The Medium Reviews

The Medium is ranked in the 63rd percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Jan 27, 2021

The Medium is a psychological horror game that is set across two worlds, but it doesn't quite live up to the potential of its gameplay features.

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Jan 27, 2021

The Medium is an enjoyable survival horror that's held back by a lacklustre narrative and a signature mechanic that never reaches its full potential. Even with Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka's score ringing across the twisted soviet world, Bloober Team's latest project pales in comparison to the legends that came before it.

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8 / 10.0
Jan 27, 2021

The Medium builds upon a lot of gameplay gimmicks and ideas that aren't always used to their full potential, but when they do work, they work incredibly well. Controlling main character Marianne as she jumps between worlds is both engrossing and exciting in practice, and the game's main location serves its job as a setting for horror masterfully most of the time. This is a game that definitely could have been better-but which is also better than a lot of other horror games that don't take such daring risks.

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7 / 10.0
Jan 27, 2021

The Medium is a horror with fascinating potential, but translated into an experience never really ambitious, and indeed paradoxically rather limited, restrained and shallow.

Review in Italian | Read full review

GamePro
Top Critic
83 / 100
Jan 27, 2021

The Medium scores especially with story and gripping atmosphere, but does not reach its class in a playful way.

Review in German | Read full review

4 / 5.0
Jan 27, 2021

The Medium isn’t perfect. Bloober Team’s most ambitious ideas aren’t realized to their full potential, but it’s a step in an exciting new direction. The pacing stumbles in the middle, but that’s where the enticing narrative picks up the slack to drive you through. The dual-reality mechanic goes just about far enough to keep its slowest gameplay moments interesting, and paired with a fantastic narrative and exceptionally eerie atmosphere, it’s an easy recommendation for fans of Bloober Team’s work in the past and the horror genre in general.

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7.5 / 10.0
Jan 28, 2021

The Medium is at its best when you are exploring its remarkable, beautiful worlds, or enjoying the excellent composition and art direction. Unfortunately, the gameplay does not meet that high mark, and often detracts from what is otherwise a stellar aesthetic experience.

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Everyeye.it
Marco Mottura
Top Critic
7 / 10.0
Sep 2, 2021

Also on PS5 The Medium confirms the strengths and weaknesses of a production at times even genuinely intriguing, but unable to stand out and to sanction that consecration of the Polish studio that many would have expected (even more so with what seemed to be the project of definitive maturity). The experience is basically identical to the one lived seven months ago on Xbox Series X, with a big difference, indeed in practice two. Even without epochal revolutions, on PlayStation 5 the DualSense adds something in terms of interaction compared to the original version, but on the Microsoft console the inclusion of the game within the Game Pass catalog weighs a lot since day one.

Review in Italian | Read full review

PCMag
Top Critic
Feb 2, 2021

The Medium impresses with its next-gen graphics and unique, split-screenplay that lets you jump between the human and spirit worlds. Unfortunately, the horror game's not particularly scary.

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Gameblog
Top Critic
8 / 10
Sep 6, 2021

The Medium returns to PS5, and offers an experience similar to what players were able to live in January on their X series. The story is still as gripping, with its concept of parallel worlds evolving at the same time before our eyes, and if the gameplay is ultimately the most simplistic, we take pleasure in exploring these worlds.

Review in French | Read full review

Sep 7, 2021

Bloober Team meshes all of these elements together to draw players further into The Medium's world than the Xbox/PC versions were capable of, elevating an already enjoyable experience to new heights. It stands to reason that the PS5 version of The Medium is the ideal way to experience Marianne's dual-reality adventures, and PlayStation 5 owners that enjoy horror games should definitely check the game out.

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7.5 / 10.0
Jan 27, 2021

The Medium presents intelligent horror and innovative gameplay inspired by Silent Hill, but far overstays its welcome and fails to provide closure. The split screen mechanics work wonders for new kinds of puzzles, but a myriad of technical issues hinder immersion.

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6 / 10.0
Sep 2, 2021

Despite some impressive DualSense implementation, the blemishes embedded into The Medium's gameplay and narrative still show on PS5. While The Medium is an intriguing horror game, it certainly isn't a great one.

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6.5 / 10.0
Jan 28, 2021

The Medium is Bloober Team's most ambitious game in terms of scope and scale. It successfully leverages fixed camera angles and strong sound design to create a horror experience that's unashamedly nostalgic. Despite its successes, the game fails to capitalise on its unique dual reality mechanic and ultimately feels too similar to the studio's prior efforts in Blair Witch and Observer.

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5 / 10.0
Jan 27, 2021

A good horror game can make rifling through old postcards and personal letters a compelling experience. But The Medium seems entitled, in that it expects me to be titillated by its character design and atmosphere but won't give me enough context to actually care about them. Between that and its tired puzzle-based progression barriers and dull character powers, The Medium fails to justify its existence.

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7.5 / 10.0
Jan 28, 2021

Despite an improved narrative when compared to Layers of Fear, The Medium does drag on a bit — especially near its climax — and resorts to a couple lazier puzzles at around that same point. On the whole though, The Medium is a rather enjoyable experience, especially for those who are fans of any of the myriad survival horror franchises I’ve already mentioned.

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80%
Jan 27, 2021

Layers of Fear showed early promise, Blair Witch demonstrated that Bloober could resurrect a dormant movie license to great effect, and Observer saw the studio successfully turn its hand to cyberpunk horror. The Medium is a similarly excellent game, serving as further proof of the developer's horror expertise and its credentials as an exciting creative outfit.

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9 / 10.0
Jan 27, 2021

The Medium is not only the best game from the Bloober Team but also one of the greatest virtual psychological horrors out there. It’s on the same level as the masterpiece I consider What Remains of Edith Finch to be. And if you accept the lack of survival and action elements in the gameplay, you’ll get a great heir to the Silent Hill series. If you prefer story and atmosphere over typical action – it’s a game for you!

Review in Polish | Read full review

4.3 / 5.0
Jan 27, 2021

Overall, The Medium is able to evoke the same kind of feelings you might expect from a game like Silent Hill. There are tense scenes and an eerie atmosphere that is engaging from start to finish. Naturally, there are some flaws, such as difficult puzzles, clunky controls or subpar stealth mechanics, but the deep story through the two worlds more than makes up for it, making it start as a strong showing for Xbox this year.

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9 / 10
Jan 28, 2021

The Medium feels like a culmination of everything Bloober Team have learned from their previous titles, pushing the envelope creatively while still heavily referencing classic horror games as their inspiration. The adventure does an excellent job of immersing you in its dark and twisted world, full of tortured souls and dark secrets begging to be uncovered. The dual-reality gameplay adds a fantastic riff to proceedings, a mechanic that has been cleverly injected into the gameplay and story in a really compelling way. While it could stand to leave some of its old-school sensibilities behind, its heartfelt story and creepy setting demands your attention right up until the credits roll.

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