The Medium for Windows

Horror adventure-puzzle game

Horror game specialists Bloober Team has a new offering for its fans. The Medium is an adventure game that features patented gameplay that plays out across two worlds displayed simultaneously. It follows Marianne, a medium that can cross between the spirit world and the real world. With her psychic ability, you will solve puzzles that span both worlds and uncover disturbing secrets. More, you will have to survive encounters with monsters born from unspeakable tragedies.

Become the Medium

The Medium draws inspiration from Polish Culture and the classic survival horror games. It takes players into an abandoned Polish Hotel, where spirits await for their mysteries to be solved. What sets it apart from others in the survival horror genre is its focus on dual-reality puzzles. Some segments in the game will come in split-screen, displaying a view of the real world and the spirit world. You can control both sides simultaneously or break off to control one at any given moment.

More than the unique gameplay, the main draw of the game is the story. The Medium offers a psychological horror thriller mystery with quick pacing. It presents a story that keeps throwing you curveballs just when you thought you got the plot figured out. The game also does not bore you with endless text-based narrative but tells the story through cutscenes and other visual storytelling.

Unlike most modern-day horror games, The Medium offers a fixed third-person camera. This allows the game to open up certain areas visibly, adding impact to each story scene. However, it does lead to some control issues. Also, the game isn’t great in terms of performance and comes off as poorly optimized even with high spec machines. Not only that, but the FPS was inconsistent. There's also this annoying stutter, which happens whenever the character enters a new area.

In conclusion

The Medium offers a fresh take on horror games. It provides players with investigation mechanics that explores the concepts of parapsychology in its gameplay. However, while the premise is unique, the entire execution of the game needs more work. Its poor performance offsets everything good that the game has to offer. Players won't be able to properly experience a horror game that stutters—or worse crashes—constantly.