Martha Is Deadis a recently released thriller horror game, published by renowned Indie publisher Wired Productions. With how saturated the gaming market is in regard to horror games, developers of new horror titles likeMartha Is Deadnow have to walk a fine line between pushing the boundaries of what is expected of games within the genre. The ultimate goal for new horror developers in recent years has been to engage and surprise fans in new ways that don’t overstep the mark of what the average consumer would like to experience.
The element of shock factor, in particular, has been a boon to horror games for quite some time. The decision of whether certain elements of these games are serving the goal of achieving this shock and horror, or whether they are just unnecessarily graphic and disturbing, is a very contentious point of debate within the gaming discourse. With Sony recently censoring some explicitMartha Is Deadcontent, this debate is livelier than ever.
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What is Martha Is Dead?
Martha Is Deadis a first-person horror adventure game that recently released on February 24. Set in war-torn 1944 Italy, the game markets itself as a deeply disturbing and psychologically thrilling experience that “blurs the lines between reality, superstition and the tragedy of war.” The psychological and tense aspects ofMartha Is Deadhave seen it likened toP.T.
The game is entirely voice acted in Italian, which is the default language setting, to give an authentic and immersive experience befitting of the setting where the game takes place. With the stunning graphics of the Tuscany countryside juxtaposing the underlying themes of horror and war, combining with a deeply layered and tense level of gameplay,Martha Is Deadfound itself as one of the most anticipated horror gamesof recent years.
What’s Censored for the PlayStation Version?
As a part of these underlying themes of psychological horror that the game prides itself on, there is inexorably some content in the game that some may consider overly-graphic, to an unnecessary or disturbing degree. This is clearly a point of view shared by Sony, which hascontroversially censored some significant contentfor the PlayStation release ofMartha is Dead.
The content is, of course, disturbing to some, so should be read with the relevant discretion. Sony has censored content in the game by either making it non-interactive, or removing it entirely. Sections that have been made non-interactive in the PlayStation release include perhaps the most infamous scene in the game, whereby the player controls their character cutting off the face of a young girl, and one where they cut open the womb of a woman with a pair of scissors. These scenes are no longer interactive, with options being made available to skip the scenes entirely.
Additional changes made to this version of release include the removal of dialogue relating to masturbation which could be heard in a psychiatric ward portion of the game, as well as much more detailed and prominent warnings to all the themes explored in the game, with miscarriage being one of the new cautions. The game also now has extensive mental health resources that are displayed, as well as the option to completely skip more of the game’s most disturbing scenes, which involve things like suicide or scenes relating to children.
While these scenes obviously sound horrific when isolated like this, it has created a rift between fans who claim the changes are justified, and those who claim that videogames, like any art, are a medium that is meant to push boundaries, especially within the horror genre. Historically, though, this kind of publicity for a horror game has seen it rise in popularity, with many thinking thiscensorship could helpMartha Is Deadin the long run.
Martha Is Deadis available to play now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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