Martha is Dead Game Review & Summary

Martha is Dead is a first person, psychological thriller containing graphic and adult content taking place in the late years of World War II. Released on February 24, 2022, Martha is Dead isn't one of those games that shot up to the top of the charts this year like Elden Ring, mainly because this game isn't for everyones liking. The dark themes and complex storyline take people for a loop but that doesn't take away from the games beautiful wilderness and war-like scenery that really brings you into the story. The voice acting is also one of the best I've heard with our main protagonist who narrates nearly the entire game for us, has a calm and relaxing voice and it makes you forget that you're in a horror game. It's one of those games that are seen as gems in the shadows and doesn't get as much attention as it should get.

THIS ARTICLE WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS WITH GAMEPLAY

Gameplay Starting off, we are introduced to our protagonist Giulia. She belongs to a military family with her father, Erich, being a retired war general, her mother, Irene, showing pure malice towards her ever since she was a child, and her twin sister, Martha, who is the favorite daughter and the players believe to be deaf. Martha and Giulia spend most of their childhood with their nanny and there is where they are told about....

The White Lady: Tells the tale of a women's spirit who was murdered by her lover and her body was hung from a tree on an island that is located in the middle of the estates lake.

Giulia and Martha are now young adults in the games current time period. Giulia had asked Martha is she wanted to go take photos near the lake but as Martha wasn't in the house that day Giulia went alone. As Giulia is out taking photos, she notices a body floating in the middle of the lake and to her surprise it's her sister Martha. As she retrieves her sisters corpses, her parents find her and mistake her for Martha mainly because the now dead Martha had been wearing one of Giulia's dresses. Giulia doesn't correct her parents forcing herself to pose as her own sister while trying to figure out what happened to her.

As Giulia plays detective, her mental states slowly starts depleting and the players are given disturbing scenes and imagines to represent that and she starts forgetting the events of that day because of memory relapses. On one of her investigations, she finds the body of her boyfriend, Lapo, a solider of the Italian resistance giving her mental state a bigger hit. She attempts to shoot herself but she recovers quickly because of her mother finding her in time. At this time, Giulia reveals her true identify while playing the piano knowing Martha never could.

Giulia suspects that her mother has a role in Marthas death so she decides to contact The White Lady to see if she can help her. She's given instructions by her nanny to go to the island where the women had died and uses tarot cards to communicate with the lady. She was able to obtain the key to Marthas trinket box from this experience which held a letter from Martha explaining that she was never deaf and just pretended to be because of a traumatic event that their mother put her through. She also confessed that she felt guilty for their mother favoring her over Giulia and was planning Giulia's death to take her place so that her sister couldn't suffer any longer and that she was also pregnant with Lapos baby.

After the news, Giulia went to find out if Martha was really pregnant and went to her grave to find a deformed two headed infant inside her dead body. As Giulia was gathering her evidence, we discover that her mother plans to put her in an asylum but before Giulia developed her footage from the night Martha died, she questioned her mother and it ends in Giulia shooting her and obtaining the key to her childhood bedroom.

At this point, the game take a creative turn to telling Giulia and Marthas childhood story. Giulia finds a puppet show set and the developers show us the abuse and trauma the girls went though at the hands of their mother. It's a more suitable way of showing dark and disturbing scenery to not overly disturb the audience and it gives us a break on the horror aspect as well. At the end of this puppet show though, it's revealed that Giulia killed her mother and buried her under a bridge in the woods.

The power in the house had come back after a power shortage and Giulia could finally develop the film from that night to figure out that she was the one who killed Martha. Before any other action, she was ambushed by soldiers from the Italian resistance who torture her and kill her father but end up sparing her. Being completely alone, Giulia listens to her mothers confession tapes and figures out that Martha was never a twin. Because of their mothers harsh abusive treatment, Martha had developed two different personalities and this is where Giulia comes from.

Martha: quiet and loving Giulia: troublesome and loathing

At the end of the game, Giulia is sent to the asylum by her towns priest and becomes self-harming to herself while there. She talks to an alter-ego of herself in her head to find some closure and to try and figure out what is real and what's not. Ultimately, Giulia states that she had recovered from her past and that she was able to put everything behind her.

I love horror games especially ones that have complex story lines and lore you need to uncover. The first time I saw this game, I wasn't about to give it a chance because it was a long game. The main story line takes around 4-5 hours to complete and if you choose to do any of the side quests you'll be on this game for multiple days. I decided to give it a chance though and I'm glad I did, the plot was very unique and not like anything I've seen before. I also like it when the developers aren't worried or scared to show extensive gore or adult content in games. It gives horror another name but I feel like that's one of the reason why gamers don't go for overly gore games, either personal preference or streaming platform guidelines. The story line is also very confusing but that adds onto the fun and the adventure of the game in my personal option. Never the less, it's one of the best horror/psychological games I've seen this year and I hope to see more of it in the near future.

"There is something at the work in my soul, which I do not understand" -Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)