Horror games have a way of taking on concepts, both old and new, and twisting them. Sometimes it can be predictable, but LKA has developed Martha is Dead in a way that has been shocking to experience. After playing the demo during Steam Next Fest, I can see why Wired Productions is planning to publish this game.
Gameplay
The demo starts off by throwing you straight into the story. Here you are treated to a cutscene that tells the infamous story of the lady in white. Essentially, a woman was killed by her jealous fiance and so now her soul restlessly lives within the lake and is said to take the life of other innocent women.
For the sake of not spoiling a major plot point that is thrown at you right from the start, I'll give a rendition of the first gameplay section. Basically, you were adjusting your camera to reset the automatic timer for it to take pictures and while doing so you see a body floating in the water. After bringing it to shore, you realize it is your sister and then your parents find you. (Yes, this is the version that does not include the spoiler – the devil's in the details).
After this, you get to experience the dark psychological aspect that this game offers in a twisted series of scenes. From going through a looping forest path that resets when you go the wrong way to watching the infamous lady in white walk back into the lake. We are to presume that the lady in white killed your sister and that the main character feels guilty.
Once you get through the dark section of the game, you awake in a bedroom and get to enjoy a much lighter tone. Here you get to experience the calmer side of the game that involves exploration, decision making, light puzzles, and photography. It definitely seems like taking photographs is going to be a huge part of this game given you do everything from taking the photo down to developing it in a dark room.
To finish out the demo, you will begin heading down to the lake. Instead of giving the not-so-surprising experience of reaching the lake and seeing the lady in white that I was expecting, this section proved to play out much differently than expected. The 1944 Italy during war times story elements take over here and your pathway turns out to have some soldiers around. This usually wouldn't be the case, as you are not in hostile territory, but now you must make your way through regardless.
Expectations
For the most part, I don't even know what to expect with this one. There were so many twists in the story and gameplay moments that I really didn't expect and this was just a demo. Hopefully, this series of surprising moments and shocking scenes continue in the full game because it has been too long since a game provided such a uniquely bothering (in a good way) experience.
That said, I am expecting to get a little bit of a Fatal Frame type of experience with the photography playing such a big role in the gameplay. There is a lot of room for the developers to hide secrets and little scares when players take pictures at the right time and location, plus the options available for story-based scares. It is an interesting element to go with, given how intricate they made it, but I'm excited for the possibilities it brings.
The given psychological horror experience in the demo should definitely be an underlying moment of what these sections of the game are going to be like. There wasn't a moment between the parents finding me and waking in the bedroom that I wasn't both intrigued and uncomfortable. It was thrilling and I want more of it!
Conclusion
Martha is Dead has proven to be a horror game that I need to experience! That demo was quite an interesting series of events and it was full of shocking twists. I hope that they are able to provide a full game that gives the continued horror sensation that their demo was able to provide. This will be a game I plan to watch closely until it is released.
