If the thought of urban exploration within sinister, hair-raising environments sounds like fun, then developer and publisher Bloober Team has made a game just for you with The Medium! Jump between eerie realities using your supernatural powers to help lost souls find peace and unravel a dark mystery surrounding an abandoned communist resort.
The Medium has impressed gamers and critics alike and has garnered well deserved attention and praise. This psychological horror game puts you into the shoes of Marianne, a quirky and compassionate young medium. After a certain turn of events, Marianne finds herself diving deeper into the mysterious and foreboding Niwa Worker’s Resort. The Medium is a plot-driven game that has very compelling characters and does a great job keeping players interested in the story while subverting the audience’s expectations.
The core gameplay revolves around you investigating your surroundings, both in real life and in a twisted purgatory world, to find clues, tools, and items that allow you piece together key information as well as solve puzzles that all help you put tormented, lost souls to rest. All of the models and textures help immerse the player into the game’s world because every object is gorgeous. The level of polish and detail on nearly every wall and asset speak for themselves.
The story and dialogue are well written and most of the voice actors in this game give riveting performances that breathes life into these characters. The voice of Marianne (voiced by Kelly Burke) is especially good, her dialogue deliveries seem realistic and occasionally provide some welcomed comedic relief.
Bloober Team does it all to capture the essence of a dark and chilling ambiance. The attention to detail is impressive, you can hear different sounds depending on what surface you’re walking on, you can hear your own character breathing, ambiance noise is balanced masterfully and the design of the environment always seems like a beautiful mess waiting to be explored. The game also makes great use of cinematic camera angles like the older Resident Evil games.
The Medium is a story-rich psychological thrill ride and the main gameplay consists of puzzle solving. A feature that is not entirely new but is utilized well is the aspect where you can control both versions of your character at the same time. What is done in one reality can directly affect the other, and this idea is put to good use to solve puzzles in a refreshing way. I thought it was super impressive how well both worlds can be simultaneously rendered and how creatively mirrored they are to one another. Puzzles require a bit of forethought but are not too hard to solve and they can be very satisfying and relaxing at times as well. There are also nicely implemented elements of stealth in the gameplay, which helped with immersion.
Bloober Team has done amazing work to bring this story to fruition and it is their most ambitious project yet. The level of care and attention to detail bleed with passion and love for their work. They have produced a graphical work of art for explorers, detectives, and investigators alike to get lost in. The Medium is a lengthy game that will take about 7.5-9 hours to complete but there is enough content and mystery to keep players engaged and speculative.
Rate: 8.8/10
Check Out The Medium Trailer:
Players can head to www.themediumgame.com to order on Steam, Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store at the price of $49.99/€49.99/£41.74.
For more information on The Medium, please visit www.themediumgame.com; Follow on Twitter @TheMediumGame; Like on Facebook @MediumGame, or follow on Instagram @the_medium_game
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Steam Review
For most of my life, I have had the great fortune and pleasure of experiencing hundreds of different video game franchises and genres. Some of my all-time favorite titles are The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dark Souls, and Banjo-Kazooie. I have always played video games with the goal of having a good time.
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