$29.99Martha Is Dead A twin's grief in wartime Tuscany
Search for the truth behind your sister's drowning as war and folklore blur what is real.
Is Martha Is Dead worth it?
Martha Is Dead is worth it if…
- you want a slow, story-heavy psychological thriller rather than constant scares
- you like atmospheric exploration where the mood matters more than the pace
- you can handle disturbing scenes and heavy themes like trauma and loss
- you enjoy games like The Town of Light or dark, cinematic walking sims
- you don't mind that the ending leaves questions open and divides players
Screenshots
A murder, a twin, and a war closing in
You are Giulia, daughter of a German soldier, and your twin sister Martha has been pulled from the water. Over a handful of days you search the house, the woods and the countryside around your Tuscan home for what really happened, while German and Allied forces fight ever closer. The story is told in Italian with full voice acting, the first indie game to ship that way, and it leans into it: Giulia's grief, her family's fractures and her own secrets all unfold through her eyes. It is a slow, heavy burn, and the truth, when it comes, is darker than the mystery promises.
A camera you actually work
Photography is the heart of the gameplay. You take pictures not just to progress the story but for the pleasure of it, and the game walks you through 1940s photography properly: you develop your own film in a fully working in-game darkroom, from chemical baths to prints. There is something quietly absorbing about framing a shot of sunlit Tuscan hills, then standing in the red dark waiting for the image to surface. Along the way the camera becomes an investigative tool too, revealing things about the world and the story that the naked eye misses.
Folklore, tarot and a puppet theatre
The truth hides behind superstition. You unlock symbols, lay out tarot cards and summon the spirit of The Lady, and you stage memories in a marionette theatre, playing with dolls to reach what Giulia has repressed. Elsewhere you gather newspapers, telegrams and radio broadcasts to follow the war's progress, and explore the countryside on foot, by bike or by boat. The setting is grounded in real places and events, reconstructed with care, so the folklore never feels like decoration: it sits inside a real, documented horror.
What should you know before playing?
Is it actually scary?
Less than you might expect. This is psychological horror: dread, disturbing imagery and heavy themes rather than monsters and constant jump scares. The game warns you before its most explicit scenes, and some players find those scenes harder to sit through than any fright. If you want chases and hiding, look elsewhere; if you want a story that gets under your skin, this fits.
Does the story hold together at the end?
That depends on you. The writing, the atmosphere and the acting are widely praised, and the final act lands hard for many. But the ending is deliberately ambiguous, and players genuinely disagree about it: some find it powerful and are still thinking about it days later, others find it confusing and feel it undoes what came before. Go in for the journey, not for clean answers.
