The Medium Reviews
Despite the wrong steps, there is good in The Medium.
The Medium is a chilling tone piece that's bogged down by retro influence and a protagonist that can't stop oversharing.
At its best times, The Medium channels Silent Hill, but the rough pacing and limited gameplay outside of puzzle-solving hold it back. Additionally, the unsatisfactory ending leaves a sour note that detracts from the overall experience.
The Medium is a game that doesn't have big flaws or hits. Simplified gameplay and a half-way story between the horror story and the most serious sociopolitical discourse make Bloober Team's work doomed to be a mediocre title that we probably even remember at the end of the year.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Don't expect a horror game but a paranormal adventure, one that will intrigue and surprise you with some of its mechanics. A noteworthy and attractive experience that, maybe because of that, feels a little too short.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
An artistically inspired and technically interesting horror, based almost entirely on narration. Those who expected an adventure with a wider scope could be very disappointed.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Instead of high-tech thrills and survival horror chills, this disappointingly mundane thriller struggles to impress with a muddled narrative and unengaging gameplay.
Although “The Medium” is billed as a psychological horror game, I found it to be consistently unsettling rather than scary. There is a vengeful monster that Marianne must deal with intermittently, but except for one breathtaking scene where he chases her through different realities — resulting in shifts in perspective that strike like tidal waves — I didn’t think much of him. Nothing robs a creepy game of its power as forcing a player to confront the same monster too many times so, thankfully, the monster encounters are nicely spread out. “The Medium” might not have the most nightmarish adversary but its blanketing, foreboding atmosphere and uncompromising ending amply makes up for it.
The Medium is uninspired, from puzzles to characters. If you’re looking for an interesting world to explore, it delivers with stunning art direction, but for those looking for a richer experience, The Medium feels skin deep.
The Medium will scratch the horror itch for some for a while but fails to live up to its potential in a number of significant ways.
The Medium is an admirable horror experience from a developer that has been making a lot of huge strides for itself in the world of horror game development. It's not something that is going to change the world of horror games, but it does enough unique things with the simultaneous dual-world mechanic to stand out. Like many horror games before it, it fails to balance its tension with certain gameplay mechanics that can turn from fear to frustration pretty quickly, but these are spaced out enough that it never ruined the experience wholesale. For any horror fans looking for a Silent Hill-esque game to fill that ominous void, The Medium will at least scratch that itch.
The Medium is one of the most gorgeous horror games I've ever played. Its detailed environments, compelling characters, and unique setting make it a must-play for psychological horror fans.
The Medium stumbles because of its weak script, but it’s worth checking out if you have Xbox Game Pass and want to see what the next-gen fuss is all about.
The Medium is an interesting and enjoyable game, but one let down by some awkward animations that constantly threaten to break the immersion created by an otherwise captivating game world, and those weak stealth sections that Bloober Team can't seem to leave behind. It's very much a one-and-done game — you can easily see everything it has to offer inside of ten hours, so the pricing might be a little questionable for both the quality and quantity of what you get here.
Bloober Team's beautiful-looking exploration of intergenerational trauma is ripe ground for innovative storytelling, but fumbles its big themes
Bloober Team provides the Xbox Series X/S with its first console exclusive in this psychological horror with a technological twist
The Medium won't give you any sleepless nights, but treat it as a paranormal thriller rather than an all-out horror game and you'll find an interesting story (albeit a disturbing one at times) that will encourage you to push through its slightly repetitive split-screen gimmick to find out how it all ends. A short but intriguing tale.
Marianne might be able to jump between two realities, but The Medium is trapped somewhere between being a worthy Silent Hill successor and another mediocre hide and seek horror game.
As a whole package The Medium is very much a story of compromise. For all its successes in visual storytelling and interesting setting, it’s collared by poor pacing and dated game design. Still, it’s well worth a look for history buffs and those fascinated by the unknown. So what lies beyond? It’s still up for debate. In the present, The Medium offers an intriguing possibility to puzzle on.