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Introduction

Man has endeavored to probe the depths of space in his continued attempt to expand his mind and explore the unknown. In the first part of the 21st century, man has successfully achieved his goal of sending a man to Mars. A small research base has been established on the surface of the red planet to determine if the terraformation of the surface and the amalgamation of terrestrial/Martian creatures are feasible. Unfortunately, something goes wrong. The last distorted message that Earth receives from its Martian outpost is the cryptic maxim “Stay alone, stay alive.” In response to this communication blackout, Earth sends an expeditionary crew to the Martian base to determine the nature of the problem. Despite the seemingly incoherent message of the transmission, the crew of the spacecraft is instructed to follow the statement literally. They are to enter the compound in separate airlocks, and are to stay away from each other throughout the duration of the mission.

Gameplay

In general, Martian Gothic plays like a standard adventure game. Most of the puzzles involve finding the key to a given door, unlocking that door, and proceeding to the next puzzle. The characters are forced to stay away from each other in order to heighten the complication. The only methods that the characters use to interact with each other is either via remote terminals (computers) that operate doors and levers, or via a networking system of vacuum tubes, similar to those found in courthouses, used to transmit equipment. Often times you are forced to find a given piece of equipment off of a continently placed storage locker, or a nearby dead body, and then send it to one of the other characters via these tubes. Frequently, I'd be hopscotching characters back and fourth, moving one into a room where there is a key that I need to allow another character to go through a separate door. I then had to send the key to the other character, and then move into the next room and repeat the process. This task was very tedious and repetitive, and after a while became quite annoying.