You are given full control of this segment, and must move the analog sticks on your controller in order to cut a jagged line from forehead to chin. One early dream sequence sees you cutting off the face of your sister’s dead corpse with the sharp edge of a necklace pendant.

I won’t delve too far into spoiler territory, but I will give you probably the most publicized example (warning: what follows is a graphic description). There are some brutal sequences here that are more graphic than anything I’ve seen before in gaming. Cutting the most disturbing contentĪs already alluded to, Martha is Dead is an extremely dark video game. The mechanic is surprisingly deep, but the requirement to manually develop each image in a dark room quickly becomes tedious. The game also has a strong focus on taking pictures via an old timey camera. The game's world doesn’t feel as interactive as it should, with the number of objects that are merely set dressing on the high side. If you like being spooked you’ll probably find a lot to like about Martha is Dead.Īlthough, it’s not all positives. Let’s just say, I didn’t sleep super well that night. I made the mistake of playing Martha is Dead at first in a pitch black room with only a few candles burning and nobody else in the house. But, don't let that put you off, Martha is Dead is excellent at building a highly unnerving atmosphere, and several sequences genuinely sent chills down my spine. The game could be crudely labelled a “walking simulator” as there’s no traditional combat, and the majority of the 5-6 hour runtime is spent moving around well-realized environments examining objects and listening to voice over. It’s a pretty gripping tale, with some highly effective spooky moments along the way. Even my strong stomach was turning at certain points.Īs Guilia, now pretending to be Martha, you set about trying to figure out what happened to your sister, while also slowly descending into madness as the lines between reality and nightmare start to blur. Martha is Dead is one of the darkest games I’ve ever played.

You play Guilia, a young girl who discovers the drowned body of her twin sister, Martha, and assumes her identity after her parents mistakenly believe it was actually her who drowned. To give some context, Martha is Dead is a first-person psychological horror set in 1940s Italy during WWII.

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