
It kind of feels like missing the point of the game to worry about mission structure, but everything interweaves within the story together so I would have liked to see the resolution to those I missed before get past the point of no return.Ī large part of the objectives use the game’s main mechanic – picture taking.

I finished the game with around 15% of quests left unfulfilled, but I could have completed them had I known which to focus on first. Some can only be done by progressing others, while some are entirely missable. Perhaps my only niggle with this system though is that the main and side objectives aren’t clearly marked. Puzzles tend to take the form of ‘find item A for location B’ but are kept brisk enough to avoid feeling like overly dragged out fetch quests.

Played entirely in first person, we move around the small Italian village the game is set in freely, aiming to complete various key and side objectives.

Outside of this excellent story telling what we get is an engaging, albeit slow-paced, psychological thriller. It’s been a few days since I finished it at time of writing and I still regularly think about certain aspects and… to say more would again ruin things. Players have the option to avoid or turn off some of this but for my money, if you’re willing to see the experience as intended it will absolutely leave a mark come the end. LKA were right to warn players ahead of time of the graphic, gruesome, and disturbing depictions found within. Things only go from good to great throughout, and that’s about as much as I want to relay here in that regard.Īs I say though, it’s not an easy story to sit through. Despite keeping an eye on the updates for the game over its long wait for release even the opening section caught me off guard, instantly piquing my interest. I wouldn’t want to spoil any of the moments of the game as it’s definitely best played by going in with as little knowledge as possible. Which makes it quite difficult to tell you why I enjoyed my time with Martha is Dead fully. It’s not an easy ride, far from it, but the character building and flow of the story are quite simply excellent and a testament to LKA’s talent as a studio. Martha is Dead however joins very select titles in being a game that not only was interesting to play but also fully had me hooked in the narrative from start to finish.

It takes a lot for me to find myself fully enraptured in a game’s story most of the time I kind of get the gist but just want to get on with playing.
