Martha Is Dead (PC) - Demo Preview

I first came to know about this game a little over a year ago, because I happened to see a trailer posted on YouTube. With a name like Martha Is Dead how could I not click on it? While I had missed a few of the trailers that have come out over the last few months, my intrigue for the game was reignited when I found out that a demo was going to be a part of Steam Next Fest! The setting and what little I knew about the plot had my attention, so I did the only sensible thing and played the demo at 2 AM. Unsurprisingly, it left me tense, uncomfortable, charmed, disgusted, but most of all, curious. I really want to play more.

Just like the message at the start of the demo, I do think it’s important to relay that the game does feature some uncomfortable topics and scenes. I never felt that any of the disturbing parts were done for pure shock value, even one in particular that I’ve seen a lot of comments on. However, this game definitely seems like it will meet its promise of creating an unsettling atmosphere like the developers and the marketing have stressed. This game will not be for everyone.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFsjJWX3TRo

Now as much as I would like to begin raving about the visuals, I do want to talk about the gameplay first. In Martha Is Dead, you control a young woman named Giulia through a first-person perspective. The crux of the gameplay can be boiled down to walking or running around and interacting with objects, but of course, there is a lot more to it than that. You’re given a lot of freedom to explore the area, you have a bag for adding and holding items in your inventory, and a camera that you have to set up and apply focus and exposure for.

It’s not as simple as a point-and-click style horror game, and some actions (such as the camera) do err on the realistic side. There’s a related whole process just to develop your pictures in a dark room, which simplifies the real process down time-wise but does still make you go through most of the motions of how you would develop it in real life.

Interactions with most objects aren’t as in-depth as those examples, but certain situations do require additional button prompts or the dragging of your mouse to complete. To me, it walked the line of not feeling too simple, but also not feeling forced or tedious as some games from Quantic Dream or Telltale Games can occasionally feel. For example, in those games you might have to press five buttons to move a dumpster.

There were a couple of moments where I did have to drag my mouse down to emulate pulling something, and it required me to drag downward, then lift my mouse back up and drag downward again because my mousepad and desk are only so big. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to feel so resistant, because one situation of having to do this felt a little much. However, another absolutely nailed it because I was ripping and pulling something pretty disgusting and the repetitive dragging motion did a lot for that gruesome scene.

The other gameplay portions consist of controlling marionettes to reveal important backstory along with some symbolic running-on-rails segment that has you running into a choice of words to complete a sentence. In the demo, the marionettes were used to represent the folklore elements specifically. The marionettes are super charming even when they’re violent, and I fell in love with them immediately.

The on-rails segment on the other hand was the weakest part of the demo for me. It was super short and generally speaking it was an acceptable amount of weird symbolism to represent how the character felt. The problem is that if you choose the wrong word you’re sent back to start the sentence over again. I can’t stress enough that it is a short segment and you’re only given two paths/choices for the next word in these sentences which are only four or five words long anyway. However, in the demo the correct sentences weren’t immediately obvious and it did feel a little tedious.

That segment is also the weakest because it doesn’t show off the best part of the game: the visuals! Whether it’s controlling the stringed marionettes or walking along the countryside as the afternoon sun shines through the leaves, everything looks beautiful! I cannot get over how incredibly photorealistic the game looks. This also means that when you’re looking at a dismembered (or being dismembered) corpse, it does look hauntingly realistic. Whether you’re in awe or disgust, the visuals are fantastic.

Something that helps with that is the unique setting. Italy in 1944 is quite an interesting time and place to base the game around, being in the final stretch of World War II. The Tuscan village is beset with signs reminding you of this, from radio updates and newspaper stories about the war to heavier plot elements as the main character’s father being a German superior. Putting aside the intrigue of the political elements, everything is wonderfully set from that time and it all looks great. The design of the villa, the farm up the road, and the level of technology are just some of the elements that immediately bring you into the world.

Paired up with the incredible visuals is the equally wonderful audio. Both the atmospheric music and the reimagined Italian classic songs playing on the radio make things very immersive. The sound effects for every menial or gruesome action fit perfectly. Hearing gunshots in the woods fills you with slight curiosity while hearing parents arguing down the hall stops you in your tracks. It truly feels like you’re in Tuscany with psychological and potentially supernatural trauma affecting you.

As the game is set in Italy and the developers have marketed it for having authentic Italian voice acting, I certainly had to play it in the native language with English text to read. Although I don’t speak Italian and can’t confirm if the voice acting is good or not aside from being authentic, I did feel a lot of emotional range from the characters. I’ve heard the English voice acting as well and I think it’s fine enough, but I was more enthralled with the Italian voice acting. Giulia in particular is wonderful and it was enjoyable hearing her inner thoughts as she read through newspapers, talked about items in the environment, and simply narrated her feelings about the ongoing events.

All of these elements come together to support what’s arguably the most important part, which is of course the story! I’m actually not going to go in-depth with it because I don’t want to spoil it (you can still play the demo), but I will say that the story instantly grabbed me and I was captivated the whole 50 or so minutes I played. Giulia’s story has a lot of interesting elements that I’m keen to see what they’ll do with. The folklore they use is pivotal but widespread enough that I’m familiar with it and even more interested because of it. Everything just comes together to present a very exciting horror project.

For me, this was the perfect demo. I came in knowing a little bit and came out looking forward to hearing and playing more. Weird on-rails segment aside, the biggest detriment to me was that my low-mid range graphics card was struggling to achieve even 30 frames on the ultra settings. High settings were better but it just looks so amazing on ultra! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get a better graphics card before this game comes out, but it does provide me more motivation to do so. Playing this was incredible and I can’t wait to see more.