are almost identical (often called the 'Character Turret' or 'Tank' system of control).
to a Martian
base called Vita 1 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 must gradually uncover the secrets and nature the last undertaking by Vita 1's crew; the discovery of ancient Martian "Pandora's Box" which, when opened, started a chain of chaotic events that led to the base's downfall, and death of all almost its inhabitants. However, during the player's progress of uncovering the truth, searching for any possible survivors, and solving Vita 1's many mounting problems, the player finds that the dead crew have become re-animated like zombies who wish to feast upon the team of three's flesh.
The Vita 1 base was constructed in 2009 by the Allenby Corporation, implied to be Earth's most powerful megacorporation, to research potential alien life from microfossils on Mars, after discovering in 1996 that a Martian meteorite found in 1984 contains ancient bacteria which had crashed in Antarctica in 11,000 BC. Vita 1 is situated very close to Olympus Mons
which can be partially visited by the player upon access to the underground "Necropolis" zone - the human-excavated ruins of an old Martian city - of Vita 1.
s of Vita 1 base, MOOD apathetically predicts that, although three have entered, only two will leave alive. Now separated into different airlocks, the three simultaneously record logs onto audio recorders, and using radio's from spacesuits in their respective airlocks, make verbal contact with each other to make sure everyone is alright. All three go through decontamination
, but each notes something is "wrong, something very wrong" concerning the decontamination gas they are exposed to. Initially, only Kenzo can enter the base, as Karne and Matlock's airlock doors have been locked. Kenzo stumbles upon various dead bodies in the silent hallways, including the corpse of the base's leader, Antonio Fellicci. By listening to his recorder, Kenzo discovers that the base's downfall came about when people started shooting at each other in the base hallways. Kenzo finds Fellicci's room, but finds a dead man supernaturally levitating in the hallway. He uses his radio to inform Karne and Matlock, but Karne believes that Kenzo is joking. Using his Fellicci's computer, Kenzo manages to unlock the door to Karne's airlock. However, after using the door controls, the dead body of Fellicci's girlfriend suddenly comes back to life, and tries to attack Kenzo.
Karne exits his airlock and enters the base in a different area than the one Kenzo has explored. This area contains more dead bodies which show signs of a gunfight among the base members, which Karne theorizes was the result of "group hysteria," but the cause of it is unknown. Not long after traversing the hallways, Karne notices that his watch now displays the impossible time of "48:62" which reminds him of hearing about "strange stories of the main computer of this base." This time turns out to be the passcode for a locker in one of the hallways, in which contains a Green Tag. Tags are used to open locked doors in the Vita 1 base, with a certain coloured tag opening a corresponding colour door. By unlocking doors and finding more tags, which are traded with Kenzo to further progress, the two make more exploration through the base, until eventually Karne gains access to the arboretum
chamber. Here, the base members were growing terrain and martian plants, which would also supply oxygen
and therefore sustain the atmosphere of all base members. It is here Karne obtains a gun from a base member who had committed suicide
, and upon trying to access the adjacent room which regulates the base's airflow, finds a Trimorph - a mutated zombified mass of three base members; he informs Kenzo and Matlock, "it's big, it's ugly, and you wouldn't wanna share a beer with it."Karne"
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. It was developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
by Creative Reality and published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
by Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a major American publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals. Take-Two wholly owns 2K Games and Rockstar Games. The company's headquarters are in New York City, with international headquarters in Windsor, United Kingdom...
. Programmers Neil Dodwell and Martin Wong, designer Stephen Marley
Stephen Marley (writer)
Stephen Marley is a British author and video game designer, best known for his Chia Black Dragon series. He was born in Derby of Irish parents and was educated in Bemrose School in Derby and at Nottingham. He graduated in Social Anthropology in 1971 in London, gained an M.Sc in the Sociology of...
, animator David Dew, modelers Julian Holtom and Paul Oglesby, and music & sound effects by Jeremy Taylor. The PlayStation version was one of a number of "budget titles" released near the end of the that system's lifespan that debuted at only $9.99 MSRP
Gameplay
A unique feature of this game is that if any of the characters meet face to face, the bacteria that has infected them draw all three characters into a 'Trimorph' at which point of the game is lost. Because the characters cannot meet face-to-face, they can trade items using a system of "Vac Tubes," which can transport 4 items to other Vac Tubes at a time. Also, when the player needs to leave an item behind, she/he may do so by leaving the relevant item into various hatches, which can hold up to 4-6 items. Using the hatches may leave the player confused about where she/he left the item, but the player can use any in-game computer to bring up a list of the contents of every hatch, including ones that have not been accessed yet. In order for the character to unravel the events before their arrival, they may search dead bodies for letters or micro-recorders which may contain information about the character, plot, passwords, and the method in which they might have died. Many recordings have been stored on some of the base's computers, which also contain information about the person or the storyline, to provide information that can further the player's progress through the game setting.In terms of player control, Martian Gothic is very similar to the early Resident Evil
Resident Evil (series)
Resident Evil, known as in Japan, is a media franchise owned by the video game company Capcom. It was created by Shinji Mikami as a survival horror game series that was initiated with the eponymous PlayStation title Resident Evil in 1996. Since then, the game series has strayed from its roots to...
game titles: the Vac Tubes function the same way as Item Boxes, and the control of the characters and the camera angles are almost identical (often called the 'Character Turret' or 'Tank' system of control).
Setting
In Martian Gothic, the player is able to assume the roles of three characters sent from EarthEarth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
to a Martian
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
base called Vita 1 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 must gradually uncover the secrets and nature the last undertaking by Vita 1's crew; the discovery of ancient Martian "Pandora's Box" which, when opened, started a chain of chaotic events that led to the base's downfall, and death of all almost its inhabitants. However, during the player's progress of uncovering the truth, searching for any possible survivors, and solving Vita 1's many mounting problems, the player finds that the dead crew have become re-animated like zombies who wish to feast upon the team of three's flesh.
The Vita 1 base was constructed in 2009 by the Allenby Corporation, implied to be Earth's most powerful megacorporation, to research potential alien life from microfossils on Mars, after discovering in 1996 that a Martian meteorite found in 1984 contains ancient bacteria which had crashed in Antarctica in 11,000 BC. Vita 1 is situated very close to Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is a large volcanic mountain on the planet Mars. At a height of almost , it is one of the tallest mountains in the Solar System, three times as tall as Mount Everest and more than twice the height of Mauna Kea the tallest mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large...
which can be partially visited by the player upon access to the underground "Necropolis" zone - the human-excavated ruins of an old Martian city - of Vita 1.
Characters
The Allenby Corporation has sent a group of three members to its Vita 1 via spacecraft which crash-lands just outside Vita 1's airlock entries, to investigate the ten-month-long radio silence. This investigative team consists of Kenzo Uji, an infomesh expert ('infomesh' being an in-game term relating to human-computer virtual interface) who describes himself as a "techno-zen hippy;" Martin Karne, the security escort of the team who volunteered for the mission; and Diane Matlock, a scientist who has friends in Vita 1. These three characters are controlled by the player. However, other non-player-controlled characters are encountered such as MOOD, the main computer of Vita 1 who has her own personality; Ben Gunn, the only living survivor of Vita 1's outbreak, who is shown to be possibly insane; and Judith Halloway, the Vita 1 project director, who was last person to contact Earth with the final message "Stay alone, stay alive."Story
Taking place on June 17 of 2019, ten months after Vita 1's last contact to Earth with the message "stay alone, stay alive" on August 8 of 2018, the investigative team of Kenzo Uji, Martin Karne, and Diane Matlock approach Vita 1 on Mars in their nutshell-shaped spacecraft. Vita 1's main computer MOOD claims to sense their arrival, and know "each name, each individual pain" of the arriving three. Whilst Kenzo, as pilot of the spacecraft, is forced to make a crash landing on the Martian surface and it's crew depart into different airlockAirlock
An airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it...
s of Vita 1 base, MOOD apathetically predicts that, although three have entered, only two will leave alive. Now separated into different airlocks, the three simultaneously record logs onto audio recorders, and using radio's from spacesuits in their respective airlocks, make verbal contact with each other to make sure everyone is alright. All three go through decontamination
Decontamination
Decontamination is the process of cleansing the human body to remove contamination by hazardous materials including chemicals, radioactive substances, and infectious material...
, but each notes something is "wrong, something very wrong" concerning the decontamination gas they are exposed to. Initially, only Kenzo can enter the base, as Karne and Matlock's airlock doors have been locked. Kenzo stumbles upon various dead bodies in the silent hallways, including the corpse of the base's leader, Antonio Fellicci. By listening to his recorder, Kenzo discovers that the base's downfall came about when people started shooting at each other in the base hallways. Kenzo finds Fellicci's room, but finds a dead man supernaturally levitating in the hallway. He uses his radio to inform Karne and Matlock, but Karne believes that Kenzo is joking. Using his Fellicci's computer, Kenzo manages to unlock the door to Karne's airlock. However, after using the door controls, the dead body of Fellicci's girlfriend suddenly comes back to life, and tries to attack Kenzo.
Karne exits his airlock and enters the base in a different area than the one Kenzo has explored. This area contains more dead bodies which show signs of a gunfight among the base members, which Karne theorizes was the result of "group hysteria," but the cause of it is unknown. Not long after traversing the hallways, Karne notices that his watch now displays the impossible time of "48:62" which reminds him of hearing about "strange stories of the main computer of this base." This time turns out to be the passcode for a locker in one of the hallways, in which contains a Green Tag. Tags are used to open locked doors in the Vita 1 base, with a certain coloured tag opening a corresponding colour door. By unlocking doors and finding more tags, which are traded with Kenzo to further progress, the two make more exploration through the base, until eventually Karne gains access to the arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
chamber. Here, the base members were growing terrain and martian plants, which would also supply oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
and therefore sustain the atmosphere of all base members. It is here Karne obtains a gun from a base member who had committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, and upon trying to access the adjacent room which regulates the base's airflow, finds a Trimorph - a mutated zombified mass of three base members; he informs Kenzo and Matlock, "it's big, it's ugly, and you wouldn't wanna share a beer with it."Karne"