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Martha Is Dead got some critique before launch on PS4 and PS5 -consoles, because it got a note from the developers that the game going to be cencored on PlayStation platforms. Not sure what and how much is going to be cencored I still wanted to play this game and see myself. I love psychologial horror titles with puzzles and Martha Is Dead promises to just give me that.
Horror set in 1944 Italy
Martha Is Dead is set in 1944 wartime Italy. The story tells about twin sisters Martha and Giulia. Martha is found murdered and her sister tries to find out who the killer is. Finding the truth is twisted with mysterious folklore, horrors of war and Giulia’s psyche to survive it all.
The story was great and how it was told was the best part of Martha is Dead. It got fair amount of twist and turns, keeping the player on their toes all the time.
The gameplay was first-person puzzle-adventure. Martha Is Dead is not difficult game, but it got lost sometimes with difficulties to understand where to go. The game got map that usually told where to go next, but few times I wasn’t sure where to go. The puzzles weren’t difficult, except the secret message that player had to send using Morse code might be hard to do correctly.
The game also had and old camera that player had to use to take correct photos and then develope them in the dark room. The development was simplyfied from the original photo development to make it easier and faster. Players can also take free photos and develope them. I found this to be nice little touch.
Graphically the game looks amazing and it ran rather smoothly. One issue I got was the game crashing and I had to reset the game. It happened at least 10 times throughout the whole gameplay. It was annoying, but thankfully the last checkpoint was always recent.
Martha Is Dead is fully voice acted, the standard setting in voice language is in Italian, which I used. It gave the most authentic gameplay and overall feeling of Italy and the characters.
What comes to the cencorship, I do understand it, because the game is gore at times. It balances nicely with horror elements, not leaning too much on the graphic side, but also with psychological horror.
Parole finali
Martha Is Dead is good psychological horror game. It doesn’t lean on jump-scares or anything cheap, but authentic horror and how war can traumatize a person. Only negative thing was the crashes the game suffered and few other little bugs.
The game was about 4-5 hours long and it can be found on PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Windows.
SCORE:
One More Level 