The Medium

The Medium is an Xbox Series and PC exclusive, released by Bloober Team in early 2021. The game launched day one on Game Pass, and was met with some middling reviews. Having just got my hands on a Series X console, and considering that the series consoles took more of a cross gen approach for the launch, I was more than happy to jump into a game that was developed with the Series consoles in mind.

The Medium is a thriller set in 1990s Poland. You play a medium named Marianne and are almost immediately swept off to investigate something odd happening at the Niwa resort. From there, the story beats come at well paced intervals, allowing you to take in the game’s atmosphere. This is what the game does best. The game is never too quick to push you into the next section of heart pumping horror, and allows you time to catch your breath. The game is also about the right length, clocking in at around nine or ten hours.

Along with the haunting atmosphere comes some light puzzle solving. The puzzles themselves are easy enough, and unfold in an organic way that makes solving them feel good. Only once did the puzzles change the rules mid-puzzle, which is one of my video game pet peeves. The other signature of the Medium is the split viewport gameplay sections, where the game will show the normal world and the spirit world at the same time. This feature never really overstays its welcome, and was an interesting take on how Marianne interacts with the spirit world.

The game looks pretty good, and seemed to chug along at a solid framerate. I can’t understate how well the haunting atmosphere was done. The art and sound direction was superb.

The weakest part of the game was by far the chase sections, followed by the sneaking sections. The very first chase scene in the game was actually pretty frustrating. There was a point in the chase where it was not clear where to go, and only after exploring all the options was I able to continue. That meant two or three deaths, which greeted me with a longer than I would like loading screen. My complaint about the sneaking sections is that they just felt clunky. The sneak mechanics themselves were alright, but they really just didn’t feel fun. It was just a bit disjointed.

Over the console generations I have had the pleasure of playing a number of launch titles. Most of those games were squarely in the ‘this is okay’ category. I would say that this title would fall in the ‘this is actually good’ category of launch titles. Couple that with the fact that it is on Game Pass, and you have yourself a winning combination. Would I play it again? Probably not. Did I enjoy my time with it? Immensely.