The Medium Review

Bloober Team has developed a reputation in recent years for creating psychological horror games. Most of these have a walking simulator feeling to them, but with The Medium, the studio has abandoned that model.

Unlike Layers of Fear and Observer, this Xbox console exclusive is a third-person title, reminiscent of iconic Japanese horror games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil.

With such high-caliber inspiration, The Medium certainly has a lot to live up to. For the most part, it is somewhat lacking compared to the best examples of the genre currently available. But that’s not to say that it does not have some redeeming features.

Story

Although it does not start at the Niwa Workers’ Resort, most of the action in The Medium takes place there. Once a holiday park during the Communist occupation of Poland, it is the site of a terrible massacre years before the events of the game.

The protagonist, Marianne, sets out for Niwa after receiving a mysterious call from a man. He promises to reveal the true nature of her powers as a medium and explain a recurring dream. From there, the narrative branches out into discovering why this man wants Marianne at Niwa and what really happened there.

The Medium also tackles some very sensitive subjects. While there is good reason to do so in some cases, the game does so with little nuance or care. It seems like things such as torture, terrible scientific experiments, and child abuse are included simply to be shocking.

There are also some plot twists that are hard to see coming but don’t really affect the narrative all that much. This might be a result of the developer trying to cram so many different controversial themes into a relatively short campaign. At around a dozen hours, there’s little time to properly explore these concepts and their lasting effects.

The end result is a narrative that seems compelling from the outset but soon loses its focus. Simply keeping track of everything that is going on can be difficult. For many, the results of putting in the effort of uncovering the entire story will not be worth it. Especially when The Medium has the habit of introducing interesting characters and then almost immediately discarding them.