The Medium review friv game - Not at all scary, but very interesting
The session of spiritualism was successful: we immersed into the story of the new project from Polish Friv2Online Studio for seven hours, and, having surfaced into the real world, we are ready to share our impressions. All the details of The Medium thriller are in our review.
As far as The Medium is concerned, expectations were cautious. On the one hand, the track record of the friv game makers includes successful Layers of Fear and Observer. On the other hand, Layers of Fear 2 and Blair Witch were much less enthusiastically received.
Hope for the best was inspired by composer Akira Yamaoka, who previously worked on the Silent Hill series, Troy Baker in the cast list, as well as the status of one of the key exclusives for the Xbox Series X | S. Well, we can say that the expectations were rather met than not, although it's still not possible to compare The Medium with the cult games of the horror genre.
So, in the main role is a girl-medium Marianne: she is able to move between the world of the living and the realm of spirits and sometimes acts as a guide for lost souls. Marianne is an orphan with no memory of her family. One day she receives a call from a certain Thomas: he informs that the girl must go to the abandoned hotel "Niva", where she will learn the secret of her origin and supernatural forces. Gathering on the road, the heroine does not even suspect what trials await her ahead.
The inn has been abandoned by the people for a reason: a few years ago, a terrible event took place here, which was called "Massacre in 'Niva'". On the spot, it turns out that the monster responsible for the mass murder is still roaming the dilapidated building: its name is Jaws, and it's hungry. Marianne, with her powers, is a tidbit for Jaws, and with her help the monster intends to escape from the netherworld into reality. However, there will be those who want to help the girl - for example, the spirit of the one-armed girl: he can't remember his name, calls himself Sadness and gives hints for further actions.
This is interesting: some locations of The Medium are borrowed from the real world. For example, Niva was inspired by Hotel Krakowia, and the house where Marianne lives is copied from a building in Krakow; it also appeared in Observer: System Redux.
The further Marianne progresses, the more she learns about the fates of the people who once lived in Niva and, more importantly, about her own past. The screenwriters have written an interesting plot; despite the very slow development, it is captivating and engrossing, not causing the desire to skip the cutscenes or stick to your smartphone during dialogues.
The developers have tied into one whole the post-war history of Poland (not forgetting to take a couple of jabs at the USSR), a family drama and a horror about the supernatural. Sometimes the narrative is lame, some questions remain unanswered, and most of all I would like to criticize the ending: I won't spoiler, but the developers didn't manage to finish the adventure with dignity, leaving the key scene of the finale out of the picture.
Well, much more ambitious projects have sinned in this way. Nevertheless, a small residue remains. Besides, there is one more drawback of The Medium's plot - it is not frightening. Yes, the story is entertaining, and the monster design is impressive, but there are no really scary episodes, such that they stick in your memory and give you goosebumps.
Silent Hill had creepy creatures that made you cringe with their unnatural appearance; Resident Evil had realistic zombies and almost invincible bosses; Layers of Fear made you jump in surprise with a sudden change of environment or a screecher. Even Blair Witch had an expectation of the unknown lurking in the night forest.
The Medium is somehow not like that. Incredibly atmospheric (arriving in "Niva" caused me associations with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Chernobylite), but not scary. There are no scrimmers, there are almost no frightening images, and Jaws is incredibly stupid: in those scenes where Marianne has to hide from the monster, there is no challenge - you can bypass it with your eyes closed, and stealth episodes take a couple of minutes at most. Very quickly you understand the patterns of Pasty's behavior, and you strive to cross that trigger that will end the pursuit as soon as possible.
Perhaps we should have made the monster something like Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 - an unstoppable stalker that is always around, not allowing you to relax. Although I don't like immortal enemies, but such a decision would have definitely made the gameplay more tense.
On the other hand, this approach would work for a project with large branching locations, like the police station in the aforementioned RE2. In The Medium, the whole journey is a linear movement from one key point to another. In essence, we are faced with a walking simulator, without battles, with rare puzzles, focused on narrative, not gameplay.
If, again, you think back to the Silent Hill games, there's equal parts exploration, puzzles, and combat. "Medium" completely excludes the third, and exploring the environment and solving tasks can not be called a full-fledged gameplay mechanics. Locations are quite compact, you can't get lost in them. Where in Silent Hill there was a three-story hospital, where you had to navigate with the help of a map, in The Medium there are two or three rooms and a corridor. Notes and quest items lie in prominent places, puzzles are primitive, and points of interest are carefully highlighted at the press of a button.
But the friv game boasts an interesting realization of dual reality. Periodically the picture splits, and Marianne finds herself in two worlds - the real and the otherworldly - at the same time. And because of this feature, the developers had to refuse the release of the game on Xbox One, and for the PC to raise the system requirements: the game displays two versions of the location, in which the heroine performs different tasks. For example, she activates an energy source in one to start a generator in the other, or slowly advances, covered by an energy shield from a swarm of moths, while in the other reality she just walks down the corridor.
Sometimes Marianne can "go out of her mind" - leave her body and travel through the ghostly reality to, for example, find a switch or some other key object where she can't reach in her world. The girl's body in the present remains defenseless, but there is no need to worry - apart from a single episode, there is no danger to it, so you can freely explore the parallel reality.
The otherworld looks beautiful. The rusty-orange hues and unnatural growths make it feel alien, even hostile. The walls seem to grow flesh, and dead hands hang from the ceiling. Here you can draw ghostly energy - it will be useful for activating generators and protection from the Jaws; here you can find scraps of memories, which Marianna reproduces with the help of her abilities; and sometimes the girl has to help the spirits left in the hotel to rest - for this you need to find a special mask and learn the name of the poor man.
It's not only the parallel world that is beautiful, but the real world as well. I was not always able to understand where the cut-scene ends and the gameplay begins. The architecture of the buildings attracts the eye with brutalist aesthetics, and the interiors are filled with details. And the forest... in Blair Witch the Friv2Online Studio showed that they can make stunning forest scenery, but here they have surpassed themselves. It's just a pity that you can't get lost among the trees: the story leads you along the beaten path, not letting you turn off the path. However, when such an environment becomes a part of open-world friv games, we will be able to say with certainty that nextgen has already come.
The only thing that spoils the visuals is the poor animation, because of which the model of the main character looks unnatural in photorealistic locations. Not everyone will like the fixed camera, although in my opinion it serves as a kind of an homage to classic horror games and does not interfere with the gameplay. In addition, owners of non-top-end PCs should be prepared for periodic fps drops: in episodes with split reality the frame rate per second drops by half.
To create the musical accompaniment the developers have attracted Akira Yamaoka, who worked on the soundtrack of the friv game together with composer Arkadiusz Rejkowski. The influence of the creator of the music for Silent Hill is clearly visible in the compositions, and it is even more emphasized when the vocals of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, also known for the music for some issues of SH, come into play. The sound in the game is fine, and if you play with good headphones, the immersion will be one hundred percent.
Due to the linear structure of the narrative, low complexity of gameplay and puzzles, The Medium cannot compete with the best horror games. On the other hand, the project is very atmospheric, beautiful and addictive. It's a good walking simulator, but don't expect anything more from it.
The Medium is available for free to Xbox Game Pass subscribers on MS and Xbox Series X | S.