The Medium Reviews
Overall, The Medium left me with feelings of general frustration. Not at the quality of the game, or the mechanics themselves, but the length of the ride. The game is simply too long and the vast majority of my issues are a result of the core game growing stale, or the story being broken up by long stretches of nothing. All that being said, I had a good time with The Medium. It’s not something I’d recommend people rush out and buy at full price, but it’s certainly a game worth experiencing.
A narrative and absorbing game with touches of survival horror. Two dimensional planes that give life to surrealistic works.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While the small emotional ties to Sadness and Marianne only grow more complex towards the end, and the small performance hiccups and graphical bugs occur from time to time, The Medium is a strong title that – to some – will ultimately be held back due to awkward camera angles and the split duality emphasized by the use of split-screen gameplay to represent both the spirit world and that of the physical world.
The Medium marries old-school horror with modern technology to mixed results but succeeds in delivering a cinematic experience with a compelling narrative.
The Medium suffers from wanting to look like a classic Survival Horror, but without daring to go beyond the superficial, the aesthetic. The puzzles are irrelevant, even annoying, the resource management is zero and the progression is completely linear. When The Medium really works is when it sheds that facade and becomes a walking simulator with a powerful setting and a narrative that manages to touch our hearts.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Medium’s daring resolute in thrilling its audience does come off a little daunting, rather than terrifying.
The Medium has a lot of good ideas that come together in a mixed bag of a game. I found the story to be involving and well written; the atmosphere and ambience unnerving. The environments are often hauntingly beautiful to look at, and the soundtrack is a genuine highlight. The good in this game is forced to carry you through the bad, which in some ways, is the gameplay itself, where a lack of challenging puzzles, a shallow yet innovative dual reality mechanic, and an over reliance on exposition pull you out of the detailed and interesting story Bloober are trying to tell. The Medium is then, perhaps, a victim of its own gimmick – a game of two halves, one full of detail and intrigue, the other somewhat lost in the gloom of the veil.
If you like the horror, thriller genre, I can say that The Medium is a game where you can get a nostalgic taste.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
The Medium is, for better or worse, old-school at its core. The split screen mechanics aren't revolutionary at all and action sequences may leave you a bit confused, but the wholesome plot and well executed narration make Bloober Team's latest effort a compelling horror story imbued with some cool sociohistorical references.
Review in Polish | Read full review
The Medium is a good game that lasts just around 10 hours. After completing it I so wanted it to be more than it is. Its story and uncomfortable themes its touches on does a great job carrying the repetitive gameplay to the end. I so wanted it to be more. I wanted more challenging puzzles and gameplay elements to expand the “dual reality” mechanics. However, it never happened. I hope The Bloober Team use this as a start to something new. The game’s general premise is an interesting one and can really be expanded on. Unfortunately, it gives me Order 1886 vibes – Just playing it too safe.
All in all, The Medium is a good game, but not revolutionary and certainly not the new king of the genre. The story and atmosphere will stay with you long after finishing it, but the gameplay has a lot of room for improvement. If you prioritize a good story and a masterfully crafted atmosphere The Medium will not disappoint.
The Medium is a game with great potential and bad execution, as its issues and problems such as limited gameplay, easy puzzles and bad camera work eventually overtake its great story telling and engaging atmosphere.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Intriguing, mystical detective story with interesting idea of simultaneous render of two worlds. But in the end, it just doesn't pay off.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The Medium is less survival-horror and more adventure-horror like the studio's past games, but so long as Bloober Team is still refining this style, the team is clearly getting better.
The Medium is an interesting title to play through, but I think it is fair to say that while the split-screen, dual world element is a fascinating idea, it never truly excels at pushing the idea to its maximum potential.
The Medium is a decent horror game that has some really good ideas, but ultimately fails to live up to its potential.
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
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
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.
Review: The Medium from Bloober Team on Xbox Series X | S and PC is a beautiful Silent Hill 2-inspired horror game with some annoyances.