The Medium

 Xbox Series X
The Medium Image
Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 81 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1384 Ratings

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  • Summary: Become a medium living in two different worlds: the real one and the spirit one. Haunted by the vision of a child's murder, you travel to an abandoned hotel resort, which many years ago became the stage of an unthinkable tragedy. There you begin your search for difficult answers. As a mediumBecome a medium living in two different worlds: the real one and the spirit one. Haunted by the vision of a child's murder, you travel to an abandoned hotel resort, which many years ago became the stage of an unthinkable tragedy. There you begin your search for difficult answers. As a medium with access to both worlds, you have a wider perspective and can see more clearly that there's no one simple truth to what others perceive. Nothing is what it seems, everything has another side. The Medium features a "dual" soundtrack by Bloober Team's Arkadiusz Reikowski and legendary composer Akira Yamaoka of Silent Hill fame.… Expand

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The Medium - Official 14 Minutes Of Xbox Series X Gameplay Trailer

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 44 out of 81
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 81
  3. Negative: 3 out of 81
  1. TheGamer
    Jan 27, 2021
    100
    The Medium never hits a flat note. I beat the game in two long sittings, and there was never a point during either that I felt like the game dragged, or could’ve used a little more polish, or left too many loose ends hanging. It’s a lean, compelling experience that says what it has to say, then leaves you to grapple with the specifics afterwards. There are images, lines, and ideas from The Medium that I’ll likely take to my grave thanks to this approach, as it puts the onus on the player to piece everything together. You have to wrap your brain around the spirit world’s twisted logic so much that it becomes a part of you, as you live through Marianne’s pain with her and help to navigate her trauma. Much like Marianne’s past, don’t expect The Medium to leave your head any time soon.
  2. IGN Spain
    Jan 27, 2021
    85
    The Medium will not be the best psychological horror game in the world, but it engages like few others. Bloober Team once again raises a bar that dropped somewhat after Blair Witch and presents us at times two games in one, with quite effective mechanics despite its simplicity. A great gift for Xbox Game Pass subscribers who will enjoy it from day one.
  3. XBLA Fans
    Feb 3, 2021
    80
    The beauty is both bright and dark, delivering not only one atmosphere to appreciate but two. While the story can be a bit confusing and hard to follow, it still manages to at least put an idea in your head that you can work with. There are a few areas that seem to go on a bit too long but maybe that’s just because I played it twice. The lack of extras and chapter select is especially unfortunate because of there being so many collectibles. It’s a very unique game that has excellent voice acting and terrific music and sound effects. Only a few times did I see stuttering and sometimes there were weird light issues. The things I think need improvement happen to have a very big impact for me when it comes to an overall package. Otherwise, everything else was really well done.
  4. JeuxActu
    Jan 27, 2021
    75
    If it is not quite the great game that we could have hoped for, The Medium is nonetheless an endearing adventure, which can be enjoyed with pleasure. Finally, despite some very real efforts (RTX and HDR in particular), the technical aspect is more of an AA budget than AAA.
  5. Jeuxvideo.com
    Jan 27, 2021
    70
    The Bloober Team delivers a psychological and supernatural thriller with multiple controlled influences, and a story that is both dark and touching. The Medium is an artistic work in its own right, both visual and musical, whose universe deserves to be explored. The Polish studio also manage to take advantage of this playful duality between the physical and spiritual planes without necessarily innovating too much during a linear adventure. The threat weighing on Marianne, as intense as it may be at times, loses too often in intensity to permanently mark the players. The Medium is ultimately an “arty” horrific experience like the developers' previous productions.
  6. Press Start Australia
    Jan 27, 2021
    65
    The Medium is, without a doubt, Bloober Team's most ambitious game in terms of scope and scale. It successfully leverages fixed camera angles and strong sound design to inspire a horror experience that's unashamedly nostalgic. Despite its successes, it never really capitalises on its unique dual reality mechanic and ultimately feels the same as the team's previous games.
  7. GAMINGbible
    Jan 27, 2021
    30
    Buried underneath the messy narrative and the mundane gameplay, there's a good game in here, somewhere. But for the most part, The Medium is a game that I'm very happy to put behind me and never think about again. For any fans of horror, I would firmly recommend you give this game a miss.

See all 84 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 502 out of 707
  2. Mixed: 60 out of 707
  3. Negative: 145 out of 707
  1. malias4
    Feb 2, 2021
    10
    Very nice game not so scary with cool performance graphics !! Good idea playing in 2 realitys !
  2. P4ss4ri
    Jan 30, 2021
    10
    Excellent game. Amazing history, amazing characters, good graphics and a really excellent music
  4. KynDjariN123
    Jan 29, 2021
    10
    Well after having finished The medium in a Series X and having played it all in one session I will give you my little review:
    GRAPHICS:    Well after having finished The medium in a Series X and having played it all in one session I will give you my little review:
    GRAPHICS:
    While the graphics do not show to be optimal for a game that opens the generation for Xbox series, we have to remember that it is already a demanding game for having to render two complete worlds with two completely different aspects, each with its own assets, animations and sounds.
    STORY:
    From now on I tell you, it is a story that hooked me from the call that Marianne receives at the beginning of the game, all that atmosphere of mystery that surrounds the game is captivating, during the whole journey had me thinking about what could happen in the following minutes, the story has some good plot twists that tell in a progressive way and do not drop it all at once as it is customary in current similar games, also managing to convey quite strong feelings through the use of a well done work of voice actors.
    ART AND MUSIC:
    The artistic aspect is one of the strong points that The medium achieves in its maximum splendor, having a trapping atmosphere and with an environment in which you breathe anguish and suspense in equal parts and the music that comes from hand Akira Yamaoka accompanies and finishes giving life to that paranormal environment in which you feel that there is always someone looking at you either from the physical world as the afterlife.
    TECHNICAL ASPECTS:
    The game suffers from frame drops in very specific sections and this is mostly due to the bad use of short term storage memories (RAM) that the game has, in resolution issues I saw some sudden and extremely short drops in resolution being the minimum I witnessed of 900p ( on an Xbox series S) and did not last much more than 2 seconds and the Poppin that affects objects or cards that is appreciated when interacting with one of these objects, these three problems can be easily solved with a couple of patches.
    CONCLUSIONS:
    The medium is a game which exceeded my expectations despite some minimal technical errors that the game has, being a solid game and that they put love and dedication behind it.    … Expand
  5. lordpari
    Jan 31, 2021
    9
    Great game, great story, amazing music. Bloober team has grown a lot. Piccolo capolavoro. Horror old school, con telecamera semi fissa.Great game, great story, amazing music. Bloober team has grown a lot. Piccolo capolavoro. Horror old school, con telecamera semi fissa. Bisogna abituarsi se si è nuovi al genere, ma non è assolutamente un difetto. No jumpscare, tutto passa tramite ambientazione e musiche. Menzione d'onore alla colonna sonora :superba. E infatti è composta dallo stesso musicista che compose quella di silent hill. Considerato che non è un AAA, la grafica e i dettagli sono eccellenti.. Che dite, provatelo!… Expand
  6. jyd1626
    Jun 24, 2021
    8
    Interesting game, however also kind of dissapointed with the story itself, great ending though.
  7. han4solo
    Jan 29, 2021
    6
    Boring game. Inadequate camera. Bad optimization on xbox series x - fps droping...
  8. deathstramding
    Feb 22, 2021
    0
    a stupid bug-filled production story, not interesting, although it is a special game, I had fps drops, damn you

See all 707 User Reviews

Trailers

Awards & Rankings

61
#61 Best Xbox Series X Game of 2021
4
#4 Most Discussed Xbox Series X Game of 2021

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