Gore! Ghosts! Germans!
Before beginning this game, warnings assault the player’s senses from every angle. Adult material. Grown-up themes. Disturbing content. And having played it, it’s easy to see why.
From self-harm and child abuse to explicit gore that the player themselves conducts, this game has a lot to make you want to turn away. But you won’t be able to avert those innocent little eyes, not even for a second.
So this ain’t sugary Nintendo-style horror, it’s the real deal.
Because Martha Is Dead, LKA’s unremitting horror sim will never let you
In the game’s opening scene, protagonist Giulia talks about what happened to her up to this point. Her character model is photo-realistic, with close-up shots of her scarred visage wrenching the player right into her dark, bloody world.
But as will be discovered throughout the 7-hour campaign, all is not as it seems, and Giulia’s mind is very much affected by events around her, rather than her just being innately unstable.
Navigating the world is intuitive and simple, as Giulia walks around her Italian villa, looking for clues to what happened. Her sister drowned, and she wanted to know why.
Objects of significance are highlighted with an arrow, and Giulia comments when an object is out of accessibility range, or the player needs to perform a certain action first.
There are no overly formal, annoying tutorials, and none are needed, as everything comes together quickly for the player to get on with the action and complete tasks to progress the story.
What a story! Martha Is Dead draws the player in like a ghostly lake lady’s phantasmal fingers
It’s as if this game wants to pull you deep into the murky depths below. Although the story is slow to get started, this is its strength, as once you have entered, you will never want to leave.
Seen through Giulia’s eyes, the player becomes part of a complex web of deceit and abuse, which eventually leads to Giulia discovering the truth about her sister’s death. And once she does, she wishes she hadn’t.
Many aspects of the narrative will turn some players off. At first glance, certain scenes appear like click-bait gimmicks to get streamers interested.
it feels a little unfinished, and that’s a shame
However, every shock scene comes with its own clear explanation and context by the end of the game.
Much like in other games, such as The Last Of Us: Part II, where Ellie’s excessively violent methods are a device for showing the futility and self-destruction of revenge, gore is used here to explain a lot about the protagonist.
The player will do many things they are gut-wrenchingly uncomfortable with. But it’s all part of a larger picture. And one that is worth the suffering to view from a distance.
One thing which is often lacking in horror games, especially walking-sim style games is gameplay. But this is something Martha Is Dead has in spades.
There are many tasks to complete, and these are achieved in a variety of ways. As you click the shutter on a camera, slice through flesh, or ride a bike along a dirt path, everything is completed in a contextually appropriate and varied way with imaginative use of the controls.
Speaking of variety, there’s a smorgasbord of secrets to unlock
Walkthroughs for the achievements of Martha Is Dead show several different hidden away objects in all the nooks and crannies of the small, perfectly formed map.
And the best thing is that mystery is a central theme of the narrative, so all secrets both add to and are contextually appropriate to the story.
But surely, you may shout, there are downsides too!? No game is perfect! And you’d be right. Martha Is Dead is not without its drawbacks.
This game is poorly optimised; there’s no doubt about it
We have seen it before, countless times (Bethesda, we’re looking at you!), but just because it’s the norm doesn’t make it acceptable.
Major lag, choppy frame rates and the time delay for lip-syncing are all aspects of this game that may be fixed in future as the devs work on patches. But that doesn’t help players who have already forked out the cash, be it a meagre £22.49 (on Steam at the time of writing).
These things by no means make the game unplayable in its current build, as some will undoubtedly claim. But the fact remains, it feels a little unfinished, and that’s a shame.
The soundtrack to Martha Is Dead is perfectly pitched to the darkness of everything that the player sees and does in the game. This OST is present when it needs to be and blends into the background when appropriate too.
Haunting and shadowy as one would expect, this soundtrack is, however, not as memorable as some and may not stand up to many listens without the accompanying visuals of the game.
Conclusion
Overall, Martha Is Dead is an engaging, gut-wrenchingly unforgettable journey.
Its clever blend of WW2 setting with paranormal occurrences, mixed with real-world examples of trauma, coalesce seamlessly, leaving the player deeply entertained, dazzled, and feeling a little bit wrong, but in exactly the right way.
So despite the drawbacks, Martha Is Dead is a must-play gaming experience.
