'Martha Is Dead' Is Coming For The 'Darkest Horror Game' Crown

Martha Is Dead is a new horror game that began making the rounds a few days ago because gamers started complaining that it was getting censored by Sony. Censorship in gaming is usually dumb, but it's kind of weird that the only thing people are talking about is the censorship, and not the game itself. Does that mean that maybe the only thing of note about it is that it's dumb and bad? I took a look and boy oh boy.

The game is about unveiling the mystery behind the death of a girl named *checks notes* Martha. It gets a passing mark in mood, but let's just say that the methods employed on the mystery-solving part of the thing are poor even by the standards of someone who got all of their forensic knowledge from C.S.I. Miami. This game features not just cutscenes of, but interactive sequences where the player has to remove the face and womb of the dead girl. I'm not going to show any of that here, but I'll just say that it's so unapologetically bad that it nearly allows you to forget that the game is drenched in Nazi imagery. It's important to state that the game doesn't seem to condone Nazis, but it's pretty weird that the only time when it decides to be non-gory is in the ways that we deal with them.

It should be no surprise that the ridiculously unnecessary violence got Sony's quality control worried, but they didn't even ban the game – they just toned down some of the worst sequences. Gamers, not ones to accept people getting offended in any way, got very offended at the idea that maybe using a knife to remove a girl's face isn't the best possible use for interactivity in a game. It's really funny to see so many people riled up from the pretty soft censorship when it sure does look like the devs were aiming for the free editing advice and publicity they'd get out of it.

Even if you believe one should be able to sell whatever you want as long as you package it as a game, is the hassle really worth it just to please the kind of person who finds pleasure in any of this?

Top Image: Wired Productions