Wow, just wow. I wasn't expecting too much from this game but I gotta admit that it blew me off.

The story was amazing, better than a lot of high-budget games from bigger studios. The writing is awesome, love the dialog lines carefully placed and thought that make you feel the emotions of the characters resulting in an immersing experience. It had it time to develop and go through all the steps resulting in a rewarding and surprising end.

Another thing that blew me off was the gameplay and the camera techniques, the split-screen mechanic is amazing, I have never seen it, and the camera technique that is fixed based on the scene gives the game a unique personality and I loved it.

The graphics and animations are good, wish that the lip sync was better because the characters are so beautifully modeled and a good lip sync is all that is missing.

I have to mention the music that is setting up the mood in all of the scenes the themes of the soundtrack are well chosen and gives a nice touch of personality to every scene.

As a huge fan of the Silent Hill franchise i got to say that the game really had that creepy vibe of silent hill and i love it for that. For the first big project of Bloober Team it is amazing and i recommend everyone to try it!!

Bottom line -
While The Medium sure has its flaws, and I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone, I personally think this game is awesome and have enjoyed it a lot.

Short review -

Good stuff:
+ Great Silent Hill vibes
+ Awesome music
+ Story is great
+ The alternative world gimmick works great and stays intriguing to the end

Only if it's your thing:
+/- Not really challenging, and at some points it really turns into more of a walking simulator (unfortunately?)
+/- Gameplay mainly consists of puzzles (not too challenging) and some very few chase sequences (not too challenging).
+/- Around 7-10 hours long
+/- Not really that scary
+/- Not really that much action
+/- Tank controls (Yaaaaaaay?)
+/- Story contains some complicated matters, such as abuse.

Bad stuff:
- Feels like bad optimization
- Locations aren't too diverse

Longer review -

No doubt that The Medium devs really tried to ride on the whole "Silent Hill vibes" as a center of attraction. Personally I thought that in that aspect, they actually did a pretty damn good job. This game really made me miss Silent Hill (mostly in a good way) and I'll go play one afterwards, in fact :)

The graphics, ambience, sounds & music really capture that vibe of an eerie, maybe hunted town. There's a great balance of light and darkness. The Alternative World also looks awesome and really serves the whole alternative realities idea quite well.
Also, it was pretty great hearing Akira Yamaoka's touches again & get another work with Mary McGlynn again!

While I won't spoil the story, I thought it was also quite strong and just enough weird, bizzarre, mysterious, revealing itself in a great pace and it really kept me intrigued through the game.

The gameplay was good in general but unfortunately not without drawbacks. The game mainly consists of you exporing areas, and solving puzzles to progress. Some of the time, as the devs very well advertised, you're going to play on a split screen mode where your character would traverse both the "real" world and the "dead" world. While I'm not sure everyone would find this as compelling as I did, for me this was the main attraction of the game and I found the idea VERY original and fun, I was not disappointed.
What was weaker, in my opinion, is that -
(a) There isn't really anything else besides that. Yeah, some chase \ sneaking sequences which were mildly intense and added to the cinematic value of the game, and the story, but this really wasn't enough to be even considered a major part of the game.
(b) The puzzles were usually not that challenging, very straightforward. While there were some good stuff here and there, it is mostly very linear and clear what should be done next. This made the game quickly fall into the pit of being an almost-walking-sim.
(c) This game screams so much "Silent Hill" at you but there's no combat. While I'm not necessarily a big fan of combat, I think that in such game this could have really added to the horror and tension.

The last point led to the game not being actually scary. This is not necessarily bad, as being the coward that I am, I've often found the truly horrific games such as Amnesia or Outlast to be simply too much for me. It was nice not having to be terrified constantly, but still, you do expect some from a horror title. But since you know that almost the entire time there's not real threat, you really don't feel that scared.

Another technical point was that I felt the game wasn't very much optimised.. My computer does get old, and it really just about hits the minimum requirements. I've played some new games with the lowest graphic settings, and believe me, it never looked as bad as in here. The "low" settings look truly horrible, and I found myself giving up on some frame rate just so that the graphics would look bearable. I still think the graphics are great, mind you, it's just best to have a strong GPU that can handle the game. Also, on the "double worlds" segments the game would usually lag much more..

All in all, despite my complaints, I still feel the good stuff really got through to me and I've really enjoyed playing through the game, even not in the greatest quality and frame rate. I may even want to give it a second go once I have a better PC.

If you're into storytelling and more of a psychological horror, definitely give it a try!

A happy medium is rare

Shew! That was a harrowing and depressing journey through grief, severe trauma and abuse. No single soul in this game is spared as it tackles difficult and mature subject matters one would not traditionally reserve for gaming but which only further proves that gaming as its own medium is fast evolving and can now easily stand head to head with its film and literature brethren. The ending, however, did piss me off a bit, because what we are left with here is a narrative cliff-hanger before the screen fades to black. No doubt this was done to leave the door open for a possible sequel, which I can't imagine is not going happen given the game recouped all its marketing and development costs within its first week of sale, but still after the disturbing thrill of the story, I wanted closure and this kind of ending leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

It is remarkable though how Bloober ties all the narrative threads together as there is a lot going on in the beginning of the game which sees our medium, the lovely and charismatic Marianne Rekowicz whom I really hope we see more of in the future, responding to a call from a stranger to come to an abandoned resort long shuttered due to a violent massacre having taken place there a few years prior. From the moment the player arrives at the resort, Blooper keeps things tight and well paced so ones attention is never left waning because one is never left in any one of the given areas you explore long enough to get bored.

Marianne has the ability to exist in a "dual reality" which simply means she is able to experience two worlds (the real and the spiritual) simultaneously. When this happens, the screen will split, enabling the player to navigate through both realms at the same time. It's a novel feature that made it the new exclusive to XBOX Series X/S most anticipated title when the new consoles were announced. The game features light puzzling and stealth as its core game mechanics and neither of the two should tax any player which helps keep things moving along at a brisk pace. All of this allows for the story to take the centre stage. Here Bloober cleverly drip feeds the players one horrifying morsel after the next , dishing out about just enough information to keep the player invested thereby ensuring that most should eagerly press on to see the games resolution.

All of this is accompanied by some incredible art design (evoking strong memories of Silent Hill) which takes an already relentlessly dark and foreboding story and frames it in broody and menacing environments, each one feeling like its own nightmare waiting to pounce, which is only further amplified by some of the best sound design I have heard for a game yet (make sure you play with a good set of headphones). Having the original composer of Silent Hill 2's soundtrack on board only further evokes the comparison to Silent Hill 2 from 2001.

The one real negative I have about the game is it's performance. To put it bluntly it's dismal. I was running it off a GTX 2070 Super at 1080p and even at that resolution and on that card it was struggling. You'll need some fairly hefty hardware to power through this one without hiccups, especially if you want to experience it in 4K. All in all Bloober has seriously impressed me with this one (ending aside). It is not a story for the feint of heart as it tackles some seriously dark subject matter that some may find too sensitive, especially given the real life evil that lives at the heart of this tale, but I can't wait to see what they give us next because I am definitely now a fan.

Harrowing

Where do we start. Good golly this is one of the buggiest and worst performing games I have played in a a good long while. Constantly crashed on me at the start, with only a verification of the games file integrity finally resolving the issue. The main issue here is the games piss-poor performance. It is not well optimised and even the strongest of cards out there are more than likely going to experience some sort of issue. Make sure you have the hardware to run the game as the requirements are quite steep.

Layers of Fear, Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=869453510

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A life in two worlds

We experience the beginning of the story through a vision that runs in a continuous loop in Marianne's head, in which a little girl is shot at a lake.
But Marianne can neither remember nor does she know who the victim is and, above all, what the murder is all about.

Marianne, who is a medium and works in the funeral home of her foster father Jack, is responsible for guiding the souls of the deceased safely to the realm of the dead.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2878360997
Unfortunately, Jack recently had to enlist the services of Marianne as well, so the only person she has told about her gift has left the living realm.

Shortly thereafter, Marianne receives a mysterious call from a certain Thomas asking her to come to the Niwa Hotel complex as he claims to have answers for her as well as the explanation of her supernatural abilities. So Marianne embarks on a search for clues in the past...

And we experience a journey into the past with the game in many ways.
On the one hand, the story takes place in Poland in the late 1990s, in which various events are dealt with and processed that are much further back. On the other hand, the game is very reminiscent of the Silent Hill series due to the narrative gameplay and the lack of combat mechanics, as well as the soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka.

And of course this Niwa Hotel is not a party hotel on a South Sea island, but a gloomy and deserted place in the middle of a dark forest and what initially looks like a relatively simple search for Thomas and answers quickly develops into a gripping story.

A special gift

Marianne's special gift as a medium is to look into the spiritual parallel world and to interact with the environment there.
She also has the ability to feel, see and hear more in the present than other people. As a result, she is able to receive echoes from the past or to reconstruct so-called memory points by touching and examining objects.
Due to the expanded perception, she is also able to highlight objects or detect hidden objects. Furthermore, she has the ability in the spirit world to erect a protective barrier against swarms of moths or to emit a burst of energy if she has the necessary power reserves, which she can only charge at special energy points.

But is she alone with her gift, or does the Mysterious Caller also have this gift?

The two realities as an innovative game element
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2878989731
The "double worlds principle" is extremely important for the puzzles in the game, because at certain points in the game you control Marianne in both worlds at the same time and have to switch back and forth between them in order to progress.
However, this is not possible at will because moments in the course of the story are first scripted and only then do you get the opportunity to do so.
What is special, however, are without a doubt the passages in the game in which you play with the split screen and control Marianne in both worlds at the same time. It is impressive and also exciting to experience both worlds at the same time, since there are always connections that affect one world on the other or there are passages that are blocked in one world but accessible in the other .
Another ability of Marianne proves to be quite useful here. An out-of-body event is triggered by pressing a button, which gives you the opportunity to act independently of the other person in reality and, for example, to examine other areas.

The strengths of the game clearly lie in the atmosphere that the game reveals.
Both the gloomy forest and the hotel complex, the day care center, the swimming pool or the old bunker that will be added later are shown in great detail and are set in scene in a gripping manner by the thoroughly successful light and shadow effects.
Another highlight is the spirit world with its strange constructs, the walls made of corpses or the skin doors. Yes, you read that right, skin doors.
In addition, there are all the other details and the breathtaking sound that also intensify the atmosphere

Despite everything, the game suffers from a rather fundamental problem

Despite the great art and sound design and the appealing scenario, The Medium is never really scary or badly disturbing.
This is clearly a subjective impression, but the monster alone, which I don't want to go into detail about, quickly loses its initial fright because the very few sneak passages and the scripted running paths do not create any tension and the escape passages are more from the already mentioned trial & Error are shaped.

And at this point I would like to mention that the game saves automatically and the save points are relatively fair.
During the escape passages it can happen, at least it happened to me once or twice, that I was in a corner / in a place where the monster grabbed me, I "died" and continued at the same place where the monster grabbed me right away. And so on and so on. At that moment, only loading the last save helped. It was limited and I always started relatively shortly before this escape passage, but it was still a bit annoying and therefore I wanted to mention it.

Towards the end of the game you take control of another character for a while, which I don't want to reveal anything about at this point.
Nevertheless, the passages to be played there are somehow just too long, too boring (designed) and too repetitive.
Basically, I would even say that the last third of the game is more like sticky chewing gum and then you sometimes wish that the end would finally come.

You can schedule around ten hours +/- for the game, depending on how thoroughly you explore the areas and how quickly you find the solutions to the puzzles.
Achievement hunters will also get their money's worth as the game offers relatively easy to get achievements, if you are vigilant.
However, The Medium does not offer any real replay value because there are neither different levels of difficulty nor multiple endings. But it doesn't really have to be, since the game almost achieved what it wants in the end.

The Medium - an atmospheric "horror" adventure highlight with a few caveats

In terms of atmosphere, The Medium is beyond any doubt, convinces most of the time with the great staged game world, menacing soundscape and shines with a vividly told story. Even if the "split screen mechanism" is not necessarily to be regarded as the heart of the game, it is still an absolutely successful change. On the other hand there is the somewhat thin gameplay with a pinch of walking simulator in which you search the game world for objects relatively undemandingly and now and then run away from dangers.

But all in all, The Medium was still an „horror“ adventure worth experiencing for me.

Review date: October 28, 2022

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MY PROS AND CONS:

✔ Detailed and atmospheric locations
✔ great light and shadow effects
✔ stunning sound design
✔ great two worlds gameplay
✔ relatively alternating tasks
✔ Good but easy (combination) puzzles
✔ Well balanced difficulty level
✔ comprehensible twists
✔ no annoying jump scares
✔ ambitious story
✔ unusual skills

✘ no replay value
✘ annoying trial & error passages
✘ partly notchy controls
✘ bad sneak passages
✘ repetitive game elements
✘ tough sections
✘ superfluous storylines
✘ Stiff animations
✘ invisible borders

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PLAYED WITH: 🎮 📺

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⮩ VISIT ME IN MY LITTLE WORLD

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1293160/

EDIT AFTER COMPLETING THE GAME:
The art style completely blew me away, its dripping with disenchantment, dust and hopelessness. Who ever designed the levels, especially the other side, needs an award. The ending was bittersweet but well played. I was left with a sense of loss afterwards.
If you understand what this game is trying to achieve then it is an amazing experience.
Amazing job Bloober. Thank you for this.


Played on a 2080ti/9900k/32GB

The good:
* Amazing story
* Graphics are very well done, insane detail
* Old school horror gameplay (preference)

The bad:
* No ultrawide support (this is inexcusable in 2021)
* Lots of graphical bugs and hitching (multiple textures not load at all)
* Poor optimization

This game honestly feels like a old school horror game done right for 2021 standards. Its a slow burn but when it picks up it really gets phenomenal. The dual world mechanic is interesting, I found myself slowly pacing through just to check out the other side and soak in the ambiance.

So many things were done right and well thought out that it kills me that this game doesn't currently support any ultrawide resolutions at all. I mean they are using split screen to represent 2 separate realities and didn't bother to implement larger resolutions for those that can use it to show more on screen. So I currently have black bars on both sides of my 3440x1440 screen and with split screen applied it looks cramped and is uncomfortable to play. It needs optimization but with RTX on and high settings, Im getting around 70fps and drops to around 50 when things get wild. RTX off hits around 100fps no problem. Ive had 1 crash to desktop so far and multiple graphical bugs, this is installed on a SSD.

All issues aside Im having a blast with this game. I love horror and have been wanting a modern Silent Hill and this game hits all the right notes, especially since Akira does the soundtrack.

I had high hopes for this one, so it pains me to say that I was left more than a little disappointed.

The Medium could be described as a love letter to classic horror games like Silent Hill. Static camera angles, exploring dreary environments, foraging for clues. If you're like me, this is why you bought the game to begin with. Unfortunately, The Medium seems to be a case of style over substance.

The graphics are very ambitious, and a lot of the time it's to a fault. My PC had a very hard time maintaining a decent framerate for about 50% of the game. I get that it's hard to render what is essentially two games running at the same time, but I switched all of the settings to low for testing purposes and still couldn't get a steady framerate in some scenes. Even during the final credits the frames were dropping! That said, the models and environments are gorgeous. The art style of the spirit world is very unique.

The voice acting is also excellent and in my opinion, it's what carries the game. For most of the game, your character is alone and their voice is your only companion. In every cutscene or inner monologue, the voice performances really shine.

But the gameplay itself? Not engaging. Boring, even. It's a chore getting through levels and triggering a cutscene is a relief because I know I won't have to slow-jog through a long level for a few minutes. Long walks through dreary environments was interesting the first few worlds, but it got rather old. The puzzles are probably the easiest in the genre which isn't terrible, but they do feel somewhat like an afterthought?

The story isn't bad.

There's a lovely little post-credits message where the dev team thanks you for playing and says they poured their heart and soul into the game, and I don't doubt this for a minute. I do hope to see a sequel some time in the future with perhaps some expanded gameplay this time around. But for now, I wouldn't play this one again any time soon.

The Medium is a psychological and supernatural thriller with excellent representation. The disturbing look of dark recesses of human behavior in an immersive, atmospheric, spectacular game world. The game is inspired by the classics of the past without giving up its own personal imprint, and the story is well written. For those who value plot over punch, The Medium is a journey worth taking.

Just finished.
9 hours of big pleasure. Throw away your expectations. The Internet hype was about "omg Akira Yamaoka as a sound designer. We will finally get the new Silent Hill!" NO, you'll get The Medium.
The game with an interesting story, stunning level art, and atmosphere.
Sometimes it feels like Syberia games with all of this exploring and quests. Sometimes it feels like Alan Wake. Sometimes like something completely new.
First feeling about a camera was "Is this Syberia?". Did we return back 2002 year. However, after the Credits, I understand the idea behind this. By making the camera fixed the Art team could bring the best composition and a mood which they could bring. Some frames are so amazing that you won't have the possibility not to make a couple of screenshots.
Separate respect for ex-PRL esthetics. All of those posters on the walls, payphones, postcards. This gives an amazing mood of those years. Pity that most of them were translated into English. Would be much better to see everything in Polish with some translation as subtitles. The team loves Poland very much and wants to show its beauty (even its dark side hehe).

I see huge progress in the Bloober team but please next time give us the ability to fight back. Hide and seek play is getting annoying.
I hate the idea of an immortal enemy and here is one.
This creature is the weakest part of this game. It's pretty scripted and because of it really annoying. You need to remember the routes of the creature and keep in mind the location. One mistake? Loading from the checkpoint.

Apart from it. I got my pleasure. I see some people are pissing off by the duration of the game but come on! It doesn't cost 60$.

So if for some reason you read my review then click the Buy button, wear your best headphones (the sound is great btw), take a gamepad, and enjoy.

The Medium (BEFORE PATCH) - ⭐⭐
Status: Completed [100%]

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Pros:
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✅ Incredible atmosphere and world building
✅ Lovely art direction
✅ Beautiful presentation; with ray tracing on
✅ Great voice acting performances from the leads
✅ Compelling mystery that keeps your interest
✅ Wonderful soundtrack by the composer from Silent Hill.
✅ Great sound design, really makes some of the landscapes alive
✅ Unique gameplay concept that breaks the mold
✅ Fixed cameras that is a throw back to older horror games.
✅ Some puzzles can be fun and can be unique in there own way.
✅ No impossible achievements (Including difficulty runs)

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Cons
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❌ Game isn't scary. For a horror game, that's not great
❌ Tedious and gets boring fast.
❌ Strict on player interaction, feels more like guiding than a decision from the player
❌ Lack of control for the character
❌ Run speed is way too slow
❌ Tons of game mechanics that where never used to it's full potential
❌ Puzzles were way to simple
❌ AI is only path finding, which makes the villain less scary for "stealth" scenes.
❌ No boss battles or challenge
❌ Plot structure is too short and has pacing issues
❌ Some of the voice acting is the typical, bad acting
❌ Horribly optimized; with terrible frame pacing and dips
❌ No chapter selection; making the achievements for finding all notes a massive pain.
❌ Short for the price and pacing, can be completed within 6-7 hours. (If you want to play casual)
❌ Slap in the face ending.
❌ Cliche "plot twist" that really doesn't fit the games narrative.

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WORTH BUYING
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🔲 No
✅ Buy On Sale
🔲 Yes

[Only for the wonderful art direction and fun story, even if the ending and plot "twist" weren't a great call in my opinion.]

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FINAL THOUGHTS
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"The Medium is one of those games that I'm frustrated with. While the mystery is engaging and the idea of split worlds is fascinating, it all goes no where. I can see a great game here but all I get is great ideas with mediocre execution and instead of allowing the players to control Marianne in these worlds, it feels more like the developers holding our hands till the end.

Wait till it's patched and on sale, it's not worth the money for this short haunted house experience."

Soundtrack is from Yamaoka and it sure does sound like it.
Polish underworld is a Beksinki painting.
It's an okay scratch for your Silent Hill itch, since you're not getting a new Silent Hill game any time soon.

Edit: Finished it. Loved it. Do get it people.