Entertainment

Games: Horror adventure Martha is Dead too chin-strokey for gorehounds, too gory for chin-strokers

Martha is Dead
Martha is Dead Martha is Dead

Martha is Dead (Multi)


By: LKA

FROM Dario Argento to Lucio Fulci, our Italian cousins have a rich history in gore, which peaked with the giallo films of the 60s and 70s.

Keeping the side up on the videogame front, Luca Dalco first came to prominence with 2016's Town of Light, set in an abandoned asylum in 1938. Returning to the well for his latest Italian job, Martha is Dead will likely be remembered as the game that forces players to peel off and wear a dead girl's face – just one of many squeamish scenes that Sony have censored in the PlayStation versions.

Beheadings, autopsies performed with scissors – it's all here, and seasoned with lashings of Nazi imagery. Yet for a game infamous for face-wearing, Martha is Dead isn't particularly comfortable in its own skin.

Set over four days in rural Italy towards the end of WW2 and primarily about investigating the death of a girl named – checks notes – Martha, players step into the shoes of fascist general's daughter, Giulia.

On discovering twin sister Martha's body by a lake, her parents mistakenly believe it's Giulia that has died, so she assumes Martha's identity to keep up the ruse. If you can swallow the old 'twin switcheroo' plot, there's much dark doings to be uncovered in the nearby forests, with the plot lurching from one macabre set-piece to the next.

Ghost stories from Nanny, creepy puppets and more gore than a butcher's window abound in a plodding creepfest that explores themes of loss and psychological trauma during the rise of fascism.

Essentially a walking simulator peppered with busywork, players will explore the family homestead and surrounding woods, finding stock-in-trade gaming items such as keys, scissors and the like.

Its main gameplay hook is an old-timey camera, with which Giulia can capture supernatural goings-on. In a bid for realism, though, papping potential clues is a faff, with clunky dials for focus and exposure, followed by a trudge back to the basement darkroom to develop.

"It's always a thrill to develop a photo", Giulia says – trust me, it's not.

Worse still is a side-plot where you can help the resistance by laboriously deciphering and sending actual Morse code, which is as tedious as you can imagine.

With spot-on period details and tasty visuals for such a small team, Martha is Dead at least conjures up a realistic sun-baked Tuscany. The problem is, it's too chin-strokey for gorehounds and too gory for chin-strokers, sitting in an awkward horror limbo that no amount of blood will fix, and what could have been a dark European wartime horror in the vein of Pan's Labyrinth quickly becomes a chore to play.

Turns out wearing someone else's face isn't that enjoyable after all.