The Medium Reviews
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.
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.
The Medium is a chilling tone piece that's bogged down by retro influence and a protagonist that can't stop oversharing.
Bloober Team does well to keep things taut all the way to the end, but there's a frustrating amount of untapped potential beneath its gameplay gimmicks and art direction.
The Medium is at its best whenever the player gets to lives up to the game's title.
The Medium shines when it's letting you soak in its beautifully crafted dual worlds and melancholic soundtrack, but early promise of a quietly effective ghost story unravels as the story staggers clumsily to a point where it becomes almost unbearable in its attempt to tackle a tough subject.
Bloober Team provides the Xbox Series X/S with its first console exclusive in this psychological horror with a technological twist
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.
Despite the wrong steps, there is good in The Medium.
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
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 flawed horror experience with an interesting story and a visually captivating spirit world. Fixed camera angles add excess clumsiness and the terrible framerate drops make it difficult to enjoy the split-screen views. With some glacial pacing and a lack of genuine scares or challenges, it fails to create a strong bond with either of its two worlds.
Sometimes that focus is nudged in one direction via shifting screen real-estate.
The Medium was a game I really wanted to like. With its gorgeous graphics, old school tank control gameplay, and musical pieces composed by Akira Yamaoka himself it had everything that promised a memorable experience. But at the end, the journey was unfulfilling and forgettable.
The Medium sadly joins Blair Witch as another disappointing effort from Bloober Team.
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.
The Medium falls short of expectations and repeats a lot of mistakes from the previous bloober team games. From a technical standpoint the game is impressive, besides some minor lighting issues but nearly everything else disappoints just too much.
Review in German | Read full review
This is a horror game with more tedium than tension