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The gameplay itself is a slow burn, making us take in the secrets slowly as if sipping a wine. The art style was weird and awesome. The dutch angles for the horror aesthetic only made this game all the more cinematic.
The gameplay is not really hard. Once you the purpose of your powers, you know what to do and when to do it. I remember being stumped only around 3 times.
The real hero of the game is the underlying story and the art style, as is with most horror sleuth games. The final unraveling and ending itself was really good.
There is no hardcore high octane action. This game is about exploring and slowly unraveling the story beneath and probably take a moment to the enjoy the art in the flip side.
«Blew my mind»
«Sit back and relax»
«That ending!»
Other reviews12
I liked this quite beautiful game for its unique Poland-like surroundings and grim atmosphere, but it couldn't engage me enough. I dropped after a few hours. What I didn't like was too little player interaction, like it's a very straightforward and simple game.
6/10
6/10
«Boooring»
While I did enjoy this game, I feel like this was really just Bloober's way of showing Konami they REALLY want to work on a Silent Hill game and it apparently worked. I don't think the story is anything special but it is interesting. The split screen aspect of the game is impressive on a technical level but as a feature in the game it really doesn't do anything for me. The game looks really good, love the imagery inspired by Zdzisław Beksiński. I think for me, the lighting is what really stands out. There are a few sections where the camera is just right to capture the scene beautifully. Bloober team always seems to have some really good concepts they can't seem to nail and they once again show that here when they completely fumble the ending. It honestly kind of ruins the rest of the game with how poorly handled it is. Really hope they can sit down and look at what they really do well and play on that instead of keep trying the same stuff they fail at.
I enjoyed to story and the setting (Poland), although I'm not personally a fan of supernatural played straight. It is revealed from the get go, that you basicly have magic powers as a medium, as you can communicate with the spirit realm.
I didn't get excited over the mechanics, but they do not get in the way either. Voice acting is ok, music and other audio is good. The puzzles are ok.
The atmosphere is mostly good in its creepiness. There are some jumpscares, which seemed cheap and unnenecessary.
Silent Hill games are a clear inspiration for the The Medium and, indeed, there is some music by SH composer Akira Yamaoka in the game. I might recommend the game to the fans of those games, if one is willing to accept more direct supernatural themes, European setting, and more puzzle oriented gameplay.
Played on Xbox Series S (GamePass).
I didn't get excited over the mechanics, but they do not get in the way either. Voice acting is ok, music and other audio is good. The puzzles are ok.
The atmosphere is mostly good in its creepiness. There are some jumpscares, which seemed cheap and unnenecessary.
Silent Hill games are a clear inspiration for the The Medium and, indeed, there is some music by SH composer Akira Yamaoka in the game. I might recommend the game to the fans of those games, if one is willing to accept more direct supernatural themes, European setting, and more puzzle oriented gameplay.
Played on Xbox Series S (GamePass).
It has an old school vibe, from the movement to the camera angles. The story's okay, weird and twisted but just okay. They could have done with the running sequences, those are never fun.
Date Completed: 2021-03-14
Playtime: 8h
Enjoyment: 7/10
Recommendation: If you like horror games it's worth a play.
I've seen many people blaming game for bugs, strange animations and so on... I strong disagree.
At first, character movimentation can be strange, but the game concept is really different from everything I've seen so far. The game storyline is awesome, really great puzzles, all this gave me severeal shivers, I really loved it. I recommend you to play this game if you didn't tried, and if you did but didn't finish yet, try again please.
The game has performance problems, but maybe the dev team can fix it. Can't wait for a second game, if there will be one.
Thank you Bloober Team,
"it all ends in me"!
At first, character movimentation can be strange, but the game concept is really different from everything I've seen so far. The game storyline is awesome, really great puzzles, all this gave me severeal shivers, I really loved it. I recommend you to play this game if you didn't tried, and if you did but didn't finish yet, try again please.
The game has performance problems, but maybe the dev team can fix it. Can't wait for a second game, if there will be one.
Thank you Bloober Team,
"it all ends in me"!
«Blew my mind»
«Can’t stop playing»
Journal Style Review:
I’m a bit embarrassed for Xbox that their first real Xbox exclusive for the Series X is a AA walking simulator. When I saw trailers for this game I though it looked cool. I thought it would at least have “a plague tale” level of gameplay. I thought it would be a AA story focused adventure horror type game. I’m disappointed it appears to be a full on walking simulator. Like I can’t even rotate the camera? That makes it feel old. You are trying to show off your new powerful console you were bragging about, and this game is like “click key item and put in door.” That being said, opening trailer was pretty sweet and I’ve liked the opening vibes and atmosphere. This may be high on my list relative to the other walking simulators I’ve played. We will see.
I can’t believe how little gameplay there is. I’m disappointed. I didn’t have high expectations. But this is still lower than expected.
Very poor animations, especially facial. The mystery isn’t bad at the beginning though.
All that stuff the devs said about this needing to be on the series X because of our fancy game is total bullshit. This game is so simple. Split screen with two images is not impossible on the older consoles, that’s a straight up lie to pretend your game is way fancier than it is. I hope the story is good. Otherwise I don’t know if this game actually does anything well.
I do think this game has good sound and voice acting. The music or environmental noise adds to the atmosphere. The style and presentation I quite like. The medium world looks sweet. I just wish there was more to the gameplay.
I’m going to have to get over the fact I’m bummed about this game being what it is so I can try to enjoy the experience it’s trying to give. But fuck I am bummed.
That first pans labrynth-esque monster chase and sneak section was super cool. The world design of the medium world is awesome...I want a different game with this world made.
The medium world and returning the souls and the invisible demon trying to eat you is all very cool. I liked it. Then the game fucked up and I couldn’t return one of the souls so I had to mess around with old saves to find a file that wasn’t glitched and I had to replay the section. It wrecked the momentum the game had going and wasted my time. A bummer because it was the best section to date so I was getting into it.
The world and atmosphere is so good. I do love the aesthetic. The Thomas cutscene and storyline is very dark but Im really liking it. They have done enough now to draw me in. I’m getting over the fact I hate what the gameplay is.
The forest chase that switches between real and the spirit worlds was awesome. There are a lot of scenes that I love in this game. Shame the gameplay is so fucking awful.
The puzzles aren’t very good either. It isn’t like there is a problem and I’m thinking about how to solve it. It’s just interacting with the few things you can interact with. It will be like turn on the generator so I can lift this motor up and get access to this lever that just happens to be under where the motor was for absolutely no logical reason. The puzzles are the only form of gameplay and they suck. This would be a better tv show or movie, the interactive portion of this game does not enhance the storytelling. It hurts it.
The fact that nothing kills you in this game, except for a few sequences that are obvious and simple, really takes away the tension this game could have. I’m walking through these creepy, dark disturbing environments but at this point It’s just not tense or special because I know there aren’t jump scares or anything that can do me harm. It’s another huge missed opportunity.
I finished the game and I liked the ending. I liked this story from start to finish. I liked the atmosphere and the visuals. I just hated the gameplay. It distracted me from the good bits more than it brought me in.
Final Score: B
I’m a bit embarrassed for Xbox that their first real Xbox exclusive for the Series X is a AA walking simulator. When I saw trailers for this game I though it looked cool. I thought it would at least have “a plague tale” level of gameplay. I thought it would be a AA story focused adventure horror type game. I’m disappointed it appears to be a full on walking simulator. Like I can’t even rotate the camera? That makes it feel old. You are trying to show off your new powerful console you were bragging about, and this game is like “click key item and put in door.” That being said, opening trailer was pretty sweet and I’ve liked the opening vibes and atmosphere. This may be high on my list relative to the other walking simulators I’ve played. We will see.
I can’t believe how little gameplay there is. I’m disappointed. I didn’t have high expectations. But this is still lower than expected.
Very poor animations, especially facial. The mystery isn’t bad at the beginning though.
All that stuff the devs said about this needing to be on the series X because of our fancy game is total bullshit. This game is so simple. Split screen with two images is not impossible on the older consoles, that’s a straight up lie to pretend your game is way fancier than it is. I hope the story is good. Otherwise I don’t know if this game actually does anything well.
I do think this game has good sound and voice acting. The music or environmental noise adds to the atmosphere. The style and presentation I quite like. The medium world looks sweet. I just wish there was more to the gameplay.
I’m going to have to get over the fact I’m bummed about this game being what it is so I can try to enjoy the experience it’s trying to give. But fuck I am bummed.
That first pans labrynth-esque monster chase and sneak section was super cool. The world design of the medium world is awesome...I want a different game with this world made.
The medium world and returning the souls and the invisible demon trying to eat you is all very cool. I liked it. Then the game fucked up and I couldn’t return one of the souls so I had to mess around with old saves to find a file that wasn’t glitched and I had to replay the section. It wrecked the momentum the game had going and wasted my time. A bummer because it was the best section to date so I was getting into it.
The world and atmosphere is so good. I do love the aesthetic. The Thomas cutscene and storyline is very dark but Im really liking it. They have done enough now to draw me in. I’m getting over the fact I hate what the gameplay is.
The forest chase that switches between real and the spirit worlds was awesome. There are a lot of scenes that I love in this game. Shame the gameplay is so fucking awful.
The puzzles aren’t very good either. It isn’t like there is a problem and I’m thinking about how to solve it. It’s just interacting with the few things you can interact with. It will be like turn on the generator so I can lift this motor up and get access to this lever that just happens to be under where the motor was for absolutely no logical reason. The puzzles are the only form of gameplay and they suck. This would be a better tv show or movie, the interactive portion of this game does not enhance the storytelling. It hurts it.
The fact that nothing kills you in this game, except for a few sequences that are obvious and simple, really takes away the tension this game could have. I’m walking through these creepy, dark disturbing environments but at this point It’s just not tense or special because I know there aren’t jump scares or anything that can do me harm. It’s another huge missed opportunity.
I finished the game and I liked the ending. I liked this story from start to finish. I liked the atmosphere and the visuals. I just hated the gameplay. It distracted me from the good bits more than it brought me in.
Final Score: B