If you’ve been around here for a while, then you know that I’m a big fan of horror film and atmospheric horror games like Resident Evil, Alien Isolation and the Layers of Fear series. Bloober Team announced The Medium would be a launch title for the new generation of Xbox games coming to Xbox Gamepass and I was immediately excited. The aesthetics of it were like nothing I’ve seen before with a split screen mechanic that looked most impressive in the videos shown early on. After a delay from the original December release by about 6-7 weeks we finally got to take the latest title from the house of horror Bloober Team.

The Medium puts players in the role of Marianne, a person with incredible psychic/paranormal abilities that not only allow her to help the dead come to terms with crossing over to the other side, but she can also use these abilities to have an out of body experience where she can travel and interact with the ethereal plane. We first meet her as she’s preparing for her adoptive father’s funeral which is to be held in the funeral home below their apartment. Soon after, she receieves a phone call asking for her to travel to the Niwa Hotel and that the voice on the other end of the phone can help her decipher the recurring nightmare she has of the death of another girl.

Soon after arriving to the abandoned resort hotel, she picks up on much spiritual unrest and feels compelled to investigate and release these spirits as she seeks out her quest to find the stranger who called upon her, Thomas.

The firs thing I think that people will pick up on is how similar the camera system is to one of the greatest and most influential horror games of all time, Resident Evil without the tank-like movements. One might think it would feel a bit disjointed as moving around and a sudden change in camera angle but it works really well. It felt like a love letter to the original RE series and I’m here for it. The best part about that sort of camera system is you never quite know what to expect from one screen to the next and it really adds an extra layer of tension to the experience.

The Medium is without a shadow of doubt an impressive game from a technical perspective but graphically, the game is a bit of a mishmash of both spectacular and not so spectacular. Granted, I think the mechanics of having the game do the split screen showcasing the same thing but in different locales has clearly a taxing task on the hardware but it does it quite well. The environments are beautifully eerie but where I found the game faltered a bit is with the character models. Don’t get me wrong, they look awesome but they look awesome for last gen hardware. Not the machines. And surprisingly enough, I noticed they were utilizing the JALI technology, the same tech used by CDPR’s Cyberpunk for facial animation and lip syncing but it sure didn’t have the same sort of emotive expressions on the characters faces. I can only assume this was a very early implementation of the technology.

Also of note, I did experience some frame rate stutters periodically and there seems to be a bit of a texture streaming issue that you’ll most likely only notice when you pick up an item that needs for inspection. The piece of paper, for example, will be illegible but within a few seconds BOOM! writing on the paper. A day after release, there was a an update with roughly 4.5gb which I thought would correct that issue but didn’t.

The audio engineering was nothing short of spectacular. You can’t have a horror game that really works without hitting a homerun in the audio department and hats off to that team. From the eerie stillness to the voicework to screams in one particular scene which sent chills up my spine, it was ear candy. If you have a really good sound system or a great headset, turn it up and enjoy the ride.

The Medium is an all around fantastic game that only takes about 8-10 hours which was perfect. It’s not quite a AAA caliber title but it sure is getting close. I thoroughly enjoyed The Medium from start to finish and really didn’t want it to end. There were a few moments where that stood out to me as spectacular and I wish I could wipe my memory so I could experience them for the first time again. With this game being on Xbox Gamepass you have no reason to miss this gem of a title even if it wasn’t I’d strongly urge you to pick this one up. Bloober Team continually delivers a really great horror game experience and to me they’re fast becoming the House of Horror. Whenever they announce a game that they’re working on, I immediately take notice. The future is bright for the horror genre as long as Bloober Team is at the helm.

Pros:
Beautiful environments
Really cool split screen technology
Great story – takes a wicked dark turn around the half way point
Incredible audio engineering

Cons:
Framerate stutters at time
Facial animations are stiff and lifeless