The good atmosphere with "The Medium" exclusively on Xbox Series X / S -
Bloober Team
The exclusive "The Medium" is available since Thursday on Xbox Series X / S and included in Xbox Game Pass.
This is the new horror game from Polish studio Bloober Team after
Layers of Fear
and the adaptation of
Blair Witch.
The game draws its inspiration from
survival horror
of the 2000s and more particularly from
Silent Hill
, from which it borrows composer Akira Yamaoka.
Video games, the ideal playground for horror?
The success of the various remakes and sequels of
Resident Evil
tends to prove it, not to mention the new experiments of its creator Shinji Mikami with
The Evil Within
and other long-term licenses (
The Dark Pictures, Amnesia, The Walking Dead
).
Finally, the only thing missing is Silent Hill, the other cult horror game, which has not given any news since the abandoned project Silent Hills in 2015. This void, the Polish studio and genre specialist Bloober Team (
Layers of Fear, Blair Witch
), intends to fill it with
The Medium
, the first Xbox Seris X / S exclusive.
The golden age of "survival horror"
The medium of the title is Marianne, a young woman who has the power to see spirits and help them find peace.
Following the death of her adoptive father, she receives a mysterious phone call and soon finds herself in an abandoned hotel complex in the former Soviet Union, the scene of a massacre and perhaps the key to her past.
With its different levels of space-time and perception,
The Medium
evokes the golden age of
survival horror
of the 2000s, from
Forbidden Siren
to
Project Zero
and of course
Silent Hill
, from which it goes so far as to borrow, for his music, composer Akira Yamaoka.
The title therefore favors the atmosphere and the psychology to the action and the tension of a
Resident Evil
, with an exemplary artistic direction, beautiful and desperate, failing to shout “next gen”.
Two realities, two screens
If the game has the airs of a DONTNOD-style narrative adventure, or even an interactive film, its originality comes from its gameplay, and from this double reality, between the world of the living and that of the dead, literally represented on the screen by a
split-screen
dear to Brian De Palma and…
Mario Kart
.
Marianne's actions in one reality will have consequences in the other, it is even the spring of the majority of the enigmas.
Unfortunately, the concept is not fully exploited, not like
game director
Josef Fares was able to do with the unique game mechanics and experiences of
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
and
A Way Out
.
The Medium
turns out to be quite classic, even interventionist, but no less captivating.
It's just that it carries the hefty label of first excluded
next gen
Xbox.
Let's say instead that it is available for free with Xbox Game Pass.
Culture
VIDEO.
"Resident Evil 2": Is a video game remake like a movie remake?
Television
"The Evil Within 2": Can a Video Game Really Scare the Worlds?
Horror
Xbox
Video games
Culture