Martha is Dead Reviews
There's a much better game here if it focused on the photography mechanics, trauma exploration and ghost stories. Instead, it’s a game bogged down in many different directions. I don't think this game, much like developer LKA's last game, Town of Light, handles mental health in the best way, but there's a somewhat interesting story here. It's just so boring to get through.
Shocking, controversial, technically broken, brutally forward with its presentation, and forwardly present in its mechanics, Martha is Dead wants nothing but a shocked gasp and an article made about its material. Mission accomplished, but at the cost of integrity.
Martha Is Dead fails to deliver any meaningful semblance of the story it wants to tell and ends up being nothing more than a colossal and tedious disappointment.
Unfortunately, I can’t really recommend Martha Is Dead. It has a slew of problems and wasted potential when it comes to its narrative presentation. And gameplay-wise the game does feel lacking and has nowhere near the impact it clearly wants to have. At the end of the day, it winds up being a more confusing mess than a coherent emotional story.
Martha is Dead swings about as hard as one can in its depictions of violence in order to communicate the viciousness with which war is infiltrating the lives and psyche of Giulia and her family, but it walks an increasingly fraught and unjustified line as more and more pain is inflicted on the narrative’s key players
Martha Is Dead had an opportunity to explore mental health, loss, and abuse in an engrossing and meaningful way. However, it disappointingly falls flat. A myriad of bugs and annoying gameplay elements completely and utterly ruin this potentially great experience.
Martha is Dead isn’t for the faint-hearted, though sadly that’s not for the right reasons. There are too many moving parts in this game that weigh the already poorly-paced story down. If this was a spooky investigative adventure that required you to take photos to unlock the brooding mystery hidden within, I’d be all for it, because that’s one part that actually works. But alas it’s instead left as an over-exerted mess that is more focused on a couple of key shock-value moments than anything substantial. This game needs a swift autopsy to dissect out the crimes before a merciful cremation.
While I enjoyed a fraction of my time exploring Martha is Dead's gorgeous Tuscan farmlands, the thing I'm most thankful for is how mercifully short the game is. The closing credits shocked me back into coherence like a bolt out of the blue to cap off what is-and I'm being generous-an interestingly imperfect experience.
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 wants to send a big important message, but the way it's delivered is terrifyingly bad, not only in it's writing but also in the shoddy gameplay.
For all of its darkness, Martha is Dead can't seem to find the light.
Like a heaping of horror media, Martha Is Dead's solid start and some nuanced supplementary mechanics are betrayed by its worst impulses by the end.
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 had all the right ideas, touching upon themes of loss, war, and personal identity in a meaningful way in a horror game. It unfortunately failed to deliver on an experience that cohesively weaved together those great ideas, along with a slew of technical and performance issues.
The dark atmosphere of the Italian village during the Second World War supports great audio that will not allow you to break away from the screen. But a great story kills the technical problems of the game. Freezing, crashing, and a lot of problems will literally disgust you.
Review in Czech | Read full review
The craziness continues to ratchet up as you reach the finale, and Giulia proves an evermore unreliable narrator. While the narrative here is undoubtedly the strongest element of Martha is Dead, the gameplay loop lets it down enormously, meaning you'll likely be desperate to know how it ends while simultaneously longing for the credits to roll. There are far worse horror experiences out there, but this is one that would be much better off on a streaming platform instead of as a game.
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.
Martha is Dead is far from what I thought It'd be, and even though it begins strong, things start to fall short and end in total disappointment.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Fans of adventure games with a driving psychological story will adore Martha is Dead. Even with the bugs and technical issues, it offers enough intrigue and stimulation to keep the player engaged in the narrative. It might have fewer issues on other platforms but during this Martha is Dead review, the Xbox Series S version was troubling.
Shocking content aside, Martha is Dead is a traditional walking simulator and it's no stretch to say that the movement is on prepared rails.