I remember the phrase: “Nobody reached the top with fear.” I always kept these words in mind, I don’t know who said them, but today they come in handy to give them an idea of Team Bloober; Because this Polish studio reached its climax with fear and above all making excellent use of it. We analyze the median.
Fear, horror, and even fear. These are the terms we usually use when referring to one of the types of video games that make best use of player interaction and player taking on a role. Do you Auspicious dates For this genre, with a good example of titles with good reviews and many other titles expected with future predictions such as Resident Evil Village or the game that interests us today: The Medium.
We are facing an act that does not pursue easy fear, and it will not make you jump out of your seat, its goal is not even to make you feel disgusted or exhausted in a display of bloody persecution and greed. Mediator is Psychological excitement Speaking of the human condition, it is an expression of horror by looking at ourselves in the mirror, recognizing the darkest feelings that inhabit us, and at the same time, fighting it, in the case of Marianne, the heroine of the game, do it against your past as well.
Team Bloober With The Medium, he wanted to create more affordable business for the majority of users than testifies to his recent past. Those of us who know his work on Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2 know that the studio does not lack the courage to leave a player with two feet of noses if needed when writing parts of his story. This does not mean that we are faced with less risky work, in fact, we must appreciate a studio’s ability when it comes to telling something in a coherent manner. One of The Medium’s greatest successes when it comes to structuring is the balancing act of gameplay that pulled Team Bloober out of “comfortable.” Walking simulator And at the same time, maintain Excellent tension in your novel.
Medium horror keeps you glued to the drive
Because in the end his story is everything, he’s the engine that drives the whole action, but he’s well-accompanied in almost every moment with a very innovative proof-of-concept game: Hopping Of premium aircraft. It’s true that this isn’t the first video game to take our character into two realities from the same scenario, look at the lesser-known example of Shadows Awakening, but the proposal goes a step further by presenting these two to one-third of the experience simultaneously.
By observing the physical and spiritual level at the same time thanks to us Medium powersA wide range of puzzle-solving possibilities are opened to the player. Marianne can use her perception to highlight certain elements on the screen as well as targets, use her spiritual explosion to activate a zone on both planes, create a shield to protect it from threats, find memories hidden in objects that reveal her past, and give up his physical body to only walk on a spiritual level thanks to An out-of-body experience, Which allows you to access previously inaccessible points from the real world. These, in general, are the abilities that a player must advance in the game.
Despite what it might seem, these tools focus more on exploring and solving puzzles Not too complicated This is for work. The truth is, the program contains some very specific segments in which we are persecuted by the malicious presence that constitutes the most tense moment in the experience; Escape or the use of stealth are the weapons that we possess, almost exclusively, to get away from our pursuer in a proposal that has a certain atmosphere of adventure pictured from the beginning of the century.
Horror game with a semi-fixed camera
Inventory helps create that feeling, and in it we will keep some elements for use during progression so that we will be able, in roughly residual fashion, to combine them with each other to take the next step in the story. However, this flavor of references to the genre like Silent Hill has more to do with choosing to use a semi-fixed camera throughout the adventure. Plane changes are introduced by the game itself, perfectly knowing how to choose when moving focus to highlight the true protagonist of The Medium: Their scenarios. This is the reason the study uses to implement this suggestion, leaving in the background references to past games and clarifying this, in moments when the title is committed to placing its two facts on the screen at the same time, some users may suffer from dizziness when using the free camera.
Whatever the case, this is the first title in which Bloober Team leaves the camera in first person and enters the terrain from which they are exiting with some “reservations”. As I say, it’s in the scenarios where The Medium is doing a major composition exercise, using a great image at all times. The filthy and desolate world that represents the spiritual level of the Niwa Hotel and its surroundings is inspired by the work of the Polish artist Zdzislaw Bixinsky The essence of his work has been captured perfectly. However, in the animation of the main character, the studio’s lack of experience in these conflicts becomes apparent, being clumsy in movement and less noticeable as he moves away from the camera, getting smaller. Also, the game allows us to run in the exploration sections, which is something that translates into a kind of jog that does not benefit the protagonist at all. The moderator can be blamed for not exploring further possibilities, but I think the decision to stick to the same idea and develop it throughout the experience benefits it, especially given that Duration is about 10 hours.
All in all, The Medium invites gamer to Know every corner We visit in either of the two planes. It is not difficult to follow the work of both, the title knows how to highlight the most important ones with the sections of the screen where a greater relevance is given to one or the other in compositions consisting of one-third or two-thirds. Sometimes, we can choose who to focus on and this requires that we pay attention to everything around us. While the bulk of the narration rests firmly on Cinematic scenes worked It is imperative to collect as many texts, objects, and memories that dot each level to get a better idea of what we are told. This narrative is what prompts us to continue, but it will not succeed as it would if it does not have such a suitable design for its scenarios that integrate its puzzles perfectly, creating a unit based on three elements: puzzle, narration and scenarios.
He doesn’t chase easy horror and doesn’t pull you out of the chairIt is not easy to sympathize with this medium, her circumstances and abilities prevent her from being a regular person and it seems that the team Bloober was very aware of this, to equip Marian Specific personality I have chosen to use monologues where our heroine shows the most human character who, unlike the rest of the game, makes me smile. At the end of the day, this is studio work where the lesser gamer is engaged in adventure and I think it’s important to know how to capture sympathy to give their narration. Maximum accuracy From all the power you need.
The thing I really liked is that The Medium is about it Create the most immersive experience possible, So it gets rid of any interface on the screen. There is Marianne’s energy meter on her arm, reminiscent of Isaac Clark’s health tape on the back of her suit in Dead Space. Additionally, we don’t have any kind of miniature maps available, and while they’re not really necessary, you can find different plans for their scenarios that offer approx for configuring each level and putting us into it.
Music by Akira Yamaoka, Silent Hill composer
The average invites the player to discover every angle in either of the two planesTo all this we must add a very high volume. One of the game’s biggest claims was a collaboration with Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill, Snatcher) to compose soundtrack themes related to the spiritual realm; The result is Gorgeous, But there’s nothing to envy the work by Arcadius Rykovsky for melodies that accompany the real shot. Both have indescribable strength, and are able to evoke the player’s most primitive emotions that fit neatly into the emotions that The Medium convey at all times. Their audio themes stand out too, some are discreet, so we must pay special attention to each corner if we don’t want to miss these and other collectibles. The title comes with sounds in both English and Spanish translation Highlighting Troy Baker’s always outstanding performance as The Maw and Kelly Burke as Marianne. A special mention here is to Mary Elizabeth McGlynn’s collaboration of singer melodies that are already on my list of the best original video game soundtracks.
I analyzed The Medium on a high-end computer where Looks greatYes, I haven’t yet been able to try one of the great launch incentives on both this platform and the Xbox series, which is the use of ray tracing. This will be integrated into the game at the time of its launch through Nvidia’s proprietary drivers, something that will only add to the really impressive graphic result that is characterized by good use of lighting and its fine textures, so that it can be implemented at the highest resolution with a performance of 60 frames per second completely stable on the screen. I did notice a slight decrease at specific times, although it’s just stories. The only camouflage in this section occurs in the final third of the game as transitions from the game to the cinema happen suddenly at times, which I understand can be refined at launch.
