Set in 1944 Italy during World War II, the lines between reality and superstition become blurred within the tragedy of war. Daughter of a German soldier, Giulia is stricken with loss after the discovery of her twin sister’s desecrated and drowned body. Upon her family discovering the body, they believe that Guilia is actually dead, and she assumes the identity of her sister Martha. Determined to uncover the truth of her sister’s demise, Guilia gathers evidence while struggling through the horrors of both grief and war.

While visually stunning, “Martha Is Dead” is marred by frequent bugs, crashes and glitches between its grotesque and deeply terrifying moments.

At the beginning of the game, I was greeted with a folktale of a woman who was drowned by her lover in a lake. Her soul becomes trapped within the water, and she is rumored to kill young women out of grief for her loss. This superstition becomes more apparent after Guilia finds her sister dead in the lake and made me believe that the game would lean heavily into folklore. This however turned out to only be a piece of the narrative, which was a bit disappointing. While the atrocities of war are of course disturbing, I believe the story elements that surround the mystery of the lake are much more gripping especially given the beautiful landscape the game is grounded in.

The setting within this game is marvelous, with the sunny and moody countryside of Tuscany on full display. The immersion went a step further with authentic Italian voice acting, which grounded the characters further into the world. I was able to explore the entirety of my family home, including the nearby forest and lake in great detail. This is absolutely the biggest appeal, with the environments being so intricate and involved. The forest areas in particular looked incredible, and it felt as if I was peering into a window of Italy through my television.

Detail is something this game does quite well, especially within the main game mechanic, the camera. Guilia is an aspiring photographer and has many different tools to be discovered to take various photos throughout the game. Photography is very involved, with actual camera settings like f-stops, exposure, ISO, lenses and more changing the outcome of an image. The game also had me engage in the photo development process within a dark room in the basement of the estate, which had its own set of steps. Most of the time, taking pictures was part of the main quest, but I could also use it to reveal other things like hidden messages around the estate or traces of ghostly events. This level of involvement with the camera was unexpected, but I found it interesting within the narrative, especially when I was taking photographs of strange or unsettling subject matter.

This is something important to talk about, because some of the scenes in this game are grotesque and intensely distressing. I played “Martha Is Dead” on PlayStation 5, which is important to note because the game is actually censored in some ways on this platform. The interactivity in some of the more horrendous scenes was removed, on top of mentions of masturbation and certain mature dialogue have been removed entirely.

I want to make this clear, some of the scenes within this game are tough to watch –– and will absolutely be upsetting to some audiences. I don’t typically discuss spoilers in games, but I feel it important to disclose that there are vivid depictions of corpse mutilation, self harm, miscarriage and violence. In spite of this, I don’t believe in the censorship of art. This is greatly due in part to the fact that the game offers multiple avenues to skip these sections while they are playing out, with the option of a censored mode that can be toggled to remove these sections entirely. This is all prefaced by a content warning before the game starts, as well as providing information and resources for those struggling with mental health issues.

The performance of the game is something I unfortunately have to report as less than optimal. While the world itself is gorgeous, it was hard to appreciate due to the frequent crashes I experienced. This was only further compounded by pieces of the environment seemingly vanishing, or entire buildings seemingly not loading properly. I also had my save file corrupt at one point, meaning I had to begin again from the very start of the game. Not only was this frustrating, but completely took me out of the horror and narrative.

The story itself seemed to eventually follow this broken path as well, as Guilia seemingly drifted further away from the reality of her situation. The evidence I was collecting always led in different directions, and the final act of the game only served to wash away everything in favor of a more open-ended conclusion. I can appreciate when games allow for the audience to decide the fate of the characters post-credits, but in the case of “Martha Is Dead” I felt a bit disappointed that I didn’t earn some kind of closure.
This is one of those horror games that I found to be memorable, but I still question the quality of the experience. While I think there is merit to the exploration of the overwhelming grief Guilia feels for the death of her sister, I also think the game loses itself in trying to spin a surrealist angle in the later half of the game. The issues in game performance and stability also impaired me from being able to experience the story without major hiccups. It’s hard to recommend this game to anyone except hardcore horror fans, and even then I would say to wait for a sale.