The Medium (PS5)

The Medium bleibt weit hinter den Erwartungen und wiederholt zu viele Fehler aus den letzten Projekten von Bloober Team. Technisch trotz unschöner Belichtungsfehler eine beeindruckende Leistung, aber ansonsten eine große Enttäuschung in so gut wie allen Bereichen.

The pacing stumbles in the middle, but that’s where the enticing narrative picks up the slack to drive you through. The dual-reality mechanic goes just about far enough to keep its slowest gameplay moments interesting, and paired with a fantastic narrative and exceptionally eerie atmosphere, it’s an easy recommendation for fans of Bloober Team’s work in the past and the horror genre in general.

I can't say I enjoyed the ending to The Medium, but I am deeply satisfied with how it sets up the inescapable nature of its horrifying conclusion.

Brilliantly paced and palpably tense, The Medium is a psychological horror adventure that’s all thriller and no filler.

Taken on its own merits, and particularly for genre fans, this is a genuinely great game and I look forward to replaying it to take in all the amazing details and touches that I may have missed first time through. With some questions left unanswered, I hope it does well and develops into a franchise.

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.

Even with Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka’s score ringing across its twisted soviet world, Bloober Team’s latest project pales in comparison to the legends that came before it. It focuses so passionately on the visual aspect of such beloved titles that the game underbakes the psychological dough that makes such classics so beloved in the first place.

This is a horror game with more tedium than tension.