The Medium - A Review

 

The Medium

Synopsis:

    The game starts off in a Funeral Home, you're looking for a tie clip for someone dear who has just passed away. Shortly thereafter you receive a call from a man named Thomas and are begged to help him. Little explanation is given as to who this Thomas is and why he needs your help so terribly. Before leaving the phone conversation, Thomas eludes to knowing about Marianne's "gift". The conversation ends, the scene ends, and the next thing you know the player and character are whisked away to the derelict and overgrown resort called 'Niwa.' From here the player's real adventure begins...

Gameplay:    8/10

    The gameplay is a mix between puzzles, non-confrontational situations with enemies, and a mix of steath. The character & player both have a sense of self while being indulged in the worlds you explore. Going from the normal world we see, and the spirit world we can only see when Marianne uses her powers to split her mind into two. Exploring the world in this way allows the players to immerse themselves see the best or worst of both worlds. Many of the puzzle effects take place during this time, and the players can use their powers to solve, repair, break or hide depending on the scenario.

Audio & Soundtrack:    10/10

    The soundtrack is beautifully composed, methodical, emotional, and beautifully constructed to the scenes they adhere to. The music makes you feel a deep sense of dread, sadness, loneliness, and being watched. The musical score was co-composed by Arkadiusz Reikowski and Akira Yamaoka, the latter of who worked exclusively for years composing the sounds and soundtracks for Silent Hill.

Graphics:    8/10

    The graphics are stunning and beautiful, they convey their own emotions. Beautifully crafted, constructed, and modeled to display the wonderful environments within the game.

Story:    10/10

The Medium is a psychological horror video game developed by Bloober Team that was released on January 28, 2021. Taking play in third-person, the play controls the main character, Marianne. Taking place in post-Communism Poland in the 1990s, Marianne continues to be haunted by a recurring dream involving a girl being shot by a lake. Marianne then awakens to remember she is grieving the loss of her foster father, Jack, before the funeral can commence, Marianne receives a mysterious phone call from a man named Thomas who claims to know about her "gift." This mystery man leads her to a derelict and run-down resort named 'Niwa.' Here the adventure begins and players can see into Marianne's world of spirits and ghouls.

Final Impressions:    8.5/10

    The Medium is a beautiful game, the concept, the story, and the gameplay all mesh together wonderfully. The game plays smoothly, the story flows together like a well-oiled machine. There are a few things that made the game a smidge annoying for me when playing for the first time and throughout the game. 

Within the first few minutes of gameplay, I could see stuttering within the graphics, harsh tearing, and meshing that would cause the beautiful graphics to look like putty. Fortunately, the developers patched this issue along with many others upon the initial release. 

The game plays beautifully, however, the game does not seem to work well with controller support, the many times throughout gameplay when attempting to do a puzzle or straddle your way across a slim piece of 4x4 without falling. Most of the time the controller input is not read properly and this leads to a big frustration from myself. Even when switching from Xbox Controller to PS4 Controller, I still had the same experience while playing on PC. All in all, this is a wonderful game and I would recommend it to anyone to give it a try. I love it, and the ending left much to be desired.