Hello friends and gamers,
I only have my wife to blame for this expedition. There I was, debating between two video games I haven’t started yet. Should I play Fights in Tight Spaces or 9 Monkeys of Shaolin? You know, instead of picking A or B, my wife decided there was an option C. “Oh, what about The Medium, right there? You have it installed. The cover looks cool.” I’m like aight I’ll do it. I actually recorded the first 2 hours of gameplay for The Medium. What I did wrong, however, is I did not realize the audio was not recording. On the bright side, at least I’ll have some high-quality screenshots for you! Let’s talk about The Medium and how I feel after 2 hours of gameplay.
Brief Description
“The Medium is a third-person psychological horror game that features an innovative dual-reality gameplay, a unique art style inspired by painter Zdzisław Beksiński, and an original soundtrack co-composed by Arkadiusz Reikowski and Akira Yamaoka.” Point-and-click is probably the best way to describe the gameplay style. Comparatively, the atmosphere feels like The Evil Within and Silent Hill, but not as haunting? There are definitely some freaky things going on, but nothing too scary so far. We play as Marianne who basically lives in two worlds—reality for one, and a place similar to limbo (between life and death) for the other. She uses her powers in limbo to guide souls to the afterlife.
First Hour — Spoilers Ahead
Honestly, though, The Medium has been fun, in a way. Marianne’s foster father, Jack, is a funeral director who has recently passed away. Her goal is to help him pass on in the afterlife—both literally and metaphorically. She also has a cat that walks around the apartment upstairs from the funeral home. Being nitpicky here, but I was able to feed the cat… But I couldn’t PET the CAT?! Why?? Everyone knows if you have an animal in a game, we should be allowed to pet it. Okay, moving on. After Jack is successfully guided to the afterlife, Marianne receives a call from someone named Thomas. He strangely knows a lot about her and tells her to meet him at Niwa Resort.
Sadness
There are not many characters in The Medium. We got Marianne, the main character. Jack, dead foster father. Thomas, unknown random dude. And then we meet Sadness. Sadness is a little girl in limbo who died at the resort a long time ago and she is missing an entire arm. She calls herself Sadness because she doesn’t remember her name, just how she feels. Although the name is sad, the girl is quite cheerful and enjoys playing, as any child would. Marianne asked her if she knew Thomas. Sadness told us that name sounds familiar and to check the second floor.
Out Of Body Experience
The first jump scare happened a little over an hour into The Medium. I was super comfortable at this point. No fear of scare tactics from the developers. Like, the developers really haven’t pulled out any true scary stuff for over an hour. That’s strange, right? We should be fine. Right…? Oh my god, how I was so foolish!
Playing as Marianne, I initiated an out-of-body experience. This is an ability that allows us to only control the limbo counterpart to complete in-game puzzles. Staying too long in limbo, however, would cast us into darkness and we would not be able to find our way back to the reality version of Marianne. Short description—game over.
A Big Scare — Gore Warning!
As I peered through a large hole in the wall, there was a bathtub filled with blood. Then the sound of liquid draining occurs. The blood started to seep out from the tub and onto the ground. Since the blood traveled downward, I instinctively wanted to track it. So, I looked down. Without any warning, a blob of skin rose up with his eyeballs and head directly in my face!
When I tell you I had an out-of-body experience myself, I’m not even joking! With great repentance, I screamed, “Oh, f%$^!” My wife was supposed to be watching me play, and she was not even paying attention lol. She’s all good, chilling, and relaxing. Here I am, my heart beating 20x faster than usual! She’s like why are you screaming? Like OMG you didn’t just see that?! I was dying right next to you lmao
Second Hour
The second hour was mainly solving more horror puzzles. I also learned a new ability in The Medium which shrouded Marianne in a shield. This shield protects her from killer moths that are too eager to feast on flesh. After exploring the second floor, I ended up at the manager’s office. There was a plaque on the door that read “Thomas Rekowicz.” Sadness appears and there is a short conversation between her and Marianne. Entering the office introduced another puzzle that involved time manipulation with a grandfather clock.
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Last Moment
My final moment of the day was developing a picture in a photography room. The picture was of Marianne, and the projector in the room started to flicker through many portraits of herself. All of the sudden, Marianne is only in limbo, and a creepy winged creature is trying to kill us. Oh, what a beautiful time! The developers are so wrong here because they also deliberately have the creature catch you the first time. Unless you somehow knew to stick to the left side during a particular moment of the chase. Alas, it was pretty thrilling to be caught and choked out. I managed to escape the second time.
Yes, I believe after 2 hours, this called for a much-needed break. I feel pretty good about The Medium. It’s similar to other psychological thrillers but just different enough to keep me entertained. Thanks for tuning in and I hope I’ll have a chance to share what happens next real soon!
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