None of these are as engaging as the main mystery, but a handful of side tangents are serviceable, like one where I found a tire pump to unlock a bike that made traveling around the villa slightly faster. Interacting with some objects, like letters or your dead sister’s body, leads to side objectives. These frustrations coupled with progress-stopping bugs began to tear down the initial intrigue I felt during the opening. Instead of interacting with an object by pulling the trigger, you inexplicably have to press A. As if to make this annoyance an even bigger stumbling block, the controls sometimes completely change. As a result, I continually pressed the right thumbstick over and over. Pressing on the right thumbstick reveals interactive objects, which quickly grows annoying because the on-screen symbols disappear within seconds. To make matters worse, interacting with objects is also a bore. But, because most of what you’re doing is walking, the game feels less like traditional horror and more like watching a story unfold that happens to be horrific in nature. One scenario makes you avoid an enemy, which adds some tension that I wish was more present in other areas of the game.

However, for the most part, you do a lot of walking and a lot of looking at things. Occasionally you run through poorly-explained dream-like scenarios, or participate in simple minigames, like using a camera and its photos to piece together answers about who was at the lake the night of Martha’s death. Walking feels like trudging through mud, which is especially frustrating because this game is all about walking around and interacting with objects to learn more about what’s going on.

I felt at odds with the gameplay the moment I began exploring Giulia’s family villa. Unfortunately, Martha Is Dead quickly becomes a chore to play. What happens next is unexpected, jaw-dropping even, and I was immediately captivated by the premise. Finally, she gets the love and affection she’s always wanted. After Giulia finds Martha, drowned in a lake, her mother runs to embrace Giulia, mistakenly believing her least-favorite child perished. Giulia’s mother never loved her the way she loved Martha, and this relationship, or lack thereof, has eaten away at Giulia’s spirits for years. Martha Is Dead starts extremely strong, introducing immediately a dynamic between twin sisters Martha and Giulia that sets the stage for the entire game.

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