The Medium is a third-person psychology-based horror game developed by Bloober. The game is to be released on 28th Jan 2021 on Xbox series X/S. Like any good horror game, it’s moody, it’s cinematic, and has got a creepy little girl that sends shivers down your spine.
Storyline
The Medium is set in Krakow, Poland, in the late 90s and begins with a protagonist Marianne who enters the abandoned and decrepit old hotel Neva in Krakow looking for a man named Thomas to discover and resolve the mysteries that happened years ago. After being haunted by visions you meet the spirit of the creepy little girl Sadness. You will have to use your ability to travel between two different worlds – the real world and the spirit world. The game also involves the use of your psychic abilities to undercover the harsh realities and solve dual reality puzzles. So, get ready to survive with sinister spirits by absorbing some spirit energy.
The Medium requires your exceptional ability to travel between the real world, and the spirit world to solve mysteries and find out the realities.
Gameplay
The main crust of the Medium requires the ability to travel between two different worlds–the Real-world and the spirit world. In this dual reality game, Protagonist Marianne, which is the third person, has to fight against the evils and hostile forces by using her wield, unique and psychic abilities. She can travel into the spirit realm and inhabit both worlds. Surviving dangers and creating powerful energy shields is what Marianne has to do in the game.
The medium involves the exploration of two different worlds that uses horror of personal trauma to craft a haunting tale. The dual world is a pretty new concept which no other game has ever tried. With access to dual worlds, you have a broader perspective and everything you see has a different side as well.
Puzzles
There is another section of the Medium that is a bit of a puzzle sequence where you are trapped in a hotel, on the other side of a mirror, and you need a key. Something related to a cat that leads to a faceless lost soul named Bernard. You will need to say his name and restore his face to allow him to leave his purgatory. Naturally, his face is in a room swarming with moths, but another spirit energy charge can burn the bugs and clear the path. Face restored soul at rest and that reveal the cat toy figurine that needed to escape this mirror realm.
These puzzles of Medium are investigative and tense in nature. You need to use your psychological abilities while listening to echoes of conversations from the past and gather scraps of paper to frame the tale.
Soundtrack
Like living in two different worlds, the Medium uses dual soundtrack composed by legendary Arkadlusz Relkowski and Akira Yamaoka that are going to give you chills. With an unsettling environment and terrifying vibe the eerie music play adds a wholesome spark to the game.
Graphics
As far as it is observed from the trailer, the Medium has used crystal clear high-definition graphics. The quality of the same can be judged easily by the flashlight on Marianne’s chest that blinks faster as the creature gets closer.
Its performance on the next gen console (PS5 and Xbox Series X) is impressive. The world is wonderfully detailed, with fast performance even at times of exploring two realities simultaneously.
While in the last gen consoles (Xbox One and Ps4Pro) the performance was not so good because of technical constraints.
Overall, the game deserves to be played on a high-end PC to make justice to the storyline. In the low-end PCs, the graphics quality and the performance lacks which makes the players irritated at times.
Our Final Thoughts
Overall, the Medium is a challenging puzzle-solving horror game that offers a unique dual-reality concept and unparalleled storyline. The best thing about the Medium is the dual world concept where the lead protagonist Marianne learns more about her past and her spiritual powers.
On the other hand, the storyline could have been better. With a small burn, it has confusing puzzles and a story that revolves around fumbles topics. This causes trouble in understanding the game.
With no second thought, the Medium deserves a rating of 8 out of 10.
