The Horrors of Next Gen - A Reggie Review of 'The Medium'

The Medium is a psychological horror game developed by 'Blooper Team', better known for their previous work on horror titles - 'Layers of fear', 'Blair Witch Project' and 'Observer'.

The game sees you play as protagonist Marianne (voiced by Kelly Burke) as she attempts to uncover the reasoning behind repeated nightmares involving a little girls murder beside a lake; and is driven on by an ominous phone call (from an unknown person) towards the start of the game; whom tells her to venture to an abandoned Soviet union - era resort called Niwa for all her questions to be answered.

From the start it was apparent the developers took inspiration from defining horror games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill, with their unusual camera angles and character controls that can feel heavy and, at times, awkward. It was also apparent within the first 30 minutes of game play that the games narrative would be heavily driven by internal character monologues, used to explain situations and reasoning, along with the player having to read scraps of paper found throughout for more information on plot history. We are introduced to some of the puzzle mechanics early on, with the first main puzzle requiring the character to develop a photograph using 3 liquids (kindly labeled 1, 2 and 3) whilst being directed by a scrap of paper conveniently placed next to them. It was an interesting way to get the player to feel more involved in the characters actions but the hand holding surrounding the puzzle was a warning sign if I've ever seen one.

As implied by the games title, Marianne is in fact a spiritual medium; capable of transitioning between the real world and what we will call the 'spirit world' from this point onward. We are given some lame excuse as to why these transitions are out of her control and can happen at any given moment, usually resulting in her having to navigate both realms to progress forward, sometimes even having to interact in both worlds simultaneously. The first transition between these worlds is interesting enough to peak interest in any fan of the horror genre, however this quickly gets boring and becomes more of an annoyance than a treat. The times when her world is 'split', the player must navigate between both worlds at the same time with each realm being on either side of the screen; which effectively means your TV screen is split in half, making the involvement in either world feel small and distant.

Marianne's medium abilities also grant her the ability to hear audio clips of past events, usually surrounding death, by interacting with objects littered around Niwa. These clips tend to give very little story progression and are just little environmental interactions to flesh out the game play time. Other times she can use these items to rewind time and show past events, usually aiding in puzzle mechanics throughout the game. I mentioned earlier how the game holds your hand, especially when it comes to puzzle solving, and what I mean by this is at no point do you get stuck, at no point do you not know what is needed to be done to progress or to complete a puzzle. Examples of this are combination locks, where the number is in the next room over; in plain sight. These simple puzzles got boring quick and the only real driving force of the game was a want to get to the bottom of all the unanswered questions surrounding the resort.

Voice actor Troy Baker, best known for voicing Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite and Joel in The Last of Us series, voices 'The Maw'; a persistent demonic being that stalks Marianne from the 'spirit world' into the real world, all the while whispering of a need to 'wear her skin'. These interactions with 'The Maw' are the only real parts that give the game any horror theme, whereby you have to avoid being caught (and skinned I presume) by the maw either with stealth or intended fleeing. There is a game mechanic whereby you have Marianne hold her breath (why I'm not sure) however I did find myself at times holding my own breath in sync with the character, which was interesting, however these overall interactions are fearless due to no repercussions of being caught or found. Yes, if the Maw catches you you die, but you are instantly teleported back to the nearest checkpoint to just try again. I found myself just running around aimlessly with no fear of dying in an attempt to skip these parts of the game due to boredom.

Graphically the game is not all that impressive either, with cut scenes looking 'last gen' (which surprisingly the game wasn't available on) and even suffered with colour flaring, whereby flashes of red/green/blue would splash across the screen during cut scenes. These graphical anomalies instantly take you out of the world the developers are trying to create and ruin the whole atmosphere of horror, making it more comedic and laughable than frightening. There were also occasions whereby a character would render ahead of the surrounding environments, causing the image of characters floating in the air or interacting with something that wasn't rendered in yet. For most a horror game needs to keep the audience pulled into the world and its these issues that ruin the overall feel of the game.

The plot is confusing to say the least and the story pieces are thrown together within the last quarter of the game. I didn't feel anything for the characters met throughout and personally hated the inner monologues Marianne would have with herself during game play. At times her character would narrate poor jokes at the most inappropriate of times (usually just after witnessing monstrous and horrific events) and it was this poor timing that took away from the horror of the game. If the characters aren't scared why should the player be?

If I was to compare this to any other game I've played before, it would be 'Murdered: Soul Suspect'. With key attributes of the game being focused on item interaction and stretched out dialect, along with boring puzzles and poor forced character progression. Although, even with all this in mind, I did still enjoy 'parts' of the game play of 'The Medium'. I finished the game in around 8-10 hours, which did feel longer at times, and overall I was impressed with the new features (such as splitting the screen in two) and enjoyed the subtle nods to previous games of the same genre. I won't spoil the ending, I will however say it's the ending that truly ruins the games plot and had me looking back wondering what I'd just wasted 8 hours of my life doing.

There's zero need to replay the game (other than perhaps to get a couple of missed achievements) and with no difficulty option to boot, once the credits role you'll have left Niwa for good and seen the back of this average game once and for all...? Not Bloopers greatest work, but a promising start for the developers creating AAA titles in the future and they could be ones to look out for in future horror projects.

Reggie Review - 6/10

The Medium - Official Story Trailer - YouTube

The Medium | Xbox