The Callisto Protocol

Arguably one of the more anticipated games of the year, The Callisto Protocol was talked up a fair amount by Striking Distance Studios. With talent like Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofield involved, it seemed like a slam-dunk…until we played the game. And endured its awkward combat, lacklustre enemy variety, and lame final boss, all in a span of a few hours instead of the promised 12 to 14. Worst of all, performance was atrocious on PC with severe stuttering issues and crashes. The Callisto Protocol isn’t the worst game ever, but it ranked above average, which felt even worse.

Martha is Dead

LKA’s psychological horror looked special, and the setting of a German-occupied Italy during World War 2 could have presented something unique. Sadly, things fall apart after the opening, with the middle act suffering in pacing due to lots of meandering and wandering. Some controls don’t feel great, and the camera system also feels too complex for the amount used. Also, despite the handful of gruesome scenes, the real horror is reserved for the beginning and the end. Again, great ideas and an interesting setting with disturbing material, but the mishmash of other ideas and story elements dull the experience.

Salt and Sacrifice

Look, I’m not saying I expected another Souls-like Metroidvania that built on the first game and also had a large, interconnected world. Salt and Sacrifice kind of does that, but also inserts Monster Hunter-like elements when it comes to hunting Mages. The art style is polished, and the premise is intriguing. Yet, it doesn’t come together as well as its predecessor, either due to the progression, annoying combat aspects (like getting juggled in the air) or the controls.

Somerville

When you hear the story behind developer Jumpship, founded by former Playdead co-founder Dino Patti, you want to root for Somerville. Patti’s experience includes Inside and Limbo, and despite this not being a full side-scrolling platformer, the premise and aesthetics look great. However, the plot leaves much to be desired (especially with the “ending”), and the controls are not good. Having to deal with numerous issues and bugs doesn’t help either.

Trek to Yomi

Like Ghost of Tsushima, Trek to Yomi takes heavy inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s work, both in presentation and aesthetics. The monochrome art looks incredible, and the camera work is impeccable. The problem is the rest of the game, specifically the combat, which feels annoying and clunky. Add boring enemy variety and level design, and you have a beautiful-looking side-scroller without any heart or soul.

Rainbow Six Extraction

One didn’t expect much from Rainbow Six Extraction. After all, it had been delayed multiple times, and the prospect of taking a limited-time event and turning it into a paid game still felt scummy. However, as it turns out, Ubisoft went even lower than my lowest expectations. Terrible AI, damage-sponge bosses, awful objectives, a complete lack of tactical gameplay, bugs – the list goes on. Extraction’s biggest achievement is how it manages to be so disappointing and yet so forgettable, with many still expressing surprise that it even launched this year.

Roller Champions

When Roller Champions was first announced, it seemed stylish, even if the concept of a 3v3 Roller Derby-style multiplayer game didn’t sound so intriguing. Then it got delayed again and again. When it finally landed this year, Roller Champions was a complete dud. It wasn’t downright awful, but nothing was captivating about it. The lack of polish, mode variety, and features like stats or quick chat at launch ensured a plummet into irrelevance.

Resident Evil Village – The Winters’ Expansion

We all had hopes for The Winters’ Expansion, particularly Shadows of Rose, which took place several years after the base game. Alas, not only did it recycle environments and fail to advance the overarching story, but it was only a handful of hours long. That would be fine if the expansion were cheaper. But the Third-Person Mode for the base game felt too clunky and awkward, and the additional Mercenaries content was simply good without being worthwhile alone.

Scorn

Announced in 2014, Scorn has been in development for a long time, but the disgusting art style, inspired by H. R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, made it stand out in the sea of graphically beautiful titles. Unfortunately, its annoying combat and checkpoints, not to mention the frustrating puzzles, hamper it tremendously. It feels like a conflict between the art design and gameplay, resulting in an underwhelming – and short – experience.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

Weird as it sounds, I always felt there was something off about Marvel’s Midnight Suns. This is even after all the gameplay streams showcased the myriad of tactics available. On release, it revealed some pretty terrible writing, not to mention an excessive amount of padding and grinding for something as simple as card rerolls. The combat was still decent, but performance issues and shabby visual quality held it back.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

The first-ever seamless open-world title for Pokemon. Three paths to follow with the freedom to choose. The start of the ninth generation. All these promises and more were made for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and the results were…iffy. While the stories and gameplay felt good, the sheer range of technical and performance issues, shoddy presentation, and illusion of free choice made it feel like a severe downgrade from Pokemon Legends: Arceus and even Sword and Shield.

Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin

When rumors of a Final Fantasy Souls-like action RPG from Team Ninja, including the minds behind Nioh, first circulated, I was stoked. There’s no way Square Enix could mess this up, right? Unfortunately, they did, with a weird combat system, horribly optimized visuals, and some of the worst writing either company has put out (which is saying something). Subsequent updates and DLC improved it, but this is still a major disappointment considering what could have been.

FIFA 23

Since it’s the last title as part of EA Sports’ collaboration with FIFA, you would think FIFA 23 would be a worthwhile end to a long-running, mostly-controversial series. It’s not. New mechanics like the PowerShot, Active Touch and World Cup modes were nice additions. But it’s still microtransaction-heavy, as evidenced by the changes to chemistry in Squad-Building Challenges. The PC version still has several issues, and the Nintendo Switch version continues to be a joke. For those who enjoyed FIFA, it’s more FIFA and still sells millions, but it’s still lacklustre.

Rune Factory 5

Ever since the delay to its Western release, I had some decent hopes for Rune Factory 5. It’s fully 3D with a more impressive presentation and combat. Unfortunately, it also feels overtly grindy, while the premise and overall gameplay aren’t a big enough step up over its predecessor. The performance of Nintendo Switch left much to be desired (with the PC version faring better). Long story short, it’s not a terrible game but could have done much more. Those looking to discover what makes the series great are better off sticking to Rune Factory 4 Special.

Gotham Knights

Believe it or not, there were some expectations on Gotham Knights. Even for those who knew it was more of an action RPG than a brand-new Batman: Arkham, there was that promise of exploring Gotham City and beating up bad guys. Gotham Knights bungled this with bad dialogue, annoying combat mechanics (counters? What are those?), clunky stealth, and grinding for things that should be available by default. Worst of all? It completely wastes the Court of Owls as antagonists.

Diablo Immortal

The day it was announced, nearly everyone expected Diablo Immortal to be a pay-to-win shitshow. The final product somehow exceeded their wildest expectations with a battle pass, premium battle pass, empowered battle pass, materials, bundles, cosmetics – anything and everything was for sale. Let’s not even get into entire endgame mechanics – like Awakening – only accessible by spending money. The real tragedy is that even if that was all stripped away, you’re left with a middling, dumbed-down clone of Diablo 3 with a terrible UI and loot.

The game is set in a sunny Italian countryside in 1944, which is not so sunny thanks to the cloud of World War II casting a deep shadow over everything. The protagonist, Giulia, is the daughter of a German general, and in the opening moments of a game, she chances upon the dead, drowned body of her deaf twin sister Martha in a lake that’s said to be haunted by a spirit known as the White Lady. A case of mistaken identity, however, leads to her parents believing that it’s her that died and Martha who found the body, and Giulia, who has always felt neglected by her family compared to her sister, fails to correct oversight.

"The gradual ramping up of palpable tension has always been the hallmark of good psychological horror, but Martha is Dead takes that a little too far, to the point where the bulk of the experience feels plodding and meandering."

It’s a rather unique and interesting premise, and one that the game digs into in some interesting ways, especially as you learn more and more about Giulia’s tough relationship with her mother. As her psyche unravels throughout the experience, she becomes an increasingly unreliable narrator, and trying to piece together what exactly happened in the lake becomes more complicated as the story progresses. Weaving in and out of this psychological murder mystery, which has dashes of supernatural horror thrown in for good measure, is the story of the war itself, bringing with it its own intrigue and tying into the central narrative in some interesting ways.

Or at least so it feels in the beginning. The problem with Martha is Dead is that it can be a bit too overindulgent with its pacing, a lot of which comes down to how the game plays. More of a walking simulator than a horror game, the vast majority of Martha is Dead tasks players with walking from place to place and clicking photos of objects or investigating certain things, and while the photography itself is impressively fleshed out – from tinkering with the aperture, focus, and framing of your shots to switching out different lenses to take specific photos in different situations – everything else feels too rudimentary, and as such, mundane. Significant stretches of the game feel so uneventful that they can make Red Dead Redemption 2’s prologue look like a fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled romp.

It doesn’t help that the moment-to-moment gameplay just doesn’t feel great either. The walking speed is too slow, and the sprinting speed is only marginally faster, which doesn’t gel very well with the fact that you’re walking around a lot in this game, and often across distances that might not feel like much on paper (the game is set in Guilia’s countryside villa and the woodlands surrounding it), but feel padded out due to the slow pace at which you move. You can unlock the ability to ride a bicycle for some of the longer journeys, but surprisingly, the movement speed there isn’t a huge change from your sprint either, while actually controlling the bike always feels clunky and weirdly unresponsive.

"Significant stretches of the game feel so uneventful that they can make Red Dead Redemption 2’s prologue look like a fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled romp."

Other aspects of Martha is Dead’s gameplay let the experience down as well. Given its slow and plodding nature, a lot of the game sees you combing through environments and interacting with very specific objects, but frustratingly enough, looking at the object you want to and highlighting it as what you want to interact with can often feel inaccurate, so you’ll often find yourself making microscopic adjustments to your standing position and the angle at which you’re looking at something just so the game can realize that that’s the thing you want to pick up or examine.

Certain other gameplay sections feel clunky in execution as well- like a section that has you sending coded messages via a telegram, which requires you to actually input all of it in using morse code. That sounds interesting on paper, but in practice, it’s shoddily executed and takes unnecessarily long. Meanwhile, the game is also often broken up by sections that see you running through the woods and stitching together sentences by taking forks in the path- and if you take the wrong fork, you go back to the beginning of the sentence. It’s not fun, it makes no sense on even on a conceptual level, and it happens way too often.

That said, existing in the simultaneously quaint and unsettling world of Martha is Dead has its charms as well. The game deserves a lot of credit for how authentically it recreates its period setting, and how effectively it transports you to that place and time. It’s easy to instantly get immersed in the game’s version of 1940s Italy, and everything from news reports and radio broadcasts about the war ravaging through Europe to the detail that’s been poured into the period-appropriate photography mechanics contributes to the game’s authenticity. It also helps that visually, Martha is Dead looks quite good. It won’t knock your socks off, but the art design and visual fidelity work together well enough breathe more life into the setting. It’s not a faultless experience in this area either – there are some noticeable technical issues and visual glitches, such as entire sections of the world being replaced by blank, black textures even as you’re walking through them – but by and large, it still impresses on a visual level.

"There are some good ideas here that deserved to be in a better game, but as it stands right now, Martha is Dead is a frustrating experience that fails to do justice to those ideas."

That really just sumps up Martha is Dead as a game though- it’s got a lot going for it, but it often gets in its own way. The narrative premise is unique and makes its distinct elements work together surprisingly well, but it’s pacing might very well turn you away if you don’t have the patience (or inclination) to stick with it. The setting is beautiful and lovingly crafted, but actually playing the game often feels like a chore for one reason or the other. There are some good ideas here that deserved to be in a better game, but as it stands right now, Martha is Dead is a frustrating experience that fails to do justice to those ideas.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

"Each of us sees reality with our own eyes and one of the most challenging works in Martha Is Dead, as in our previous title, was to “deform” reality so that it appears subjective. When I say deform reality, I don’t mean to deform the historical and cultural facts of a period, which shape the people who live it, I mean rather to deform it from a perceptive point of view."

With its WW2 setting, the central crux of personal loss, and its psychological horror trappings, there’s certainly a lot going on in Martha is Dead, story-wise. What sort of a balance does the game strike between these aspects?

Luca Dalco (Writer / Director): The central point of Martha Is Dead is the protagonist. Her interiority. Everything else is something that happens to her and has value only in this vision. Each of us sees reality with our own eyes and one of the most challenging works in Martha Is Dead, as in our previous title, was to “deform” reality so that it appears subjective. When I say deform reality, I don’t mean to deform the historical and cultural facts of a period, which shape the people who live it, I mean rather to deform it from a perceptive point of view.

Can you talk about what players can expect from the game’s free exploration aspect, in terms of the size of the environments and how the game will encourage and reward exploration?

Dalco: The environment contains several gameplay elements that are not mandatory, but help a lot in understanding and deepening the story. The environments are not so big as to be dispersive and there is no shortage of things to do.  This path has been followed both to make the gameplay more interesting and freer, and to allow the player to feel the presence of the environment that surrounds him/her more, as a protagonist and witness of what happens.

Martha is Dead seems to have some things in common with your previous title, The Town of Light, in that they’re both psychological horror stories taking place in historical settings. What lessons from that game have you taken into the development of your current project?

Dalco: First of all we understood that the theme of psychological disorder, treated with respect and attention, is something that not only the video game, as a medium, is able to support, but also that there is a lot of interest in. Martha Is Dead is very different from The Town of Light. The first one was a story, in Martha Is Dead things happen while you play them, so the immersion and identification is even greater. We understand that these are stories that can affect, even deeply and it is very important that the player is properly warned before embarking on this experience. On the other hand, a mental disorder is often a source of terrible suffering and cannot be “sweetened”, otherwise a wrong message would pass.

Martha is Dead’s story is promising a unique mix of folklore against the backdrop of a war- how did the idea for that kind of a blend come about?

Dalco: Immersiveness. We want maximum immersiveness. For this reason we looked for all the aspects that characterized that period, all that our protagonist experienced and we tried to tell this experience, before the elements themselves.

"We want maximum immersiveness. For this reason we looked for all the aspects that characterized that period, all that our protagonist experienced and we tried to tell this experience, before the elements themselves."

Does Martha is Dead feature any combat, or is it a game focused more in other areas?

Dalco: The combat encounters are something that flows in the background of the game. The girl does not experience them directly. The war comes to her filtered through adult accounts, radio news, newspaper articles. A very hard encounter with the war is there, but it is not combat.

It seems like taking and developing photographs will be one of the side activities that Martha is Dead will offer. Can you talk a little bit more about how this will figure into the game?

Dalco: Taking and printing “old style” photos is part of the soul of the game. We’ve tried to create a system that gives you an idea of what photography was like in those days, without pushing it into a real simulator that would be very hard to play. Sometimes photographs are necessary and functional to the gameplay, but we hope that this element will push players to experiment on their own, to play with the many accessories to get personal and special shots of the game’s environments.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of Martha is Dead be?

Dalco: Difficult question. It depends a lot on how much the player wants to immerse themselves in the game, how much they want to finish all the tasks present. I would suggest a range between 6 and 9 hours.

What are your plans for Martha is Dead where post-launch support is concerned? Can players expect any additional content down the line?

Dalco: There are many ideas. The world of Martha Is Dead can easily be enriched thanks to the many ideas that the game offers, but nothing is decided yet. I personally would be delighted to work on additional content. There’s one particular idea that… but I can’t talk about it now, hopefully it can be done!

Do you have any plans to eventually bring the game to the Switch?

Dalco: Not at this time.

Do you have any plans to optimize the game for Steam Deck? If yes, what kind of specifications can we expect?

Dalco: That’s something we’ll address right after the release. Interest is sky high, of course!

"The world of Martha Is Dead can easily be enriched thanks to the many ideas that the game offers, but nothing is decided yet. I personally would be delighted to work on additional content."

Given that you have now worked on all three current gen consoles, I hope you don’t mind answering some of the tech questions. Since the reveal of the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s specs, a lot of comparisons have been made between the GPU speeds of the two consoles, with the PS5 at 10.28 and the Xbox Series X at 12 TFLOPS- but how much of an impact on development do you think that difference will have? 

Tommaso Bonanni (LKA’s external development team): The performance gap seen in the previous generation is non-existent in this one. During our work we have been able to find that there are particular situations in which the Xbox Series X GPU is slightly more ahead.

The PS5 features an incredibly fast SSD with 5.5GB/s raw bandwidth. How can developers take advantage of this, and how does this compare to Xbox Series X’s 2.4GB/s raw bandwidth?

Bonanni: We are all amazed by the performance of the PS5 SSD, which in itself is a technical gem. However, the element that really makes the difference here is the PS5’s data reading and writing system, which is extremely efficient. Even on some occasions we have found the fact that PS5 loads some scenes too quickly compared to other consoles and PCs, literally broke the loading of the levels because it was totally unexpected, so we had to get our hands on the code to counterbalance this excessive loading speed.

There is a difference in Zen 2 CPUs of both consoles. The Xbox Series X features 8x Zen 2 cores at 3.8GHz whereas the PS5 features 8x Zen 2 cores at 3.5GHz. Your thoughts on this difference? 

Bonanni: We are talking about a minimum amount of fps that is verifiable only in very demanding situations and does not significantly change the gaming experience in any case at the moment.

In our opinion, in a few years when developers will become more familiar with both hardware and will be able to push them to the maximum, in that moment we will see slight differences, but in our opinion, those will always be details for insiders that users will not notice in most cases.

The Xbox Series S features lesser hardware compared to Xbox Series X and Microsoft is pushing it as a 1440p/60fps console. Do you think it will be able to hold up for the graphically intensive next-gen games?

Bonanni: In our opinion, only in this first phase is it still possible to speak of totally equivalent experiences. In the long run, the differences will be seen in high-performance games. Much also depends on how the developer intends to exploit the hardware difference. In our case, being a not very frenetic experience, based mainly on the graphic aspect, we decided to maintain the same graphic quality on both Microsoft consoles, at the expense of fluidity (we believe that 30 fps on Xbox Series S is more than enough to enjoy a similar title) so the experience can be defined as equivalent after all.

Super Resolution is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. How do you think this will help game developers?

Bonanni: We have been using Super Resolution on all generations and we are very impressed. It has truly allowed us to push Martha Is Dead’s graphics beyond what we expected and we believe that software solutions such as this are the best answer to keep the life of consoles as long as possible. We are talking of gaining 5-10 FPS in most situations without losing any details in the image, incredible.

What frame rate and resolution will Martha is Dead target on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S?

Bonanni: Both PS5 and Xbox Series X have two game modes: one at 4k 30fps and one at 1080 60fps, while Xbox Series S is at 1080 30fps but maintaining the same level of quality. It is important to mention that in any case the use of Super Resolution very often brings the 1080 versions to higher resolutions (even on Xbox Series S) so the resolution gap will probably be less noticeable.

Through an update via their official Twitter, the developer announced that even though they have been pretty open and transparent about the discomforting scenes and themes the game will include, they will be modifying the experience on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions, removing certain elements from the game altogether. The game however, will still launch on PlayStation on February 24, but the physical release for the console is delayed to a yet to be disclosed date.

Regardless, the PC and Xbox versions of Martha is Dead are unaffected, and will be launched with the full unedited gameplay and story. The game is also planning to target 4K/30 FPS and 1080p/60 FPS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

A statement on Martha Is Dead pic.twitter.com/iI3T5s4LYR

— Martha Is Dead (@MarthaisDead) February 11, 2022

Speaking with GamingBolt in a recent interview, Tommaso Bonanni – technical director and part of LKA’s external development team – confirmed that on PS5 and Xbox Series X, Martha is Dead will feature 4K/30 FPS and 1080p/60 FPS options, while on the Xbox Series S, it’ll only feature a 1080p/30 FPS option. While that disparity will be disappointing to some, Bonanni says that with the use of Super Resolution, the game’s resolution on Xbox Series S is likely to be higher.

“Both PS5 and Xbox Series X have two game modes: one at 4K/30 FPS and one at 1080p/60 FPS, while Xbox Series S is at 1080p/30 FPS, but maintaining the same level of quality,” Bonanni said. “It is important to mention that in any case the use of Super Resolution very often brings the 1080p versions to higher resolutions (even on Xbox Series S) so the resolution gap will probably be less noticeable.”

In the same interview, Bonanni also spoke with us about the PS5’s SSD and his experience working with it, calling it a “technical gem”. Read more on that through here.

Martha is Dead is due out for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 24. Our full interview with the game’s developers will be live soon, so stay tuned for that.

It’s not just the big games that are benefiting from the technology either. LKA’s external development team, which is working on upcoming horror title Martha is Dead, have also found the console’s SSD to be amazing. GamingBolt interviewed LKA’s Tommaso Bonanni on how the team took advantage of the PS5 SSD’s 5.5 GB/s Raw Read Bandwidth and 9-9 GB/s Compressed Bandwidth, and how it compared to the Xbox Series X.

Bonanni said, “We are all amazed by the performance of the PS5 SSD, which in itself is a technical gem. However, the element that really makes the difference here is the PS5’s data reading and writing system, which is extremely efficient. Even on some occasions we have found the fact that PS5 loads some scenes too quickly compared to other consoles and PCs, literally broke the loading of the levels because it was totally unexpected, so we had to get our hands on the code to counterbalance this excessive loading speed.”

Martha is Dead releases on February 24th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay in the coming weeks.

Set in 1944 Italy with World War 2 raging on, the story focuses on Guilia who learns that her twin sister Martha has died. Along with managing the aftermath, Guilia seeks the truth behind Martha’s death. Players will explore Tuscany’s countryside, use marionettes to uncover repressed memories, use tarot cards and keep track of the war via newspapers and the radio. You can even take pictures, though the process involves developing them with a dark room.

Martha is Dead also seeks to create an authentic experience, whether it’s in the Italian voice-acting or the music with reimagined tracks like “Bella Ciao.” Stay tuned for more details and gameplay footage en route to the new release date.

GhostWire: Tokyo

Though more of a supernatural action adventure game, there’s plenty of frightening goings-on in GhostWire: Tokyo. Most of the city’s population has vanished, followed by the arrival of the Visitors – hostile spirits based on Japanese folklore. There’s one resembling the kuchisake-onna, a slit-mouthed woman that goes around scarring people’s faces with scissors. Faceless, suit-wearing foes can be seen which bear a strong resemblance to Slenderman and there are headless spirits running around as well. That’s not including the mysterious Hannya mask-wearing group who have their own motives. GhostWire: Tokyo is currently slated to release in 2021 for PS5 and PC first.