The Medium: Review - D-Pad Academy

The Medium
REVIEW

10/31/22

By George Smrekar

SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE

The Medium is aptly named. A middle-of-the-road story wrapped in mid design with mid graphics, held together by mid gameplay. A medium length, middling experience. I went into it with medium expectations, having previously finished Bloober Team’s two Layers of Fear titles and the Blair Witch. I came out mildly disappointed but with enough reverence for the lovely Akira Yamaoka score that I still find myself teetering in the middle of the rating scale. Can I recommend it? That depends on how much of a horror aficionado you are. Not that the game is particularly scary (it isn’t), but the fixed camera atmosphere does at least provide some moments of unique antiquity worth sticking it out for.

The Medium starts off honest enough. A clear influence from Silent Hill permeates the opening chapter, as you (Marianne) wander a bleak apartment getting ready for a stop by the ol’ mortuary. You’ll feed your cat, scan some trinkets, come to grips with the retro camera and settle in well enough. The primary pull of the game will initially be its story. Conveying it to the player comes with a few setbacks though. Facial animations are rough. Controls are slightly tanky but the pace is slow enough that you won’t suffer for it, save for the occasional timed chase sequence. These brief on-rails moments are about as action-packed as the game ever gets. You won’t have one for a while though, so buckle up for a lot of collectible collecting, stilted voice-overs and vague exposition bursts via memory shards and echoes.

The game’s hook comes in the form of the occasional horizontal/vertical split-screen between Marianne’s physical self and her silver-haired spirit form. The normal Silent Hill juxtaposed with the nightmare version, for lack of better terms. You’ll generally control both at the same time, finding things to interact with in one that you cannot in the other. This leads into some unique puzzles that generally don’t overstay their welcome. Basically they break up the monotony of the gameplay by giving you something to do in between collectibles. Later puzzles involve hopping between realities via a mirror, changing things in one scenario to affect the other. The water pump puzzle however feels like a leftover from Resident Evil’s greatest hits. Bit of a hit ‘n’ miss.

The protagonist has a few different psy-op abilities relegated to their spiritual-selves as well which include a force field for swatting off moths/tentacles, some telekinesis for moving rocks, as well as a second sight of sorts that lets you Batman-scan the environment for audio/visual clues such as butterflies and collectibles. Have I mentioned the collectibles? Get used to picking things up, turning them over and reading/fast-forwarding whatever tidbits they have to offer. Monotony and tedium are par for the course in The Medium, music daring things to happen that never do. When they do, the camera has a habit of pulling away which can frustrate, detaching you from your immersion in a swathe of muddy textures and stark darkness.

Compounding this, the 30fps is a detriment. Nothing in the game pushes any kind of technical envelope. The split screen pales in comparison to the dimension hopping of the latest Ratchet and Clank and Titanfall for example, which both ran at 60fps pushing way more effects. Lighting and ray-tracing take a backseat during the interiors of Niwa. Fortunately, you won’t stay there forever and do get some breaths of fresh air in the surrounding forest, before and after. The load times/ respawns are rather long considering the SSD, but the game itself is slow. There is a sprint button, but it can’t speed up the pace. You will be slow-walking across ledges, slow-climbing up platforms, slow-reading the many diary entries. It can all feel a tad boring during a marathon session. There is no chapter select, so completionists may want to use a guide to save themselves from another playthrough.

The less said about the cast, eh. Cheesy one moment, pushing some seriously heavy child abuse themes the next. The character of Sadness for the most part wears a mask, making it hard to connect on a deeper level until the end. The Antagonist (the Maw) drones aloud in repetitive “I’m gonna getcha’s” with some dramatic (?) falling-to-their-knees emoting from the rest of the cast sprinkled throughout. It can feel a bit ham-fisted. The game also walks a fine line between feeling believably lived-in to empty as a parking lot after-hours. The saving grace comes in the form of the Maw. A skinsuit-seeking Nemesis who will follow you throughout the story. One of the few times the gameplay will switch up, albeit to an instafail scenario of cat and mouse stealth that some will find grating after the sixth time. Sometimes mini-puzzles themselves, sometimes a set piece run-for-your-life, they remain the highlights of my playthrough.

In the end, the story delivers on its promise of answering some of the questions Marianne has about herself, Thomas and Lily, but it also leaves a thing or two open which may frustrate or delight depending on your preference. This sums up my time with The Medium as a whole. A frustrating delight, scratching some of that Silent Hill itch but also dredging up some of the old baggage. Bad cameras, tank gameplay and a technical performance that I found lacking as a whole. How very old school? Perhaps. But some nostalgia is better left behind. Such is The Medium. A melting pot of average ideas from better games. More and less than the sum of its parts. Beat ‘n’ delete.

pros

cons

 6/10