Finally out for the PlayStation 5, The Medium is a third-person horror game developed by Bloober Team, the studio behind the Blair Witch and Layers of Fear series, and is heavily inspired by horror titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

Set in Poland during the late 90s, you play as Marianne, a young woman who is a medium that can see and interact with dead people. Now, when I say interact, I mean just that. Marianne can actually travel to the other side, even be in both the real world and the spirit work at the same time. This mechanic is a major part of the game and is achieved by splitting the screen into two parts.

Now, before I move on, I should note The Medium is only playable on the next-gen consoles (Xbox Series X|S, Playstation 5 & PC). Once you see the split-screen in action, it kind of makes sense as it looks to be rendering two different game worlds at the very same time. It’s mind-blowing the first time you see it in action, and now The Medium gets to make use of the Playstation 5’s DualSense controller, which we’ll touch on soon.

The game starts off with Marianne helping her late father pass over. She then gets a mysterious call from someone at Niwa, an abandoned holiday lodge. After arriving at the Niwa, Marianne soon realises that the Niwa is hiding some very dark secrets. You soon meet a little dead girl that goes by the name of “Sadness” which guides you around the holiday lodge, but things soon take a turn for the worst as you start to come across some very nasty spirits.

As you play and investigate, you’ll come across plenty of items such as teddy bears, phones (echos), and notes, all of which can be interacted with that provide plenty of information and insight as to what happened as well as the residents who stayed within the hotel.

Using Marianne’s ability to cross over, you’ll need to switch from the real world to the spirit world to enter hidden areas to continue or find objects. Some paths will be blocked in one world stopping you from moving forward in the other world, and Marianne is also able to leave her body entirely for a short amount of time. This is where puzzle solving comes into play.

Now, as for puzzles, just like in the Resident Evil games, The Medium, comes jam-packed with multiple puzzles that will require you to think outside the box. These can include finding shards of glass to fix a broken mirror to pass through, using a clock to turn back time in the spirit world reveling something important, or just simply remembering a sequence of numbers to gain entry to a locked room. There are enough puzzles in The Medium to keep your brain ticking to the very end.

As mentioned earlier, you now have the ability to take full advantage of Playstations 5’s DualSense controller and I must say, the haptic feedback does an amazing job at immersing you in the game. From all the little things I never noticed when I played on the Xbox Series X, such as feeling the different terrains as you run or walk around, to some more noticeable occasions such as when you use your Spirit Shield moving through the moth’s, you feel every flutter of their wings. Even during the out-of-body experience section, the controller will rumble, and becoming more frequent as you’re about to die.

The same goes for the adaptive triggers. During say the sections you are using your Spirit Shield, resistance in the trigger will build as you charge it, then backs off as you let go. I know some might not care for these things, but it really does immerse you that little bit more into an already immersive game.

Bloober Team has outdone themselves with The Medium. While it may not have all the huge jump scares some might expect, personally it’s one of the best horror games I’ve played in a while with its interesting story, puzzles to solve and the ability to play between two worlds, at the same time was amazing. If all that sounds great to you, I highly recommend playing The Medium.

Written by: MKAU Gaming