Pfft, the medium isn't even that scary

Marianne in the medium — Screenshot:: Bloober Team / Kotaku

Residue

ResidueIt’s time. Let’s dig up the games we always told ourselves we’d play and try them out.

Full disclosure: I’m a wimp. Horror games? Can’t do it. W ith a little surprise – and I say this hesitantly – after a few hours I am no longer afraid The medium

. At least not now.

The medium, developed by Bloober Team, is billed as a psychological horror game and is one of the first games you can play on Xbox Series X and S, but not on Xbox One. (It is also playable on the PC.) In Poland in the late 90s you are cast as Marianne, a medium that can communicate with the witty, if I understand the initially vague plot of the game correctly. At the beginning, Marianne receives a call from a man named Thomas who claims to be aware of her powers. Thomas instructs Marianne to go to the Niwa Worker’s Resort, a communist-era vacation cabin – in the middle of nowhere – that was abandoned after an unspecified number of guests and employees were mysteriously murdered.

Most of the “action” consists of solving environmental puzzles from the perspective of a third person with a fixed camera. But the gimmick is that Marianne can occupy both the real world and the spirit world at the same time. Solving puzzles usually means playing around with something in one area to remove an obstacle in the other.

I’m usually not a horror fan, but given the lack of games at the momentI play it through in the interest of of, “Eh, it’s on Game Pass so why not?” I know KotakuZack Zweizen wasn’t exactly a fan – he’d gotten to grips with both the slow-starting plot and uninspired puzzles its review of the game– But the dual world mechanic caught my attention and I wanted to see what is one of the first truly next-gen Xbox games could do with improved technology.

That shouldn’t be enough motivation. Really, I’m not sure it’s possible to express the level of the baby that I am. We’re talking hands over eyes, head to toe, babies jumping behind the couch. Once while visiting a cabin in the woods with a couple of friends, I spent the whole weekend on the sidelines because I had recently seen it Cottage in the forest. Just last week, Capcom announced a number of them resident Evil in a 20 minute digital showcase, and I refused to see a single second – even though this is literally my job – because I’m a baby. (Do not worry, Ian had it covered.) Did I tell you how I feel about spiders?

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And yet after an hour or two The medium Didn’t make me jump out of my seat a single time. There is no shortage of disturbing images. An early scene shows a guy who is exactly 33 percent missing his skull. Another lets you drain a bathtub full of blood. (Eek.) In several places you have to whip out a razor and cut disembodied skin through a portière. Creepy stuff, but on the whole, The medium is free from the fear of jumping and cheap tricks that so often define games (and film and television) in the wide world of horror.

Even the way you move The medium is not scary. They never wait for a walking nightmare to pop out of a corner and pulverize you. (I was told that chases exist, but that they are of relatively low intensity.) Most puzzles involve backtracking (so much backtracking) and interacting with inanimate objects. Marianne also moves icily. You don’t even learn how to run at the beginning – and when you eventually do, it’s still more of a light jog. If it weren’t for the aforementioned skin walls and blood pans, you know? The medium could reasonably be called a “chill” game.

It’s nice, almost comfortable, to play a horror game and not have to worry about pissing your pants all the time. The puzzles aren’t dull, but they’re still exciting and I’m fascinated by Marianne’s story. At the end of the day, I look forward to seeing more of what The medium ha- OH MOTHER OF FUCK WHAT’S THE?!