Martha Is Dead Review – Martha Ain’t Great, Either

Martha is Dead begins strong. It introduces a dynamic between the twin sisters Martha (and Giulia) that will set the tone for the whole game. Giulia’s mother never loved her the way she loved Martha, and this relationship, or lack thereof, has eaten away at Giulia’s spirits for years. Giulia’s mother mistakenly believes her child lost. Finally, she gets the love and affection she’s always wanted. Unexpected, jaw-dropping events unfold next, which was the reason I was so captivated with this story. Martha Is Dead becomes quickly a tedious game to play.   

I felt at odds with the gameplay the moment I began exploring Giulia’s family villa. Walking feels like trudging through mud, which is especially frustrating because this game is all about walking around and interacting with objects to learn more about what’s going on. Occasionally you run through poorly-explained dream-like scenarios, or participate in simple minigames, like using a camera and its photos to piece together answers about who was at the lake the night of Martha’s death. The majority of your activities involve walking and looking at objects. One scenario makes you avoid an enemy, which adds some tension that I wish was more present in other areas of the game. But, because most of what you’re doing is walking, the game feels less like traditional horror and more like watching a story unfold that happens to be horrific in nature.

Interacting with objects can be a tedious task. You can interact with interactive objects by pressing on the thumbstick to the right. But, this quickly gets annoying as the icons disappear in a matter of seconds. So, I had to press the right thumbstick continuously. To make matters worse, sometimes the controls completely shift. You no longer interact with the object by pulling on its trigger; instead, you must press A. These frustrations coupled with progress-stopping bugs began to tear down the initial intrigue I felt during the opening. 

Interacting with some objects, like letters or your dead sister’s body, leads to side objectives. While these side missions aren’t as exciting as the main mystery itself, there are a few that can be useful. One example is the one in which I was able to find a tire pump for unlocking a bike, making it easier to travel around the villa. I was able to make use of an in-game cam that could be customized with skins and accessories. I enjoyed the mechanics around the camera’s focus, distance, lens types, and more, such as having to use the d-pad ever-so-slightly to make an image snap into focus. The camera was a key part of the game’s main objective. The game’s darkroom, which tasked me with developing my photos in an old-school realistic way using a timer and the controller sticks, made the use of this camera even more immersive.

Although there are some engaging sections, many objectives can be confusing or not explained well. For example, I spent 30 minutes looking for a side-quest key (or so I thought), only to discover later that I couldn’t obtain it until I completed a significant story moment much later in the game. I wish LKA did a better job indicating when you can’t progress in a quest until furthering the main story. 

The story of Martha is Dead was a bad choice for a game that relies so much on narration. Some of the most significant moments in the game ask you to sympathize with Martha and Giulia’s parents: a Nazi general and a woman who doesn’t seem fazed to be married to a Nazi. I particularly enjoyed helping Italian resistance forces defeat Nazis near my family’s villa. Oddly, though, the game asked me if I wanted to help the Italian resistance fighters or foil their plans by telling my Nazi father about them. Naturally, I didn’t entertain that option. LKA wove some big narrative threads into the family dynamic, but I didn’t connect with them because ultimately, I was never going to sympathize with a Nazi. 

These moments were the most frustrating for me. Although there have been many games that used Nazis in telling interesting stories, I was still captivated by this. Martha Is Dead doesn’t praise Nazis or even indicate support for them, but the family’s Nazi connection doesn’t play into anything other than the fact that WW2 is happening. The parents are only used in ways to further enhance Guilia’s torture and trauma, but their Nazi beliefs aren’t an aspect of that. What is the point of Martha Is Dead claiming that these Nazis are there? These were questions that I wanted to know the answers to. LKA uses the war surrounding this villa to showcase the grip Nazi Germany was losing on Italy in 1944, and Giulia’s dad eventually faces consequences for his part in it, but instead of using that moment to show him getting what he deserves, Martha Is Dead instead uses this narrative beat to further torture Giulia. 

Martha Is Dead didn’t go beyond a surface level depiction of war. Martha Is Dead tries to combine psychological horror with the horrors associated with war in an engaging way. But because the other half is weak, they never work together to make something that truly delights. The story leans into gore and disturbing imagery, asking me to do things more gruesome than anything I’ve done in a game before, but these moments don’t add meaningfully to the narrative or the experience. As a result, I felt that the gore was just there to add shock value. 

When Martha is Dead isn’t about war, it is about the central mystery of how Martha died. Some supernatural factors are at work, as well as some fascinating revelations. Too often, however, Martha Is Dead uses the “your memories betray you” trope right before a big reveal about how events really played out. These cheap twists are disappointing every time because they don’t feel earned. 

I will not ruin the story. I ended the game feeling dissatisfied, confused and frustrated about the games I’d played. The original premise of the game was compelling, so this was particularly disappointing. The delivery of the story’s twists, and the way the game touches on some serious mental health themes, was disappointing. When the credits roll, the game displays a message about getting help if you need help, something Giulia wasn’t able to do in Martha Is Dead. While that’s true, it felt more like a sticker slapped onto this game, which in the six hours prior, never made a real or meaningful commitment to exploring these feelings in a respectful and sensical way. 

LKA made the best recreation of an Italian setting I’ve ever seen in a game and I wanted nothing more than to enjoy it. However, LKA’s love of Italy is the only warmth I felt in Martha is Dead. The rest left me feeling as cold as Giulia’s dead sister.