{"id":120497,"date":"2021-02-07T07:30:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T07:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techweekmag.com\/?p=120497"},"modified":"2021-04-08T08:02:01","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T07:02:01","slug":"the-medium-review-pc-interesting-and-mystical-detective-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/gaming\/the-medium-review-pc-interesting-and-mystical-detective-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The Medium Review (PC): Interesting and mystical detective story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bloober Team is known for their love of horror films of various kinds, and working in this genre, it is impossible to remain indifferent to the creativity of Team Silent.<\/p>\n<div id=\"g1-fluid-wrapper-counter-1\" class=\"g1-fluid-wrapper \" style=\"width:662px;\" data-g1-fluid-width=\"662\" data-g1-fluid-height=\"372\">\n<div class=\"g1-fluid-wrapper-inner\" style=\"padding-bottom:56.19335347432%;\">\n\t       <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Medium - What Does a Medium Do?\" width=\"662\" height=\"372\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r4awetYokyQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t       <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Psychologism has always prevailed in the studio&#8217;s work, and Bloober&#8217;s new project is also a tribute to the classics of interactive horror.\u00a0But it is important to immediately understand that The Medium is not &#8220;Polish Silent Hill&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The Bloober Team made a name for themselves in the gaming industry with Layers of Fear.\u00a0In 2016, creepy walking simulators were not uncommon, but many of them went out on vulgar screamers and therefore did not linger in memory.\u00a0The Poles managed to find a different approach.\u00a0Layers of Fear was not so much a story as a psychedelic experience, a nightmare where reality was questioned with every step.\u00a0For many players, the trick worked and they wanted supplements.\u00a0What a\u00a0sequel\u00a0, what a cyberpunk&gt; observer and even the recent\u00a0Blair Witch have\u00a0used similar tricks.\u00a0With The Medium, the team finally decided to change the formula, and at the same time pay tribute to the classics.<\/p>\n<p>Cloudy weather reflects the sadness in Marianne&#8217;s soul.\u00a0She will have to send her adoptive father Jack on the last journey (in the original Jacek, but for the world public they decided to change the authentic names to more familiar ones).\u00a0And then, apparently, to take on the duties of the owner of the Last Way funeral home.\u00a0The case is suitable for the heroine, because she has an exceptional gift &#8211; to see a strange\u00a0<em>other<\/em>\u00a0dimension, where restless souls and demons living in people linger.\u00a0Moreover, she has the power to help the lost creatures travel\u00a0<em>further<\/em>\u00a0.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/sm.The_Medium_Screenshot_onpage_1.800.jpg\" alt=\"Welcome, enjoy your stay!\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Welcome, enjoy your stay!<\/p>\n<p>However, her already unusual life is turned upside down by a phone call.\u00a0Someone Thomas, clearly in a panic, promises to tell Marianne the secret of her talent and the reason for the dream that she sees over and over again &#8211; a dream about a dead girl.\u00a0The answers await the heroine in the abandoned tourist complex &#8220;Niva&#8221;, where she goes without hesitation.\u00a0There she will have to face the otherworldly devilry, but still the fate of people in this story is in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>The empty hotel, built and abandoned during the country&#8217;s socialist past, fits perfectly into the melancholic atmosphere of the game.\u00a0Residents of the CIS, especially those who have found themselves in the eighties or at least nineties, the style of The Medium will surely make you remember the past (and someone will probably remind you of the present): paint in the entrance, cracked from time, wall carpets, the same herringbone parquet on the floor &#8211; these and other, so familiar in the post-Soviet space, attributes are everywhere here.<\/p>\n<p>The Medium, despite its intimacy, tries to diversify the locations.\u00a0The monument of Soviet architecture is surrounded by a dense forest, and nearby are the ruins of a military bunker.\u00a0Unlike other horror films released by the Bloober Team, this time you will have to admire the beauty through the lens of a fixed camera, and not from the first person.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/sm.The_Medium_Screenshot_onpage_2.800.jpg\" alt=\"In some places, the environment can be seen from the first person, but in this case it is impossible to move\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">In some places, the environment can be seen from the first person, but in this case it is impossible to move<\/p>\n<p>The environment in the game is made with great love.\u00a0Working with materials in less than five minutes is outstanding.\u00a0The feeling that this tile in the bathroom or lacquered wooden furniture can be touched with your own hands, they seem so real.\u00a0Bloober has always carefully approached the execution of the game world, and this time the project is still not constrained by the consoles of the bygone generation.\u00a0Although, in the end, the graphics still do not boggle the imagination &#8211; beautifully, with perfectly consistent stylistics, skillful work with light, but the notorious &#8220;nextgen&#8221; is not felt.\u00a0The lack of experience in working with human models is especially noticeable &#8211; they look weak against the background of the hotel interiors, and the clumsy animation is even more unsettling.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, the world is too static.\u00a0In the gameplay, the picture is practically motionless, apart from the heroine, and the overwhelming part of the action is taken out in the videos.\u00a0At the same time, the system requirements are high.\u00a0Fortunately, The Medium is a very unhurried game, thirty frames per second is enough in it &#8230; but still it does not leave the thought that equally beautiful, but more open and dynamic projects work faster.<\/p>\n<p>Fixed angles will cause many associations with Silent Hill &#8211; the camera work with interesting camera spans is really very reminiscent of the first parts of the cult series.\u00a0In fact, The Medium is closer to quests and adventures in the spirit of Memento Mori.\u00a0Riddles are simple and diluted with rare scenes of escape from a monster and stealth sections &#8211; for the last, developers of &#8220;walkers&#8221; in general and Bloober in particular constantly arrive, but they continue to bend their line.\u00a0Puzzles are about finding the key things, combining them and applying them in the right place.\u00a0Intuition mode highlights all active objects around Marianne, so you don&#8217;t have to hunt for pixels.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/sm.The_Medium_Screenshot_onpage_3.800.jpg\" alt=\"The only riddle in the whole game that will make you think a little\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The only riddle in the whole game that will make you think a little<\/p>\n<p>It is a pity that they practically do not throw up tasks for quick wits, even when they ask for it.\u00a0For example, in one episode, you need to figure out which of the numbered chairs an important character was sitting on (yes, this is important).\u00a0The game provides enough information to calculate it on its own, but requires that the heroine still go through a number of active points and speak out the solution herself.\u00a0The feeling that they took away a small but personal victory.<\/p>\n<p>The main feature of The Medium, around which her entire advertising campaign was built, is the very\u00a0<em>different<\/em>\u00a0world that Marianne is capable of penetrating.\u00a0It actually exists in two dimensions at the same time, and for better transmission of the effect, the developers decided to display both at once.\u00a0The screen is split into two parts, where the same actions of the heroine are demonstrated, but in different environments.<\/p>\n<p>The first times the separation looks fresh.\u00a0The videos show the same events in different realities from different angles, which creates an interesting effect.\u00a0The final episode makes good use of this find.\u00a0Only the mechanics do not need this technique directly &#8211; in the game there is simply no need to do something simultaneously in both worlds.\u00a0Find the desired object in one, apply in another, a new path opens.\u00a0Attention is constantly jumping back and forth.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/sm.The_Medium_Screenshot_onpage_4.800.jpg\" alt=\"In the other world, you can go where in reality the road is closed. But it is not recommended to share soul and body for a long\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">In the other world, you can go where in reality the road is closed.\u00a0But it is not recommended to share soul and body for a long<\/p>\n<p>The player is always focused on one part of the screen, while the other half wasted space and makes it difficult to look around.\u00a0In addition, the implementation of the two worlds greatly affects the performance &#8211; in some places the frame rate drops by half.\u00a0The authors, it seems, themselves realized the gameplay meaninglessness of the chip and at some point allowed the measurements to be alternated through special mirrors instead of simultaneously displaying them.\u00a0Whether the game was worth the candle &#8211; everyone decides for himself, but I tend to answer in the negative.<\/p>\n<p>The other world itself looks great, it is in it that the most spectacular episodes unfold &#8211; psychedelic landscapes surprise, and visual tricks deceive the eyes.\u00a0Although the madness in The Medium is definitely less than in the past works of the studio.\u00a0And the storyline is much more harmonious &#8211; for the sake of it, you want to reach the final, even if the unhurried process begins to seem boring, and the style becomes boring.<\/p>\n<p>The narrative skillfully maintains the tempo: it does not stall in place, but it does not gallop either, allowing you to gradually plunge into the atmosphere.\u00a0Each character, even of the minor ones, with whom we get to know only from notes, has a complete arch, and there are clear answers to most of the questions.\u00a0The story does not shy away from serious, adult topics that cannot afford large-budget AAA, although it concerns them superficially.\u00a0Only the ending itself causes bewilderment &#8211; it is simply cut off and actually hides the denouement with a black screen.\u00a0And the post-credits scene only hints at a sequel, but also does not give any ending.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/sm.The_Medium_Screenshot_onpage_5.800.jpg\" alt=\"The Spiritual Shield is the best defense against Infernal Moths. But to use it, you first have to find a source of spiritual energy.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The Spiritual Shield is the best defense against Infernal Moths.\u00a0But to use it, you first have to find a source of spiritual energy.<\/p>\n<p>The Medium is by far Bloober Team&#8217;s most ambitious game &#8211; both format experimentation and technical challenge.\u00a0Courage certainly commands respect.\u00a0The only pity is that the game upsets missed opportunities more often than we would like.<\/p>\n<table class=\"neat\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"light\"><strong><span>Graphics<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<td><span>The highest detailing of the environment is adjacent to the average character models (primarily in terms of animation), and the world lacks dynamics to make it feel really alive.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"light\"><strong><span>Sound<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<td><span>Veteran actors (including the ubiquitous Troy Baker) played their roles well, and the music of Arkadiusz Reikowski and legendary Akira Yamaoka perfectly complements the melancholic atmosphere.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"light\"><strong><span>Single player game<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<td><span>A quest with a fixed camera, simplified puzzles, rare action episodes and, once again, unprincipled hide and seek.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"light\"><strong><span>Collective game<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<td><span>Not provided.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"light\"><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the story is neatly told and skillfully keeps the intrigue until the finale;<\/li>\n<li>atmospheric game world, complemented by oppressive ambient;<\/li>\n<li>stunning detail of the environment, which is emphasized by a cleverly placed camera.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the potentially interesting idea of \u200b\u200btwo worlds hinders the game rather than complements it;<\/li>\n<li>the gameplay runs the risk of getting bored faster than the final credits go;<\/li>\n<li>the story ends abruptly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>The Medium is an interesting mystical detective story with a promising idea of \u200b\u200btwo worlds, which, unfortunately, did not add anything to the boring mechanics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bloober Team is known for their love of horror films of various kinds, and working in this genre, it is impossible to remain indifferent to the creativity of Team Silent. Psychologism has always prevailed in the studio&#8217;s work, and Bloober&#8217;s new project is also a tribute to the classics of interactive horror.\u00a0But it is important [&hellip;] <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/gaming\/the-medium-review-pc-interesting-and-mystical-detective-story\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10404,"featured_media":120498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[777],"tags":[778],"class_list":["post-120497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gaming","tag-reviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}