Martian Gothic: Unification

Mars is all the rage at the moment, and we're not talking about a new limited edition orange-flavoured chocolate bar. There are two big blockbuster films, one already released, the other coming out in the summer, and now one mediocre little game. The best way to describe Martian Gothic is as a rip-off of Resident Evil (graphics, zombies) and System Shock 2 (story, atmosphere), only infinitely inferior to both.

You control three characters on a Mars station where something strange has happened, leaving dead crew strewn around rooms and corridors or turned into zombies (sound familiar?). The backgrounds are well drawn, but your men move around like badly animated marionettes.

The monsters do the most stupid things imaginable and they have to chew on your head for more than ten minutes before you die, while the awful dialogue is only matched by the acting. There is a game to get into here, but it's hardly worth bothering with the PlayStation version, never mind on your slick, ninja PC.