The Medium Reviews

Masterpiece

A Decent one

The Medium is a compact, atmospheric experience that prioritizes psychological tension over scares. The game weaves a slow-burning mystery enriched by a dual-reality mechanic, which allows for exploration between the physical and spirit worlds, sometimes simultaneously. The horror element is subdued, driven towards more unsettling environments, a haunting sound design, and an ever-present sense of dread. Puzzles plays a central role, often used to navigate surreal spaces and unravel the narrative. While the gameplay is relatively light and linear, the game’s strength lies in its immersive ambiance and dark storytelling.

I’m coming away from The Medium with a generally positive impression, but let’s start with the rough spots: [b]Drawbacks[/b] [list] [*] [b]Fragmented storytelling:[/b] The narrative delivery feels choppy at times, with abrupt scene transitions that sometimes pull you out of the experience. [*] [b]Performance hiccups:[/b] Even on an RTX 5080, I saw frame rates dip into the low 20s in certain scenes—jarring when the game leans on atmosphere. [*] [b]Underwhelming mechanics:[/b] A few of the gameplay systems (puzzles, traversal bits) can feel a bit on the dull side, especially when you’re hungry for more story. [*] [b]Collectibles roadblock:[/b] Hunting down every collectible is tricky, and since they’re key to unlocking backstory, missing a few means you’ll miss out on important lore. [*] [b]Falls flat on scares:[/b] The game tries hard to spook you, but most jump scares don’t land—so don’t expect to hide behind your couch. [/list] [b]Strengths[/b] [list] [*] [b]Stunning visuals:[/b] The world is gorgeous. The use of ray‑tracing (where it holds steady) bathes scenes in a haunting glow that’s a real treat. [*] [b]Engaging story core:[/b] Despite the fragmented pacing, the central mystery kept me invested—there’s genuine intrigue in uncovering Marianne’s dual‑world secrets. [*] [b]Mood‑setting soundtrack:[/b] The music and ambient sound design carry much of the emotional weight, and they do it beautifully—often better than the outright scare moments. [/list] Overall, Poland’s Bloober Team is reaching ambitiously for an AAA experience, and while they don’t hit every mark, The Medium’s atmosphere and story are compelling enough to recommend—just be prepared for a few technical and pacing stumbles along the way.

This was a beautiful and Haunting game, and I really found it inspiring. The visuals were stunning and honestly anything set in eastern Europe is terrifying. I hope there is a sequel some day, or at least a DLC to explore that ending a little more!

The Medium is a fun game, but unfortunately fails to live up to the hype. The concept is really cool and overall well executed. The story was good, but only really gripped me close to the end. I feel like there are a lit of missed opportunities in making use of the different realities. The puzzles were not very challenging and the monster was fairly easy to avoid with no real consequences if you got caught, it wasn't scary. We get back stories for some of the monsters which doesn't really add much to the story in my opinion. The game was still fun however, I just would have liked to have seen more in terms of the interaction between the real and spiritual world. The "combat" in the game feels a bit lazy and doesn't add anything to the game. It feels like it was just put in there because "the players needed something extra to do." Overall the game is still fun and I enjoyed it, my rating for it is a 6/10.

Personally really loved the story & would recommend if you like a good story/puzzle game 9/10 Loved & would play again

Its a nice game, 9 hours long walking sim, horror themed. Few cool ideas, like double world, a bit confusing story. Graphic is nice, but it is one of those first game with ray tracing, no frame gen, so performance is not so good even on modern hardware. Still, its very atmospheric, doom and gloom, Beksiński style. I liked it.

my partner doesn't like horror games but was invested in the story, so they recruited me to play it for them while they watched. i didn't really know what to expect, but what they told me had me intrigued, so i went for it, and BOY was i not disappointed. i fear i may have enjoyed it more than they did. first thing i noticed was how beautiful the game was visually, absolutely stunning. i also immediately fell in love with the characters one by one as they appeared. really enjoyed the play style; i have seen some people refer to it as a walking simulator, but i find that to be far from truth. the environment was full of intrigue and secrets and hidden bits to the puzzle. story wise? every twist and turn shocked me, and pulled me in tighter. all in all, definitely going in my top 5 favorites.

Very solid game. Overall the gameplay and puzzles were fun, the story was intriguing, and the shifting between worlds was fantastic. But make sure you turn ray tracing off if you want a good framerate (there were moments where my framerate would inexplicably drop from 140+ to the 40s, and turning ray tracing off fixed it. game still looked great). I also experienced a little audio bug where it wouldn't play the audio after a load, but going into the settings and choosing the audio device fixed that issue. Those two annoyances aside, I absolutely recommend this game.