Graphics: I have never seen a game with as much contrast between the visual quality of the backgrounds and that of the characters as this one. The settings in Martian Gothic are absorbing, while not approaching state-of-the-art quality in any of the genres this title encompasses: the pre-rendered environments are detailed, full of interesting objects, consistent in their artistic tone, and quite other-worldly in their appearance. The polygonal figures overlaid on this background, however, are awful to behold, with no sense of depth, no realism in movement, and no ability to inspire psychological attraction or repulsion. Frankly, while characters like this did seem appropriate in the original Alone in the Dark, they seem totally ludicrous here, clashing with the far more realistic backgrounds and often being unintentionally downright laughable. The obviously outdated graphics engine still limits you to 640×480 resolution and barely seems to take advantage of the required 3D hardware video acceleration.

The poorly-chosen fixed camera angles for viewing the action are as much a culprit as the character drawings for ruining the visuals. There always seem to be critical portions of rooms you just cannot see, too few pre-determined paths for moving through rooms, and jerky changes of camera angle right where you would least expect it. For these reasons, controlling character movement becomes an exercise in frustration, and I find myself constantly sending someone in the wrong direction or turning the wrong way right when my character can least afford this kind of mistake to survive.

Interface: Martian Gothic accepts input from keyboard or joystick/gamepad, oddly lacking any form of mouse support during the gameplay. My Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad works fine here, and generally I think the gamepad is the input device of choice for this offering. But regardless of what device is used, I found there to be a noticeable lag between when you push a button or key and when you see the response on the screen, particularly during battles when ultra-responsive input is most critical.

The inventory and save game systems here are both mixed bags. Each character can carry a lot of items at once, and you may send items to your teammates easily via the vacuum tubes; but it is annoying that it is hard to discard items when your inventory is full, especially since many items you pick up are not needed around the time you obtain them. You may save your progress on base computers scattered about, and it is cute that to do so you access a fictional PC game entitled Martian Mayhem; but there are far too few of these terminals, and each has a very small number of save slots available.

Gameplay: The gameplay in Martian Gothic is disappointing because neither of the two principal components — combat or puzzles — are executed in a satisfying way. The fighting is just too slow and unexciting, and the puzzles are too repetitive and not brain stretching. In both areas the collision detection is more than occasionally erratic.

Hindered by the sub-par character animation, the battles with the aliens are awkward and unconvincing. Like many other action-adventure titles such as THQ’s Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren, you simply cannot swivel or move around with sufficient deftness, and redundant canned animations injected into the combat interfere with the flow anyway. Given these limitations, along with the inadequate ammunition available and the annoying reality that the zombies quickly regenerate, you are better off running from the aliens than making a stand and fighting them.

The puzzles usually degenerate into just finding ways to locate passes of many colors — even including rainbow — to get where you want to go, to open locked doors, and less frequently to fix broken equipment or restore power. Not only are the puzzles similar to one another, but also they consistently fail to display any form of breakthrough ingenuity. Like the combat, when you have to do something quickly — such as running away after you light an oily rag — the interface gets in the way.

Sound FX: The sound effects in Martian Gothic are decidedly unimpressive. The noises all seems to be ones I have heard before elsewhere, without the slightest touch of innovation. In contrast to these generic effects, the voices of the characters are above average, with the dialog uttered with sincerity and a noticeable lack of overdone histrionics. There is also decent support here for 3D surround sound and the EAX hardware 3D sound standard.

Musical Score: The background music is actually the best aspect of the game. It is ominous, tension-inducing, and at times electrifying. Its volume changes with the mood of the gameplay, getting more forceful when key turning points occur. This is a full orchestral score, with very high audio quality, and my biggest disappointment is that it does not play continuously throughout the gameplay experience.

Intelligence & Difficulty: Even though the puzzles are not intrinsically that intellectually challenging, they may end up frustrating even experienced adventure veterans for a couple of reasons. First, it is hard to make informed decisions about what goes where when you are being attacked constantly and available save slots are not nearby. Second, and most importantly, it is difficult to know when to switch to control another character or when to pass something from your inventory to one of them. As far as I can tell, there are few if any clues suggesting the proper timing for this kind of exchange, and trial-and-error works poorly because of the large array of options and the ever interfering zombies.

The artificial intelligence of the computer-controlled enemies appears kind of primitive, as they simply seem to rush at you whenever you get too close. But since it takes a number of shots using most of the weapons to stop each foe, and the zombies regenerate so quickly, there seems to be little need to have more complex attack strategies programmed into their behavior.

Overall: Martian Gothic displays promise in virtually every aspect of its design, reflecting the ambitious initial inspiration, but somehow finds a way to botch up the principal features in the actual execution of the product. From the woeful character depictions to the poor fixed camera angles, from the input lag to the repetitive gameplay, something went seriously wrong here. What with boring puzzles, clumsy action, and few goosebumps, this title is simply not enjoyable. Sadly, then, this squandered release leaves our thirst for knowledge about life on Mars rather completely unquenched.