The Medium’s Universe takes many of the ideologies and understanding of the Human psyche and presents us with questions that lead us to test that very understanding. Trauma, in all its forms, can have lasting and detrimental effects on a person. So much so that the traumatized may very well become the same monsters that preyed upon them. The Medium’s narrative takes root in this idea, and uses it to branch out the intricacies of its underlying plot.

Players take on the role of Marianne, a clairvoyant capable of not only communing with the spirits of the dead, but also allowing them to properly ‘pass on’. After receiving a call from a stranger going only by Thomas whom promises her insight into questions about her own past and the recent visions/nightmares she’s been having, Marianne makes the journey out to the Niwa Resort. Nary a few moments after her revival, Marianne learns that there is much-more going on at the resort than meets the eye. 

 

One of The Medium’s primary gameplay elements stems from its Dual Reality system, wherein Marianne is able to traverse  two separate planes of existence at the same time; The Living World and the Spiritual Realm. The former is as you would expect with realistic and detailed environments that we understand to be ‘normal’. The mood in the real world is cold, quiet, and unassuming. The woods surrounding the Niwa Resort are densely packed with towering trees, damp paths, mounds of Autumn leaves, and a bluish tint that almost seems devoid of life. The resort itself features some wonderfully detailed interiors packed with details and chilling lighting effects. In stark contrast, the spirit world (inspired by renowned artist, Zdzisław Beksiński’s Dystopian paintings.) features warm colors of orange, brown, reds, and greens with environments that literally pulsate with life and are slick with unsettling viscosity. The disparity is excellently achieved by how effortlessly traversing both worlds feels as you explore. 

The spirit world is not just a discolored reflection of the real one, however. In fact, you could say it’s more of a concept of it; A blueprint that was altered along the way to the final construct. A normal staircase that exists in the real world may be completely dilapidated in the other, while an object that is invisible to the naked eye among the living is as tangible as the keyboard I’m typing on in the spirit realm. This disparity applies to Marianne as well. In the spirit world her skin is pale, her hair bright white and void of color, while flecks of energy flutter away from her spectral form as she moves about.  

 

Beyond the Veil

It is by navigating these contrasting  worlds that the bulk of The Medium’s gameplay takes place. As the game progresses, each environment starts to become its own self-contained puzzle that requires good observation and an understanding of your abilities and how they affect the world.  The idea is that anything you interact with in one world, will affect the other in some way. Puzzles can range from simply finding the right path to navigate, replacing a lost item to its original place so that its spiritual energy resonates within the other world, to having to jump back and forth between both realms in order to successfully remove objects blocking your path. Not only this, but there are threats that exist on one side that are not visible to the other, such as swarms of spirit eating moths that must be dealt with before Marianne’s physical body can proceed.

Marianne herself has a few techniques up her sleeve to help along the way. Her corporeal form is capable of harnessing residual energy either left behind my moments of intense emotion in the real world, or recreated by unearthing moments in time that carried such energy with them. Not only this, but she is capable of creating a spirit shield to keep her safe from harm as well as honing the same energy and releasing it all at once to bring life back to old conduits and other objects. 

Witnessing the game running both these worlds simultaneously is truly a treat, and its only when you experience the effect first hand you begin to understand why the engine would have a tough time functioning properly on older hardware. Eventually, the Dual Reality gameplay goes a step further an introduces an ‘Out of Body’ mechanic wherein Marianne is able to leave her physical body behind so that she may explore previously inaccessible areas in the spirit realm. There are consequences to be wary of when doing so however, as her spirit form gradually deteriorates the longer she is separated from her body. With the press of a button Marianne can return to her physical form in a flash of light that hides a moment of near instantaneous loading.  

I found myself spirit walking nearly every chance I had just to make sure I didn’t miss anything and to simply explore as much of the environment as possible. While I never found myself completely stumped by a particular puzzle, they all proved satisfying to solve and gradually ramped up in difficulty the further you progressed. It’s a testament to Bloober Team’s attention to details and  seamlessly blending objectives with environmental cues that I always felt that pang of excitement every time I a completed a puzzle, eagerly moving onto the next challenge.

 

You’re not just going to be uncovering narrative bits and solving puzzles the whole time. Oh, no. You’ll wish that’s all there was to this adventure. There are moments where Marianne must resort to stealth and agility to escape the game’s primary antagonist. The Maw. Expertly voiced by Troy Baker, The Maw is a towering entity that makes it very clear just how depraved and corrupt it is the moment it makes its debut. “Let me wear you…!” it hums, its words dripping with insatiable desire as it hunts Marianne down every chance it gets.  These are the moments where The Medium feels more like a traditional horror experience and adds that extra bit of variety to the gameplay loop and make it feel like a full package. 

The tension and anxiety created in these moments is palpable. As you have Marianne sneak around and hide from her pursuer, the control vibrates rhythmically as it stomps closer and closer to your position. Lights flicker anxiously in The Maw’s presence and Marianne must also hold her breath if its nearby, lest she be discovered and forced to make a quick getaway. The Maw’s lingering threat works well throughout, as it’s just when you’ve spent time solving puzzles and suddenly realize that it’s been a little too quiet for a little too long. Suddenly you hear it. That gurgled and raspy vocalization that is accompanied by the thudding of its footsteps. You heart sinks and now your nerves are on fire. 

Troy Baker deserves every bit of praise for his work here. His performance as The Maw has helped created an entity that is extremely disturbing. You can’t help but feel a churning in the pit of your stomach as it gleefully describes how it wants to wear your skin, that its previous victims didn’t ‘last’, or that Marianne is being selfish by not letting it have its way with her. 

If you happen to end up in The Maw’s clutches, it is not immediately Game Over. If you have any spirit energy saved up, you can unleash some of it in the hopes of being able to make a quick getaway. Spirit energy is finite however, and depicted by glowing bits of fabric on Marianne’s sleeve. This further exacerbates moments where you hear The Maw and realize you haven’t recharged Marianne recently. 

The decision to use dynamic and predetermined camera angles only lends to the cinematic and uneasy feeling attributed to navigating the environment. Inspired by classics of the genre like Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark, and Resident Evil, The Medium takes an aesthetic not truly present since the 90s and breathes new life into it for a new generation.  In some areas the camera will pull back, showcasing just how large an area is and just powerless you are in the grand scheme of things. Purposely positioned angles that loom over Marianne from the corner of room create a sensation of unease as you have just enough visibility to know where you’re going, but not enough to know if something else is there as well. 

I couldn’t help but smile as certain sweeping shots and angles immediately reminded me of the original Silent Hill (One of my favorite games of all time.) with the expert positioning and timing of the frame. 

 

The Medium’s story beats are fed to you by way of clues, bits of lore you find throughout the environment, intense scripted sequences, and sizable cutscenes that help push the narrative along. The former can come in the way of notes, documents, drawings, and ‘echoes’ that discover along the way. Echoes in particular are intriguing as Marianne is able to interact with objects that harbor residual energy left behind during a traumatic or emotional event, and listen to these events by focusing on the item. Cutscenes are also quite unique as many of them incorporate the Dual Reality system to further showcase just how each realm reflects the other.

Some scenes with Sadness, one of the game’s main characters, utilize the effect very well. In the real world, the camera may focus on an object that Sadness is interacting with, while on the spirit side we see exactly how she is interacting with it and Marianne. It’s also in these moments that Marianne’s voice actress (Kelly Burke) really flexes her talent and brings out the raw emotion that Marianne is feeling in each situation. It can be a jarring effect for some initially, but is easily acclimated to. 

The Medium’s sound design is also excellent in nearly every regard. From the echoed taps of Marianne’s shoes on cold, barren floors, to the “disturbingly satisfying” sound of a blade running through a wall of faux skin, and the haunting growls of The Maw as it stalks you, The Medium is an audio treat that demands quality headphones or a well calibrated sound system. Music wise, all the ambient noises and soundtrack have been composed by Bloober Team’s own Arkadiusz Reikowski and none other than famed Silent Hill composer, Akira Yamaoka. Droning hums and metallic synths that create a never-ending sense of dread are juxtaposed by clean and melancholic piano keys that dare to dangle a glimmer of ease and hope just before your next descent into the nightmare. Each track is crafted to not only match what is happening on screen, but also to inform and suggest the emotional state of the game’s characters as the narrative progresses.

 

I will say though, that while I actually appreciated most of Marianne’s monologues during the adventure, there were times where her commentary was simply not needed as the game had already provided enough visual and audio cues to inform the player of the current situation. Alternatively, I found myself surprised when she ‘didn’t’ react to something that would surely have garnered one. This comes into play too when solving puzzles as Marianne tends to overshare her thoughts and gives excessive commentary on puzzles and what her emotional state is like during/after different situations. Perhaps this was a way for the team to ensure that all players are able to progress regardless of skill level. It’s understandable, but could have stood to be implemented in a less abrasive manner.

Like an Open Book

For the most part,  The Medium’s story is told quite well and has an almost rhythmic flow to each revelation without letting the player in on too much too early. It was a little disappointing when it started peeling back the veil too far and laying out its underlying plot points and twists too blatantly.  It’s not a huge negative though, as there were still surprises all the way up to its conclusion.  In fact, as I think back on how the story unfolded from beginning to end I can confidently say that it is very much a worthwhile narrative to experience regardless of its few stumbles. Much of this can also be attributed to the smaller stories that you uncover in the Niwa Resort. These tales often tie into the game’s puzzles and serve as an introspective into the game’s overarching theme of trauma and its after effects. 

These stories present you with the chance to uncover who these people were, what made them ‘them’, and to understand the depths of their trauma. For its when you do so, you can identify just how their experiences shaped who they became and truly empathize with them. This ideology is at the core of some of The Medium’s best sequences where you are tasked with plumbing the depths of a character’s psyche to figure out what drove them. In these instances you are essentially breaking down mental barriers that were erected to protect one’s mind from the anguish of their trauma, but at once are invoking these same effects in order to better understand the person you are dealing with. 

The Medium will challenge the way we normally perceive people, asking you to consider digging beyond the surfaces of their outward personality and be willing to understand what shapes and molds someone’s personality. Sometimes, violence may be committed with the intention of protection and preservation. Misdeeds can be the result of a misguided attempt to make amends. Someone can end up committing the same atrocities that were afflicted upon them as a way to bury their own shame and guilt. It’s left to you as the player to decide for yourself what is truly evil or good. 

The Medium is very much a Horror game, but is also one that asks you to identify and take a good hard look at the after effects of horror as well. It’s one thing to be afraid of a monster, but an entirely different matter to know and understand how and/or why a  monster was created, let alone to even begin sympathizing with it. 

Real Horror

The Medium begins with the simple task of uncovering the truth, but quickly becomes a thought provoking tale that even weaves events from Polish History into its narrative to drive home the idea that all of our actions-good or bad-can affect our world in many unseen ways. This is a tale that will linger in your mind long after the credits roll and may even inspire you to retread its chapters to delve further into the constructs of its story. After months of open-world action adventure and shoot em’ up titles, The Medium serves as a welcome palate cleanser that ultimately shows just how much Bloober Team has grown from their humble beginnings. 

Verdict

Highly Recommended

Pros:

• A true homage to classic Horror titles that brings storytelling back to the forefront and accompanies it with unsettling, atmospheric designs.
• Puzzles are never too abstract and are satisfying to solve while also being integral components of the overall narrative.
• Well conceived sense of tension and dread that permeates throughout the entire experience. The Maw is a genuinely terrifying antagonist that has earned a place among some of the iconic greats.
• Immaculate sound design that really brings the atmosphere together along with an impactful and memorable score.

Cons:

• Marianne provides just a little too much commentary even for the most mundane situation.
• Human animations can be a bit stiff and awkward looking.
• Occasional frame-hitching, most often when quickly jumping from gameplay to cutscenes.