Town of Light developer LKA has confirmed its new WW2-set, first-person psychological thriller, Martha is Dead, will be coming to Xbox Series X next year, alongside the previously announced PC version – and there’s an unsettling new trailer to accompany the news.
Martha is Dead unfolds in Tuscany, 1944, against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict between German and Allied forces. The story begins as the body of a woman, Martha, is found by the side of a lake, deep in the Italian countryside. Players, cast in the role of her twin sister, must deal with the repercussions of the murder, “all whilst the horror of war draws ever closer”.
“Along the way,” LKA explained back at the time of the game’s announcement, “she will encounter situations and discover things no one should have to… mortal death was the easy path compared to this one marred by mental and emotional distress which lingers on.”
LKA says Martha is Dead will combine real-world locations, historical events, superstition, and folklore to deliver “deep multi-layered narratives” in “disturbing and dreamlike tones”. There are hints of that, with an emphasis on disturbing, in the extremely gruesome new trailer, below.
Martha Is Dead – The Lake | Xbox Series X | PC | 4K Trailer Watch on YouTube
LKA co-founder and director Luca Dalco has shed a little more light on the studio’s approach to its latest subject in a statement accompanying the new trailer, writing, “Martha is Dead is set in a really interesting and distressing period of history, with Italy at this time torn between two major powers fighting for the future.”