REVIEW - The Medium Is Stunning, But Stiff
Two bumps in the night.
By Jonathan Garrett
08/02/21
Reviewed on Xbox Series X.
Review copy provided by Bloober Team.
The Medium delights from the off, with sumptuous graphical presentation which, on Series X in particular, really pops. It’s a visual treat for the eyes, with incredibly intricate detail and a striking dual reality mechanic that works better in practice than the PR bullet point feature name would suggest. But it’s also painfully clunky at times, and can’t quite reconcile all of its good ideas.
It’s beset with contradiction; environments are stunning, but the facial animation is rudimentary at best. This isn’t helped by some less than convincing lip sync, which can distract from moments that should be hitting home. That being said, the story is extremely well told, and the voice acting across the board is wonderful.
The use of narration reminded me of Remedy’s Control, with commentary on the action coming into play at just the right moments. It’s also quite unsettling during exploration, with Bloober Team mostly avoiding jump scares in favour of “blink and you’ll miss it” style background creepiness, which ratchets up the tension.
With the narrative being such a clear focus, it’s a shame that the controls, and by extension the puzzle solving, are quite poorly implemented. They’re functional to be sure, but the over reliance on invisible walls, and button prompts which go against widely established norms, do little to convince.
I kept butting up against the world design, where the absence of a physical barrier implied that the path ahead could be traversed. Unfortunately, the opposite is more often true, and the tendency is for you to be funneled down a set path with minimal deviation. It’s a strange choice, because Bloober made a world filled with optional lore. But more often than not, you’re kept on the straight and narrow.
As the puzzle design gradually increases in complexity, the issues with controls and navigation become more apparent. But that doesn’t change the fact that The Medium is a gorgeous, deliberately paced adventure that, for the most part, makes it work despite a few key setbacks.
I’d like to hard brexit on this puddle please!
WORTH IT?
At the bottom of every game review, we ask the question: Worth it? And the answer is either “Yeah!” or “Nah”, followed by a comment that sums up how we feel. In order to provide more information, we also have “And” or “But”, which follows up our rating with further clarification, additional context for a game we love, or perhaps a redeeming quality for a game we didn’t like.
YEAH!
The Medium is a chilling thriller and a graphical powerhouse.
BUT
The world design is limited by too many invisible walls, and the controls are annoying.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
