The Medium is the first next gen console game I played and was something I hadn't actually heard of before the middle of January. I was pleased to discover the game had headed to Xbox Game Pass immediately upon release and so it was the first game I downloaded upon finally getting my rotted claws on an Xbox Series X. The game comes from Bloober Team whose previous games Blair Witch, The Observer and Layers of Fear all had merits to them, even if they were each flawed in their own way. The Medium too is flawed, but like those others it does have its merits to make it feel unique.
Marianne, a spirit medium (whose power allows her to coexist simultaneously within the real world and the spirit world) is mourning the recent loss of her foster father when she receives a strange telephone call from a man calling himself Thomas. He tells the woman that he knows she has special abilities and that he knows she also has a recurring dream about a girl getting shot dead by a lake. He tell her that if she heads to the abandoned Niwa Workers' Resort complex out in the Polish wilderness he will be able to explain this haunting dream of hers. She heads to the complex and as she explores she encounters a malevolent spirit called the Maw who she discovers was responsible for a massacre at the site many years previously. As she investigates she slowly discovers the truth about the Maw, about the man named Thomas, and also is shocked to find out this all is somehow related to her past.
The Medium is a third person combat free adventure game that for the most part is all about exploration and solving mild puzzles. The big idea with the game is that Marianne co-exists in both worlds at the same time. This is represented on screen with much of the game taking place using a split screen format. The left side of the screen shows Marianne in the real world, the right side showing her in the spirit world. Occasionally there will be moments when either one of these viewpoints takes over the whole screen. This was a cool concept to use and I never got bored of the many ways this is used to create puzzles. By holding the B button you are able to go out of your body, able to navigate the spirit world through obstacles your real world counterpart cannot get through. You also get the ability to travel through mirrors which let you dip into the spirit world or vice versa to get past locked doors and other obstacles stopping your progress.
