The Medium

released on Jan 28, 2021

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 - a monster born from an unspeakable tragedy. The Medium is a third-person psychological horror game that features patented dual-reality gameplay and an original soundtrack.


Reviews View More

Jogo sem alma nenhuma.

Tenta tratar sobre diferentes assuntos da forma mais tediosa possível, um eterno walking simulator com alguns botões a mais. Não consegui jogar mais do que 2 horas e me cansei feio.

Que péssimo potencial desperdiçado, ter dois mundos rodando ao mesmo tempo é de fato uma coisa surpreendente.

Bloober Team's attempt at a Silent Hill game in a era (which we are still trapped in) of a lack of a serious presence of the series as a whole.

My only experience with Bloober's work has been Observer which I played last year out of sheer curiosity. This game oddly enough shares most of it's strenght and weaknesses which it shouldn't be surprising knowing it's comming from the same studio. Unlike Observer's cyberpunk-dystopian inspired setting, The Medium goes back in time to 90's poland and the camera shifts to a third person perspective. To my surprise there are differences as much as are similarities between both titles: scripted chases, limited combat, great atmosphere and very linear progression. But underneath the superficial aspects, The Medium hides it's true face and there are a lot of reasons it didn't reasonate with me as much as I hoped to.

The Medium for the most part is a walking sim, with puzzle elements here and there. And the most important aspect of all the "The Medium™ mechanic" which let's you see both realities at once, thank you next generation! It is a strong selling point which isn't even used that much in the game, keeps itself simple for a couple of puzzles to solve...and that is pretty much were it dies. Now, there are moments were it's use is justified and arguably the best use of this mechanic was in the very ending. It left a lot to be desired as it never goes beyond being an extension of the "Material World". Not entirely different. it offers nothing a quick change in scenery would have done with the power and speed M.2 and SSD provide just for a quick puzzle solution. Very hardware taxing too, specially for PCs. It is a neat idea on the surface, but one that ends up being heavly underutilized for whatever reason.

It takes some cues from the Silent Hill games, and definitely noted some influences from SH2 the most. In interviews, developers clearly stated their love for the forgotten Konami franchise. But does Bloober Team made a commendable effort to differentiate or at least be a game that adds to the genre as a whole? Not much. Let's be honest, the most famous Silent Hill games aren't exactly known for their deep gameplay mechanics rather it is the heavy opressing atmosphere of the town, the music score, beloved main characters and by times dark stories. But The Medium isn't any different, at times it can even be worse than the game released 20 years ago. First off, no map is needed to explore or mark notes on as the exploration is as linear as it gets. Total anhilation of your only limited guide through the game, it could've come in handy in the very last section. And second, combat is totally ditched outside certain scenes were it's not even required to continue. I'm all for a combat-less horror game, but this is straight up boring. Puzzles were fun and that is pretty much were my praises end.

The story surprisingly isn't all that bad, as Marianne our protagonist pieces the puzzles that is her past through her powers as a medium. It gets really dark after a while, tackling some sensitive issues such as suicide or even child trauma. Not talking "My mon hid my DS" child trauma, but rather problems that do occur in our society frequently that are hard to erradicate/change. A cycle of victims and perpetrators which share a common demon, no matter the time or person. Interesting topics to assemble a narrative, though I would say the overall message it delivers by the end fumbles what good will started to build in the beginning. It is possible to save someone with enough care and time into it. But there are times were it is truly impossible, that is all I'm going to say.

The Medium is full of design issues that kill what efficiency, time and resourses could've poured into other Bloober projects. The worst you can do is a game to feel longer than it really is while keeping yourself always comming with new maps, and new ideas that end up being never used ever later into the game. Misses the shot, and it misses again and time again with each oportunity they have to redeem themselves from it. Think about it, they have to create two whole different worlds for each scenario that end up being the same in layout just with different decoration. Highly inefficient from my point of view as it harms development time and resources. The more I think about this unique mechanic, the more issues I see.

But it's ok, they hired Akira Yamaoka...right?

medium is really good story game

This review contains spoilers

Nenhum gráfico, mecânica ou "visão artística" vai me fazer pensar que The Medium é um jogo minimamente bom. Ele não é nem medíocre. Ele é completamente não pensante.

O jogo revela que um pedófilo cometeu abuso sexual infantil, e então, alguns minutos depois, o jogo revela que este pedófilo passou sua infância durante a segunda guerra, com um padrasto abusivo, e sua crush de infância foi morta porque ela era judia.

Qual é a intenção desta revelação? Qual o propósito de colocar as duas revelações nesta ordem, ou de sequer incluir estes temas na história?

Por que a seção da gameplay em que você testemunha toda a backstory do pedófilo é a mais longa do jogo, e DEVO DIZER? Por que ele tem mais cenas mostrando a backstory triste dele do que A VÍTIMA DELE?

Eu ouso pensar que isso é uma tentativa de fazer o jogo ser "artístico". Quanto mais pesado o tema, quanto mais chocante a revelação, quanto mais bonito forem os visuais, mais "artístico" e "profundo" a temática do jogo parecerá.
Não somente isso, mas o jogo também tenta passar a vibe que seus personagens não são 100% bons ou ruins, visto que eles depois revelam que a vítima do abuso sexual infantil criou um monstro que é o problema de todo mundo agora.

O problema com isso é que, quando você perde noção das coisas e tenta fazer tudo ser "artístico" ou "complexo", você perde o significado do que a sua cena retrata.
Neste caso, o jogo PARECEU retratar um pedófilo como digno de pena e simpatia porque ele teve um padrasto abusivo e sua crush morreu. Eles não fizeram isso com essa intenção, mas sim com a forma deturpada e imbecil de tentar fazer isso a história ser "moralmente complexa", ou "psicologicamente complexa" sem qualquer noção que quem sofre nesse caso É A VÍTIMA DO ABUSO SEXUAL INFANTIL.

Eu poderia falar mais, mas eu não quero gastar mais tempo da minha vida pensando nesse lixo overhyped. Eles poderiam ter feito isso de forma diferente, mas esse jogo é refém de visuais bonitinhos e temática chocante sem qualquer significado.

The Medium is a really fun linear story-driven game. The only issue I faced was the FPS drops that happened randomly but frequently. It didn't undermine my experience to be honest. I enjoyed the mystery of the story and the gameplay.