Review – The Medium (PC)
I continually encourage the Bloober team, even though their career has largely been a collection of projects that have not reached their full potential. Blair Witch and Layers of Fear has some interesting ideas, but it suffered from poor execution. Meanwhile, Observer, a game that wasn’t even supposed to be a survival horror, was scarier and more disturbing than their own horror titles. Medium is Bloober’s latest horror game, and he’s got some interesting ideas that advance the genre and bring it back to the past. Was this game a success or a failure for the company?
The bracket uses a fixed camera angle to create a great effect.
You step into the shoes of Marianne, the medium with the title, a person with a special connection to the afterlife who helps a recently deceased person make the transition from the spirit world to the afterlife. Shortly after losing her adoptive parents, she receives a phone call from a mysterious man named Thomas, who tells her to go to a place called Niva Resort, a place of brutal carnage. Marianne must know the truth about what happened there, because it was never discovered.
Medium doesn’t have the best writing style in the world, and he often uses horror terms (intentionally or unintentionally), but his story is quite entertaining. It was an interesting idea to put them in an engaging mystery that revolves around an enchanted place and the connection to the main character. It contains interesting NPCs and unexpected twists. Marianne is also a fascinating character: I wanted to see their journey to the end.
The medium sees Marianne passing through the real material world and the spiritual world, a place between life and death. It gives an amazing effect like you’ve never seen before. At key moments in the story, the screen splits in two and you begin to control Marianne simultaneously in both the physical and spirit worlds. Objects that stop Marianne in one world will also stop her in another, like a broken ladder in the material world or a swarm of moths in the spiritual world. If the material world is an obstacle, Marianne can leave her body for an out-of-body experience, which allows her to deal with the spiritual world alone. But if she lingers too long, she will get lost.
The split screen gave BlueBer a chance to try something different with quality scenes and gameplay.
It’s an interesting idea used to great effect, and almost every part of The Medium goes even further into the game of dual reality, managing to keep it constantly at the center of the game while finding new ways to mix things up that I won’t spoil here. You’ll spend most of your time walking around Niva Station and solving the puzzle together. If you’re not looking for a walking simulator, Medium might not be for you. Running speed is pretty slow, and running speed isn’t much better and is often zero anyway. Overall, I still find it very entertaining, with plenty of tension building, but without relying on jumpy scares.
One of the key features of The Medium, beyond its dual reality, is its use of fixed and dynamic camera angles, a strong return to the genre’s past. It’s used beautifully here and seems to be an homage to the old school of the Order of Evil and Silent Hill. This can cause minor control issues as you move from one part to another, but it is never enough to be a problem. It is possible to get absolutely amazing shots with this camera angle, and I really hope it will give the genre…. will breathe new life With moderation, of course.
There are some interesting concepts to the puzzles in the game, such as moving the hand of the clock to control time in another dimension, but overall none of the puzzles in The Medium are challenging or even thought-provoking. They often revolve around a simple interaction with something in the environment and then retreat to another area. I was hoping for more complexity, because there was a lot of potential in the whole multidimensional game.
Medium exhibits some additional problems when his threats are introduced. Graphically, these monsters are great, but when coupled with the gameplay in general, they are a bit disappointing, especially because of the game’s stealth mechanics. Marianne can get down on her knees and hold her breath. and that’s it. During her journey, she is particularly haunted by The Maw, a terrifying abomination that appears in the spirit world.
Soon after his encounter, you will find that he can also enter the material world, where he can continue to pursue you. But he can’t see you, and you can’t see him, but these short bits are just totally boring. All the stealthy sections are really easy to follow with clear routes. Fortunately, these hidden sections are few in number and some of them turned out pretty good.
Since Maw is a mechanically weak opponent, he brings an additional layer of terror to Medium.
Overall, the sound design is excellent. The actors did well for the most part, in some scenes of the episode they seemed either too cheesy or poorly planned. Every time they had to deliver, they did. Especially Troy Baker delivers phenomenal work as The Maw, he manages to take an already scary enemy to an even scarier level. To top it off, the soundtrack was composed by legendary Silent Hill composer, Akira Yamaoka.
While it’s not technically the best game I’ve seen lately, the presentation is fine. The aforementioned fixed camera style makes for amazing cinematic moments and keeps the tension in the stratosphere. The spirit world can also be visually stunning, and it’s one of the parallel dimensions of Silent Hill that I prefer in recent memory. That said, even if the game is installed on an SSD player, stuttering images and texture pop-ups are common during play. This is never unplayable, but it can have a negative effect on some scenes.
Medium is on its way to being a great horror game that in many ways comes close to being a true sequel to Silent Hill. The return to classic camera angles from years ago is a delight, while Dual Reality has intelligently advanced the genre. Unfortunately, the lifeless puzzles and sneaky intros completely derailed the game. I hope this isn’t the last time we see this franchise. There’s great untapped potential for great sequels here, if Blueber decides to give the film a second chance.
| While not the most visually stunning game in recent memory, the presentation and inimitable artistic style are breathtaking. | Most of the game’s exploration can be exciting, but the puzzle and stealth sections are very tough. |
| A trembling voice plays the key. The sound design is excellent, with a great soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka and an excellent performance by Troy Baker. | Medium has strong ideas and great execution, but lacks challenge and tension, a must for horror games. |
| Last block: 7.5 | |
Support is now available for Xbox and PC.
Viewed on a PC with RTX 2060, Ryzen 5 3600X and 16 GB of RAM.
A copy of Medium was provided by the publisher.
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frequently asked questions
Medium narrow ?
Medium is one of the few games that focuses on history. … Medium is a psychological horror story at its best, told in a way that is only possible in this format.
Does the medium reach the computer?
Medium is a brand new franchise for the team, so it will be interesting to see what other innovative things the Bloober Team does with it. The dual reality gameplay already seems incredibly ambitious. Medium comes on the 28th. January 2021 for PC and X-series.
How do I play a card game?
Speak aloud while playing the card. With this series of two words, you and your partner are trying to find Medium. Medium: This word connects the two words on your cards: a word that suggests the two words, a word that defines them, or a word that acts as a compromise between the two words.
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