Review – The Medium

Thanks to the folks at Bloober Team, I’ve been taking a look over the new split-world psychological horror to bring you our full review and common sense parent’s guide for The Medium. As usual, we have a full video and extended written review for this new puzzle-horror title, which I’ve been experiencing on the Xbox Series X.

The Basics

The Medium is a third-person adventure, which to me feels like a bit of a mashup of old-school horror titles like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, brought into the 21st century in typical Bloober Team style. If you played their Blair Witch title a little while back, The Medium will seem familiar in parts, while bringing in sweeping gameplay changes.

You play as Marianne, a young lady suppressing an uncanny gift or two, investigating two different realities set around the Niwa Hotel. With a truly dark history, Niwa (pronounced Knee-va) us unlikely to be winning 5-star Trip Advisor reviews, and throughout the material world and the spirit world you’ll find some tremendously detailed environments. The atmosphere in game has been well crafted, and as usual Bloober Team have worked with visual and audio effects to build suspense, rather than relying on jump scares.

In a first for me, instead of simply travelling between two worlds, The Medium often renders both environments side by side. Throughout around a third of the title, you’ll work within this split reality, with your controls moving Marianne through each environment simultaneously, interacting with objects in either reality to solve puzzles and uncover the hotel’s dark past.

Additionally, as a Medium, you’ll be looking to cater to the needs of the dearly departed, helping them on their way to a better place. Unfortunately, helping these trapped souls isn’t going to be hugely popular with [no spoilers here, sweetie] and you’ll need to use stealth, as well as spiritual blasts and shields to navigate the two realms.

Worse, you’ll need to rely on stealth as well as your spiritual abilities in order to avoid the biggest and baddest of the antagonists. Creeping through the material world with only a flickering flashlight and your medium senses to let you know where to go, there are some peak horror elements to The Medium which I’ve really enjoyed.

Parent’s Eye View

The Medium is rated by PEGI at 18 and above, and by the ESRB at a Mature 17+. The title uses atmosphere wonderfully to build tension, and there are a number of themes throughout which I’d say would be far too much for little ones. As well as the oppressive and sinister atmospheres and chases, there’s also a fair amount of blood throughout the real world, and dismembered humans. There’s also a good deal of language throughout the title, of the style which comes with psychological horror. The title’s Mature and 18 ratings really hit the mark, and this isn’t one I’ll be letting the micro-bandits anywhere near

Accessibility

In terms of accessibility, the Medium is picking up a rating of Moderate. You’ll need to put a little time into this one if you want to fully understand the story and dark past of the Niwa Hotel. However, with simple controls and straightforward step by step goals it’s one which you can drop in and out of at any time.

The Run Down

Visuals – Good: Here on Series X things look pretty decent, and while it does have flaws here and there atmospheres work well, with special notes on quality lighting using ray tracing. There are times where I’ve felt character animation and detail could have been upped a little, but overall I’ve found environments to be well created

Audio – Great: There’s some brilliant voice acting here, but a special shoutout goes to the incidental and background music which really helps to create the oppressive atmosphere.

Narrative – Great: The story here has been a good one, and one which I’ve found really engaging. There’s also a huge amount of backstory to find with a number of postcards, notes and drawings which you’ll need to collect if you want to get the full story of what’s happened at the Niwa Hotel

Replay – Fair: There are a good number of collectables throughout the title, but while I’ve really enjoyed my playthough it’s not one which is pulling me back in for more.

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The Verdict

Overall the Pixel Bandits What the **** Level for The Medium is that you’ll likely find it Enjoyable . It’s not an absolutely perfect title but it is one which I’ve enjoyed, and wirth a punt if you’re a fan of psychological puzzle horror titles.

The atmospheric environments have been beautifully created, and having two complete environments rendered at the same time has been a unique experience. While controls can be a little awkward while changing between scenes mostly this is one which has seen a lot of care in creation, and Bloober Team have done a great job of building suspense without relying on cheap jump scares, most of the time.