Martha is Dead

Its bleak nature means it’s not for everyone. Those who do play, however, will find a unique depiction of subject matters not often explored in games. [Issue#13, p.87]

Even though the game itself looks stunning and sounds beautiful, the movement mechanics are eye-twitchingly slow and there is a game crashing checkpoint bug. While not as disturbing as people claim, the story of Martha is Dead is a punch in the gut for sure.

It's not every day that you get to play through a game that leaves a mark with its disturbing and tragic story, but Martha Dead was able to achieve something that got me thinking from start to finish. The game's incredible soundtrack and sound design are harrowing, and the visuals push the genre forward. It's just a shame that some technical issues and hit and miss tutorials hold the game back from true greatness.

Martha Is Dead intrigued me throughout its short seven hour runtime. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this title despite the constant amount of stability issues I encountered. This game plays more like a mystery with a couple of disturbing revelations. Martha Is Dead is certainly not for the faint of heart but those that embark on this journey will have an engrossing narrative that is bolstered by its gameplay and audio elements.

LKA has created an initially very solid mystery that gradually sinks into incomparable morbidity and an unfortunately more dispersed conclusion.

Martha is Dead is a horror game that had everything to hold the player's attention. Although the story is really strong, there is a very slow pace, which ends up causing exhaustion before even halfway through the game.

Martha Is Dead tells a wicked, confusing and thrilling story of death and plot twists. It’s a short psychological experience, visually stunning but maybe closer to an interactive movie than a true videogame.

A lack of trust in the narrator leads to a slightly unsatisfying finale. But the journey, which is exceptionally graphically hilarious, is the destination in this case. Apart from the interactive passages, I felt more like I was in a slow-building film. Furthermore, built on "go and fetch" types of tasks. Apart from playing with the camera and certain passages, the player is mostly a passive observer of the story. [Issue#318]

Once the initial shock factor dies down, Martha Is Dead is little more than a walking simulator with a Fatal Frame-esque photography gimmick. It has too many ideas and threads going for it, whereas a focused main plot would have made it much more engaging. A few technical issues marred the immersion, and some of the worst English dubbing since Resident Evil. As long as you aren’t expecting Italian P.T., horror fans may still enjoy this psychological shocker.

While certainly an accomplished piece of storytelling, Martha Is Dead's gameplay is such blatant artifice that it does the narrative a disservice to partake in it. That sounds extremely damning, but there's a lot here to like: the languid pace and detailed nature of the photography sequences are a standout, the graphics are often impressive, and the sheer bloody chutzpah of the whole thing is appealing in a grand guignol sort of way. The game can be shocking in what it shows you, but it doesn't feel exploitative. Horror should be horrific, and Martha Is Dead is certainly that. Unfortunately, perhaps not always in the way it was intended to be.

Martha is Dead is primarily a game for slow burner horror / thriller fans, as well as for people who have the will and strength to take a deeper look from a psychological perspective, while ignoring boring and tedious moments which can occur quite frequently.