Martha Is Dead
After providing us with its first games with the psychological horror
experience The Town of Light, the Italian development team LKA returns
to us with another psychological horror game titled Martha is Dead,
which has become available on PC, Xbox and PlayStation for the current
and past generations, and it’s time to share with you our review.
Martha Is Dead
The events of the story take place in Italy during World War II and centers
around the family who loses their daughter “Martha” who was found drowned
in the lake near the house. This prompts her to investigate the incident
to find out the truth behind her sister’s death in a home full of tension
and family problems resulting from this tragic incident that occurs amid
the developments of the war.
Unlike many games that focus primarily on the story, Martha is Dead
does not start slowly, but rather grabs your attention quickly with many
questions and events that begin to reveal the details of the story quickly
and continuously. We were surprised by the excellent interweaving of details,
which makes it difficult for you to predict events and even leads you to expect
a certain outcome to surprise you with another result in a story that focuses
on problems, family relationships and mental health at the same time.
It should be noted that the game presents a number of violent and confusing
scenes, but it is not a game that uses these scenes for the purpose of drawing attention.
You just use it perfectly to highlight some concepts.
On the visual level, the graphics of the game are excellent, and we reached
a stage where an independent developer can provide games with beautiful
graphics and accurate in their details, and Martha is Dead is proof of that.
The game takes care of many details in the surrounding environment,
which looks very beautiful, but providing an excellent graphic level does not
mean providing performance Excellent also, one of the most prominent
problems of the game is the performance problems as the frames drop sharply
and frequently, and the movement of the camera and the character suffers from
a kind of chopping or freezing that becomes confusing with the passage of hours.
Thrilling effects and melodies with excellently depicted violent scenes create
a tense atmosphere.
The events take place in the family home and the small area surrounding it,
and the tasks that you will do revolve largely around taking pictures through
the camera, which has several tools and accessories that enable you to take
the appropriate picture depending on the time and place with the need to take
care of details such as proximity or distance from the object that must
photographed and focus On choosing the appropriate angle and other details
that go into the process of photographing the evidence, which is followed by
the process of developing the images and printing them in the dark room and
the game makes this process simple while informing you of the details that are
actually taking place in the real process.
Despite the game’s attempt to diversify the tools used in the shooting process,
it remains a repetitive process. Most of the missions require you to search in
a specific place in the house or its surroundings, and then develop the image
and then search for the next clue that will enable you to discover the truth.
One of the tasks will require you to decipher Encrypting and sending a message
using Morse code with a guide to using the code It was a pity that the development
team did not provide more puzzles like this that would have added more variety
to the experience.
Most of the game’s missions are necessary to finish the story, with a number
of side missions that do not explain much details about the story, but add more
content, although they are few, and some of them are interesting with their
details separated from the main story, but related to the period in which
the events take place.
We finished the game 80% in 4 and a half hours with most of the side quests
done and finishing the game completely will take an additional hour or two
to finish all the tasks, Martha is Dead suffers from repetitive gameplay
as many similar games and suffers from annoying performance issues but
it delivers An exciting and innovative story to tell which is what you want
to get from these experiences in the end. The violence and scenes that the game
depicts are not for the faint of heart and are not suitable for young people at all.
