Martha is Dead, tried the new psychological thriller from LKA
Martha is Dead
If it is true that the debut title of a development team can be considered as a baptism of fire, the next one often turns into a test of maturity. Well, how many can boast of having passed this difficult test of trust? Because we can get around as much as we want, but the LKA guys have the attributes when it comes to writing is now beyond doubt, and it only takes a few minutes to realize it.We tried Martha is Dead, their new game coming out on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One, and despite the problems of a technically still immature build, which needs a decisive cleaning from now to launch (in the hope that time will suffice), we once again we found ourselves immersed in a peculiar atmosphere, to say the least, in an Italy that no longer exists, in the folds of a disturbing and dramatic story whose assumptions alone are worth the price of the ticket.
Because it's true, Martha is dead ... but nobody knows.
Story
Martha is Dead, the corpse of the girl by the lake The story of Martha is Dead begins with the face of the protagonist, Giulia, who tells of a memory of her as a child, when before falling asleep the nanny read the story of the White Lady: a woman drowned by her great love, madly jealous, and who after death transforms into a spirit that dwells in the water.Fast forward, it's 1944 and Giulia is a twenty-one year old girl passionate about photography, who is in the woods in front of the lake of San Casciano to take some shots. In the water she sees the figure of a woman floating: she dives into the water to see if she can still help her and finds her own lifeless body in front of her. It is Martha, her twin sister of hers, the figure that the lake has given back to her, and she for some reason she wears her clothes.
So, when the family rushes to find out what happened and asks her "Martha, are you okay?", the game's protagonist makes a decision that is as quick as it is crazy: she snatches the chain with the name from her sister engraved and pretends that the corpse is really his; that it was not Martha who died, the deaf-mute girl whom everyone loved and cuddled, but Giulia, the rebel who worried her mother.
The killing of the daughter of a German general residing in Italy clearly causes a sensation and we he wonders if the killer had a political motive. Who was it and why? Exploring the scenario in search of clues and documents, with the support of the camera that our father was about to give us, we will have to try to discover the truth ... however hard, difficult and shocking it may be.
Demo
Martha is Dead, Martha on her deathbed Well, calling it a demo is a bit simplistic: LKA has made available to us seven of the twelve chapters that make up the Martha is Dead campaign, thus giving us a taste rather substantial of the experience that we will be able to play in the full version starting from February 24 on PC and consoles. A package in which almost all the mechanics imagined by the authors find their place, but without a fundamental component: the in-depth use of the camera, only hinted at in the first half of the story.Supported by the first-person view , we therefore took on the role of Giulia when she found her sister's corpse, living with her the first days of a life revolutionized by the impossibility of speaking in the presence of her parents and by the obligation to pretend not to be able to hear what they say . The routine of the days in the country estate upset by a still inexplicable mourning, and on which we will have to try to shed light using everything we have at our disposal: a diary, the aforementioned camera, a lighter to cut through the darkness and the courage to who is torn by guilt.
Gameplay
Martha is Dead, the scenario around the protagonist's house In terms of gameplay, the Martha is Dead experience is similar to what we described in the review of The Town of Light, although in this case the rich and multifaceted descriptive component, which once again demonstrates the care that LKA places in the historical and scenographic reconstruction of the settings, is not the main ingredient but a tasty side dish compared to exploration, interaction and research.In general, the feeling is to be faced with something very similar to the so-called walking simulator, with a narrative sector that carries out ge an absolutely central role but also a series of simple elements to support it. Sorry there are no traditional puzzles to enrich an adventure that, as it is conceived, could turn out to be a bit too short and slip away leaving us with only passive sequences, however strong and disturbing.
Art direction
Martha is Dead, the development of negatives is an operation with which we will often have to deal. simple task of loosening the chains of a technical realization that is necessarily limited (the development team, after all, is made up of only ten people), but nevertheless able to give some moments of great intensity and a convincing representation of the scenario. br>Also thanks to an excellent sound design, an excellent soundtrack and a largely convincing dubbing in Italian, with only a couple of blunders (Giulia's voice as a child does unfortunately) and quite relevant problems as regards the level of volumes, which after the first few minutes sees the dialogues too low compared to the other sounds.
Martha is Dead, a dreamlike sequence by the lake Talent, vision and some gimmicks can certainly cover certain technical deficiencies, but in this case it is hard not to pay attention to the severe stuttering that occurs after a few tens of minutes playing at 4K and with all parameters at maximum (at 1080p, for luck, it doesn't happen), to the crashes that inevitably come when you try to activate ray tracing and to DLSS that basically doesn't work.
Magagne that we sincerely hope will be fixed between now and launch, because they could negatively and undeservedly impact on the enjoyment of a narrative experience of undoubted depth, which at the end of the seventh chapter left us with a shocking question and a great desire to try our hand at the complete version of Martha is Dead to understand how things really are.
Martha is Dead presents itself as an experience characterized by a narrative sector of great depth, embellished with those dreamlike and disturbing features that now seem a hallmark of LKA . The Italian team seems intent on delivering a psychological thriller capable of leaving its mark once again, which perhaps will prove to be a bit short but certainly intense. Technical optimization and finishing work on PC are a bit worrying at the moment, in the hope that these shortcomings won't weigh on the game's debut.
