I’m always intrigued when an upcoming horror game has some controversy attached to it. With this title, Martha Is Dead made plenty of headlines just before its release. Unfortunately, what I was hearing was a bit bothersome. It seems the people at Sony have asked the developers at LKA to censor this game. So, it’s a bummer to say that the PlayStation versions are already the inferior versions to play this game for that fact alone. It is true, what has been edited doesn’t necessarily affect the overall experience of Martha Is Dead, but the fact that Sony felt compelled to interfere, gave this horror game more eyes than it maybe deserved. There is also the whole argument of censoring art that I won’t get into. But if it’s not obvious, I’m very against it.
As stated, Martha Is Dead is developed by LKA Games and released by Wired Productions. LKA originates in Italy, where the story of this game is told. It’s also where I’m from, so it was cool to see an Italian game hit the mainstream like this one did. The story takes place during World War II and you play as Giulia. You tragically find your twin sister, Martha, dead. Giulia decides to take on her deceased counterpart’s identity and tries to earn affection with her abusive mother, who always preferred Martha. It’s also worth noting that Martha was deaf, which conveniently makes taking over her life a bit easier. Giulia also sets off on a mission to figure out what exactly happened to her late sister.
I appreciated that the default audio language is Italian, there is an English option, but I’d recommend keeping with the Italian, it helped make the story be more authentic. The gameplay itself can be very basic. It’s mostly a first-person interactive story. The mechanics are as simple as can be. For a horror game, that’s mainly trying to tell a story, this isn’t really a bad thing. It does try to mix things up by giving you access to a camera to take photos, along with having access to a darkroom to develop your photos. For the most part, though, you are doing a lot of tedious back and forth traversing between a handful of places. There are also way more morse code mini games than I would have liked, as well as some marionette puppet performances to mix things up. The photography aspect is probably the best part of the gameplay and I felt it was the most underused, which is a real bummer.
I don’t mean to keep harkening back to the censorship aspect, but the game literally has a censored mode in the options. So having Sony go even further to ask for more things to be edited is upsetting. While I can agree the mode should exist (this game can be a bit graphic, uncomfortable, and maybe even gross for the sake of being gross), if you’re going to have a censored mode then at least be able to have access to the full unedited version the developers intended. After this roughly six-hour experience, I couldn’t help but feel uninspired. There was a lot they wanted to say, but the story can get a bit nonsensical and the game play wasn’t the most fun to even play. Having said that, this game could easily lend itself to being a VR game, and perhaps that could make the playthrough a little better. This is a horror game that isn’t your traditional horror. It tries to hit deeper and sometimes it does succeed, but there is a lot that could be fixed to make the story more engrossing.
I also struggle to recommend playing it on Playstation, when there are uncensored versions on every other platform. If you’re a horror game fanatic and craving something a little bit different, then this may be for you, but perhaps wait for it to be on sale.
6.5/10
Check Out the Martha Is Dead Trailer – HERE
Martha Is Dead is available digitally across PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and the Xbox family of devices For more information, visit: https://wiredproductions.com/games/martha-is-dead/.
Related: MARTHA IS DEAD Psychological Thriller Launches Today for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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