Potentially intriguing but ultimately lacking; although it has a good plot to boot.
Another flaw is in some gameplay elements. While there are unique features to it, like an innovative character selection system, a vac tube item swap feature, the necessity to keep characters away from each other, and some interesting puzzles, it suffers from a lot of sluggishness. Your character moves both terribly slowly and reacts slowly. Controls may be awkward for some, and you may be baffled at the way your character runs (they all run the same). The weapons are either weak or unbelievable, and to ice the cake, they have unbelievable names or uses. The 'Piccolo', for example, is perhaps the worst first level pistol in the genre, and the worst I have ever seen; it's totally underpowered, holds only 6 shots, and because of another flaw I will also mention, it's practically useless but you're forced to use it anyway. There is also a necessary weapon in the game, the Flaregun, that only does damage to one type of enemy, which is disappointing considering it's potential for destruction. Aside from those two and all but two of the other weapons, the weapons in this game are only a minor element of the game to help strengthen it's action department.
The enemies could be better. The non-dead (this game's way of saying "Zombie") is an obstacle rather than an enemy. Instead of being a threat to you, they get in your way. They come right back up, apparently unhindered, and go at you again. This repeats itself throughout the entire game. No weapon does anything to stop it; they just keep coming and coming. While a resurrection feature would have been nice in the first place, the way this game does it is bad because it doesn't stop. You should be able to destroy these enemies completely. There's also a very large, and to some, creepy enemy called the TriMorph; three unfortunate individuals clumped together into one big, ugly mess. They're invincible to all but one weapon mentioned above, and once they get into contact with your characters, they kill you, so there's no way to resist an attack. Like the non-dead, they are also an obstacle throughout the game. Unlike the non-dead, they can be threatening to your progress as they may chase you down a corridor or other place. However, the flaw in this enemy is that it is a bit too ghoulish looking to be truly riveting. There's one last enemy that is an 'offspring' of the TriMorph, and this enemy is more a nuisance or an excuse to run than a threat or an obstacle. A better enemy roster would have been nice for this game, might I add.
Graphically, the game is a mixed bag. The backgrounds are pretty, and help boost the atmospheric touch the game is aiming for; objects are scattered among the floors and walls, helping create a mood of despair or chaos; the rooms have a retro-deco look to them, and the underground area is fairly interesting. However as redeeming as the backgrounds may be, the modeling isn't. Your characters look worse than the ones present in the first Resident Evil; they're blocky, poorly drawn, and have few distinct features to either of them. Your enemies suffer similarly; every non-dead in the game looks the same, and they look more like Halloween decorations than zombies, and TriMorphs look like big, red/brown uglies, along with a similar suffering by your playable characters. The interface isn't all that pleasing either. It has only two colors in the whole screen, other than the two option buttons. The audio is an impressive feat. The music throughout consists of wind music, or orchestrated pieces that are laced with all-out creepiness. Your characters have a fair amount of dialogue, even though they usually speak to themselves rather than to other characters. You'll get an audio cue when your character is attacked by the non-dead. Like a handful of other games in the genre, the story is boosted by the presence of audio logs by the recently deceased base members. These are, at times, interesting or dull. In a few places, you'll hear loud, animal-like growls from the TriMorphs (a notable area where this is present is in a corridor near one of your character's starting positions). In total, each audio effect helps build the game's tension, or atmosphere rather. That is to say, the story of the game is both confusing and interesting. While it is robust in many ways, and has a nice change from the usual settings of other games in the genre (the only game of it's kind to be placed on Mars, to be so kind), there's a lot more in the way of plot developments rather than presentation that prove to confuse the player more than help the player understand it. There's almost too much being thrown at you during the course of the game. The script is written by the science-fiction author Stephen Marley, so you know that it is going to be at least decent.
As a result, Martian Gothic has a few ups (story, audio, and a few gameplay elements) but many more downs. It had a lot of potential, but it failed to impress in the end. A remake would be a neat idea, with remedies for the things that it failed doing, and some new/replaced elements for good measure. Until that is even considered anywhere, you'll have to make do with this game at hand. PC notes: Get the patch for this game before even playing, if you're lucky to be able to. Without the patch, there is at least one instance in the game that can stop your progress completely and repeatedly; the patch fixes this of course. Also, as mentioned in the beginning, you can probably play this game if you have a newer edition of Windows by downloading it off the internet.