Martha is Dead Review

Let me preface this review with a history lesson aboutThe Town of Light, and before you ask, no, I’m not talking about Blackpool Illuminations. The Town of Light was a 2016 release from Italian studio LKA.it that told the story of Renée, a 16-year-old who is placed into an Italian asylum in 1938. Placed there under the pretense that she is a danger to herself and the people around her, the game chronicles her attempts to come to terms with this. It was a game that put stigmatic views of women’s health and their position in the world under a microscope, as well as mental health and the treatment of people suffering from such issues.

For me, it resonates. The game doesn’t compromise, yet it’s not forcing you to watch either. It enables the opportunity to show the plight these people went through while the concept of mental health was an afterthought. The character study of Renée is insightful, and the ending is a bitter pill to swallow, but all of it rings true of a society that either took advantage, or wasn’t aware of the problems people still face, to this very day.

I prefaced this review of Martha Is Dead because it highlights how far we’ve come, or rather, how far we’ve stepped back. Moving the scope from an individual to a group, the story beats remain the same while the scale increases. There’s a lot to unpack, but in short, you play as Giulia, twin sister to the titular Martha who, shockingly, has been killed under mysterious circumstances. Giulia tries to figure out who is responsible, all while World War 2 rages on in the background.

There is a lot more to it than what has been mentioned, but what’s important to note is that none of it really matters. Martha is Dead goes all out on teaching the player about game mechanics, like sending telegraphs, and an impressively in-depth photo mode which includes developing the film. After several nightmare sequences, the game will proudly proclaim “Hooray! You developed your first photo! Not only that, but you also unlocked a skin for your old-timey camera! Good for you!”.

In short, it is a video game, a fact that Martha is Dead puts in harsh juxtaposition next to varying mini-games of horrific content, including a now-infamous scene that involves the player cutting off the face of a deceased woman before wearing it in first-person. Ho-yes, we have the loudest metaphors possible for a game that, by all means, deserves more nuance than it does a loudspeaker. Sony’s decision to censor this content was met with controversy, but I understand it, although it personally isn’t what I’d choose to censor.

Without going into spoilers, there’s another scene right afterward that shows more intense and shocking imagery, and now the loudspeaker has broken. It’s a truly edgy statement which tries to play with the psychological aspect of the game, but if you’ve played The Town of Light, you already know how this ends. It’s not about the light at the end of the rainbow, or a hallucination hiding the true grim ending, it’s about bigoted people doing bigoted things, which is what this game is full of.

Despite such straightforward portrayals, the characterisation is very weak. These are vessels for misery to take effect, and with the game’s reluctance to show human confrontation up close, choosing to play with metaphors instead, nothing lands as it should. The highlight should be the conflict between Giulia and her mother, but all this culminates in is implications, which The Town of Light engaged in as well. The difference here however, is the previously mentioned scale of this project, something the game cannot handle, both narratively and technically.

One of the biggest issues Martha is Dead has is the insanely buggy nature of it. Whether it’s the lighting messing up, infinite loading screens, constant crashes, story-relevant areas not loading, or saves corrupting in a certain chapter, this game is full of horrific glitches. Sometimes you’ll start an interaction with no clear path as to what to do, so you get to play the pleasant guessing game of “Am I missing something, or has the game softlocked me?”, which is never fun.

None of this stopped me though. To digress slightly, I hold The Town of Light close to my chest as a seething portrait into the horrific treatment of mental health sufferers before the proper care came into effect. It’s rare you find a game so blisteringly banal in its presentation that also showcases such devastating knowledge without compromise. Martha is Dead compromises, and for what? A photo mode you can’t engage in half the time?

That’s the problem, right there. It makes a playground out of a warzone. A toy box out of a grave. This story is told in such an immature, banal, and pathetically pandering way, that everything suffers as a result. It isn’t interested in providing more insight into the German forces present in Italy during World War 2. It isn’t interested in showcasing more of the plight seen in The Town of Light. It isn’t even interested in Martha herself. What it’s interested in is being controversial enough to stay in your mind afterwards, which is a dangerous line of design.

I finished Martha is Dead, sure, but what did I get out of it? I wasn’t looking for “fun”, but I wasn’t looking for death either. I was looking for insight, invigoration of a studio that wanted to provide information and support to the right people, but instead, we see it fall down the same routes that only the most tone-deaf AAA publishers find themselves in. This isn’t an evolution of lessons learned. This is a mockery of what you believe in, and what you fight for. There’s nothing here.