I’m always in for a good horror night. I love to watch scary movies and love to play horror games a lot. When it comes to movies, it’s easily my favorite genre, in games, not so much. Not because I don’t get scared or so but most of the time, horror games fail to keep me entertained and lack innovation that would potentially pull me in. When we received the review code for Martha is Dead, I was pretty excited to start playing, is this one of the better horror experiences? Let’s find out!
Martha is shocked
Martha is Dead is created by the Italian team over at LKA and is published by Wired Productions, it’s best described as a first-person physiological adventure that could easily be considered as an arthouse production. Now, before we jump deeper into the game itself, let me warn you, this game isn’t for the faint of heart. As you might have seen online, some segments of the game are censored on PlayStation since they are simply too extreme compared to other horror games. I played the Xbox version, which is uncensored and can confirm that some scenes are indeed very shocking. Martha is Dead tries to show what would happen if you’re not really capable of coping with the death of someone that was close to you. It’s a game filled with grief and as we all know, grief sometimes comes in horrible shapes.
The game is set in 1944 in Italy during World War II. You play as Guilia, the twin daughter of German/Italian parents who just found out that her sister Martha is Dead. Without going into spoiler territory here, it’s amazing to see how well-crafted this story is. Nothing is what it seems and there’s far more to the story than you would anticipate when you first start playing. What first looks like a family drama has a more supernatural twist to it. Not only, will you follow the story of Guilia, you’ll also learn more about the mysterious ‘white lady’ a haunted spirit of a murdered woman who was killed in the lake. She still roams those lands and often takes other victims to her watery grave.
Find the truth
A big part of the game is exploring the story and finding out what’s really going on. A task that won’t be boring at all. The atmosphere is key in Martha is Dead and the developers really managed to create something special. While you’re trying to unravel the mysteries buried deep in the narratives, you’ll often move from one setting to another one. At times, it’s all super realistic with the devastation of war constantly lurking in the background. At other times, it takes a more fantasy and folklore route by adding fictional characters and events to the drama. The game is fully voiced in Italian with English subs, which really adds a lot to the overall atmosphere. When it comes to setting the tone, this game really nails every small detail and truly offers a story worth exploring.
This exploration happens in first-person perspective where you can walk around in your house and a couple of different environments. Here, you’ll look for clues and hints that can guide you further into the story. It’s your rather typical mystery-solving puzzle mechanism that gets enhanced by some very authentic additions. Guilia loves to take pictures and in order to advance, you’ll need to take a couple of those during the game. This picture taking and developing of the photograph in your darkroom is extremely realistic and authentic, which really elevates the immersion a lot. The game offers a couple of those flashbacks to early technology, such as morse code as well and all are pretty fun to play. That being said, the more I advanced in the game, the less I got the feeling that this is a horror game. I had a blast playing the mini-games and discovering how this story would eventually unfold but the true horror is packed in the first half of the game. The more you discover, the more mini-games and challenges you’ll need to complete in order to move on. Nothing game-breaking or bad, but just worth mentioning. Now, in all honesty, perhaps it’s not that bad that the game isn’t as intense as its beginning all the time since that would be pretty much unbearable.
Conclusion:
Martha is Dead is an interesting horror game that starts off extremely horrifying but finds its true pacing a bit further in the story. It’s an interesting story thanks to its unique atmosphere but the ending could have been a bit better to be honest. It’s a game definitely worth playing if you’re a fan of the genre.
