Welcome to our review of The Medium, the very first Xbox Series exclusive and it is a more than special one!
Discover a dark mystery only a medium can solve. Explore the real world and the spirit world at the same time. Use your psychic abilities to solve puzzles spanning both worlds, uncover deeply disturbing secrets, and survive encounters with The Maw – an entity born from an unspeakable tragedy.
The Medium is a third-person psychological horror game that features an innovative dual-reality gameplay, a unique art style inspired by painter Zdzisław Beksiński, and an original soundtrack co-composed by Arkadiusz Reikowski and Akira Yamaoka.
Let me start this review by saying this is a weird yet surprisingly enticing game. The entire system of dual gameplay and all is very novel and I can surely understand how they have always claimed to be needing the power of the Xbox Series consoles to really make this game work. It looks the part and aside from some minor personal annoyances, it also played the part.
As a medium, you can see the other side and truly experience it as well. Imagine being able to hear past memories of things that happened, well, there is such a thing as too much! The dual worlds are very relaxing at first and suddenly can become very intimidating and this ability to walk the thin line between both, just fantastic. I just loved every bit of it.
At one point, I was looking for a way to enter a room in the real world, but due to a broken down fuse box, I was unable to make the door open. I entered the other side, went to look for a solution but did not make it in time, so I lost the game. After a very quick restart, I was given a clue to return to my other self more quickly, so I did this time, being able to really explore and also solve the puzzle at hand.
Another time, same situation, but a different solution. The game really forced me to really keep looking and to see things from another perspective. It did a great job at keeping me entertained and to my delight, the game does not fully present itself as an action-horror genre or a jump scare game, but more of a psychological thriller where you try to stay sane in a place that has not seen any sanity in ages.
The medium tells the tale of Niwa, the massacre of Niwa, to be precise. The rumors are this is just an urban legend and that it never really happened, but as you progress through the building you came to inspect, it becomes very clear that things really did happen and you start picking up random clues along the way. Some helpful, others not so much. Once you truly finish the game, a lot of things become clear.
Another dark side to the game is the fact that you kind of die quite often. The game imposes a steep learning curve in the way of not knowing how to defend against certain new enemies, like the moths or Maw… They will just attack you and after restarting, when you get that aforementioned clue, will you be able to see what to do in order to get through the ordeal at hand.
I kind of hated this part, as I was 3 hours into the game, I still had to die rather easily to get the gist of what to do next. I know it is part of the “charm” of the game, but it can get a little frustrating at times. Not that the game is high action, no, it works more on the exploration and experiencing thing side of things, just something that managed to get me riled up at times.
Another minor annoyance of mine is the speed at which you run around. I don’t really know if it was intentional, but this mechanic feels kind of slow compared to other games. Again, this might be done by design, it just felt less calibrated to me compared to real-life running.
The Medium is actually a genre that I generally avoid. Not because I dislike them or so, I am just more into other genres. Surprisingly enough, this game did manage to really grab my attention and even make me lose sleep over it, playing it till deep into the night. I can not remember any other game of this genre ever getting me to go so far. I really like this game and while I can definitely see this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I would still recommend trying it out. It’s free on Game Pass and it just keeps proving Microsoft’s approach of making games free for subscribers on day one.
In conclusion, The Medium is a great game, though not the longest. At just around 8 hours, I finished the game already and while I would not have minded at least double the content or even triple, I did very much enjoy the game. A slow start but a very strong finish and if it had not been for some minor annoyances, it might have scored even a perfect 10…
