The Medium Reviews
A third-person horror game that's elevated by some of the sharpest writing and acting in the genre.
Bloober Team goes back to the classics for possibly its best effort yet.
The Medium is a gorgeous next-gen horror game with a haunting game world anchored by old-school survival-horror style puzzles and exploration.
Brilliantly paced and palpably tense, The Medium is a psychological horror adventure that's all thriller and no filler.
The Medium itself never hits a flat note. I beat the game in two long sittings, and there was never a point during either that I felt like the game dragged, or could’ve used a little more polish, or left too many loose ends hanging. It’s a lean, compelling experience that says what it has to say, then leaves you to grapple with the specifics afterwards. There are images, lines, and ideas from The Medium that I’ll likely take to my grave thanks to this approach, as it puts the onus on the player to piece everything together. You have to wrap your brain around the spirit world’s twisted logic so much that it becomes a part of you, as you live through Marianne’s pain with her and help to navigate her trauma.
The Medium tries to do a lot but never really seems to stop and see if any of it's working.
This is a horror game with more tedium than tension
The Medium is a terrifying but compelling exploration of duality that uses the horror of personal trauma to craft a memorable tale.
The Medium starts off personal and poignant, but ends in cliché
In a different reality, I could see this game being something special. And it might, like so many other horror games and movies, go on to become a cult classic. But in this realm, for me, it just doesn’t come together.
No, this isn’t a production up to the level you might expect from Naughty Dog or The Coalition. This is an indie game that’s performing on the biggest stage, and for the most part it’s put on quite the show.
One could argue that outside of its creative double-world approach, The Medium isn't the sort of revolutionary horror game that one might hope for from the start of a new generation in gaming.
The Medium is without a doubt Bloober Team's biggest game to date, and it is easily one of its best. The story is captivating as are its characters, and the uneasy journey you take through it feels much like if Stranger Things was set in the Alan Wake universe.
The Medium on PS5 is as good as it was on Xbox Series X, however, with DualSense support it becomes a much more immersive game.
Bloober Team has summoned a rich atmosphere, under all that writing, and one or two sequences offer glimpses of a purer game.
Despite its technical prowess and stunning visuals, The Medium is a drag. From slow, uninteresting gameplay to a confusing and poorly executed story, Bloober Team's latest makes for a good tech demo, but not much else.
The Medium will not be the best psychological horror game in the world, but it engages like few others. Bloober Team once again raises a bar that dropped somewhat after Blair Witch and presents us at times two games in one, with quite effective mechanics despite its simplicity. A great gift for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, who will enjoy it from day one.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
My favorite part of The Medium ended up being its "semi-fixed cameras," which blend old and new design philosophies in a way that seems genuinely palatable in 2021. That's the real achievement here. I can easily picture a more well-rounded sequel happening, and for what it's worth, I hope it does.
The Medium is a really good horror adventure with some stand out ideas and excellent presentation. It makes the most of its influences to create an atmospheric and involving narrative, but its wider context as a next-gen exclusive may lead many to expect it to be a grander step forward than it is. Taken on its own merits, and particularly for genre fans, this is a genuinely great game and I look forward to replaying it to take in all the amazing details and touches that I may have missed first time through. With some questions left unanswered, I hope it does well and develops into a franchise.