Martha is Dead Reviews
For all of its darkness, Martha is Dead can't seem to find the light.
Martha is Dead is unique. A rare pearl in the gaming landscape, dealing with tough issues and immerses us in a raw and real World War II Tuscany, painting a horror story that is truer than ever. It is not for everyone, and if you are overly emotional it is definitely not for you, but if you love authorial and story-driven games, it's absolutely recommended.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Martha is Dead very impressively combines visual beauty, psychological horror and the tragedy of war in walking simulator genre.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Shock connoisseurs may enjoy Martha Is Dead's body horror and gore, but there is a lot of muck to wade through in the game's short playtime.
Martha is Dead deals with losing loved ones and losing your own self through a powerful narrative that can be quite uncomfortable at times.
Clunky writing, ponderous pacing and a commitment to lingering gore shots make Martha Is Dead an actively unpleasant experience. Run for the hills.
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 is an unflinching and utterly absorbing ordeal to be endured rather than enjoyed.
The development team has to be applauded for pushing the boundary of the horror industry with its ideas. It’s just a shame that it stumbles so heavily when it comes to the execution and dilutes its strongest element with generic, repetitive gameplay.
Martha is Dead tells a deeply personal and complex story that strikes at some complex issues that are only held back from greatness due to technical struggles.
At the core of Martha is Dead there is an acceptable and sometimes enjoyable psychological tale but nothing else in this package is worth writing home about.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Martha is Dead isn’t a horror game in the sense that ghosts will try to jump scare you around every corner, but the atmosphere LKA have created certainly made me think that might happen, and after realising that Giulia isn’t as a reliable narrator that you think, the game twists and turns in a way I simply didn’t expect. The visuals are stunning and are a great showcase for the new generation of consoles, and when they are paired with an authentic soundtrack, it really felt as if I was in Italy in the 40s. There are moments in this beautifully dark video game that forced me to change the direction of my playthrough and I am already excited to go back and explore the additional routes, especially once those bugs have been flattened out.
Martha is Dead starts off strong, with an intriguing story amid a tumultuous backdrop, and a main gameplay mechanic with a ton of room to evolve. Unfortunately, the game squanders every opportunity it has to develop its story or gameplay in interesting ways, instead relying on overplayed tropes and unnecessary mechanics. While Martha is Dead's disturbing imagery might not deserve censorship, its creators betray the trust that it asks of its players, ultimately delivering a shallow experience that does more harm than good.
Martha is Dead is a suggestive adventure game: the narrative plot is very interesting, as well as the way the story is told. Too bad about the gameplay not being too in-depth.
Review in Italian | Read full review
We take a look at LKA's second outing, the psychological horror adventure, Martha Is Dead
Martha is Dead will leave you psychologically scarred. Whether you enjoy the process depends on your constitution and hatred of bicycles.
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 meets every expectation and exceeds most of them. It is a true ghost story, perfectly designed to demand you keep playing while making you want to stop. Its near-flawless design sets a new benchmark in the quietly, weirdly, horrible.
Martha is Dead’s compelling narrative is let down by some dull gameplay that just can’t support it in any meaningful way. It does deal with themes of loss in a uniquely told story that had me guessing what was happening every step of the way, but the sheer amount of monotony annoyed me more than I could stand. If what you are looking for is a proper horror experience, this will not be for you. With that being said, if you want a compelling narrative, then, as long as you can get past some tedious lack of proper gameplay, I can recommend picking this game up.