it gets one star for the amazing beksiński visuals otherwise i have nothing good to say about this game
(Played before 2023)
This is a really pretty game with a really fun mechanic, but that is all there is. Essentially no real gameplay, no interesting exploration, you just walk through a cool environment and do some puzzles that are basically just (go into spirit mode). You run into the monster and can die in only like, five parts of the game which really brought it down especially since those encounters aren’t actually dynamic encounters. You just move when the game makes it clear that you are supposed to.
This is a really pretty game with a really fun mechanic, but that is all there is. Essentially no real gameplay, no interesting exploration, you just walk through a cool environment and do some puzzles that are basically just (go into spirit mode). You run into the monster and can die in only like, five parts of the game which really brought it down especially since those encounters aren’t actually dynamic encounters. You just move when the game makes it clear that you are supposed to.
The Midium
In preparation for Silent Hill 2 Remake. I’m here to explain the merits of this game and why this game proves Silent Hill 2 Remake could end up surpassing the perfect masterpiece of the original. Here’s why.
Visuals. That’s why, the visual concepts in this game are astounding and are heaps in potential. As well as the execution of said supernatural concept. The world and visuals are brimming with horrific imagination.
So what’s the problem here? Everything else. The character, plot, gameplay all lack substance or intrigue. Or anything tbh. It’s just a nothing sandwich. It’s not garbage but it’s not average either. It’s bad. So what’s carrying it is the world conceptualization and the visuals executed in said world.
Which brings me to my point. These guys are the PERFECT guys for the remake. Because they don’t have to rely their own shit. All they gotta do is use their exceptional visual and world talents and take the basis of Silent Hill 2 and adapt it to that.
And all the character, story and writing work in general is already taken care of. And since they’re working alongside Konami. Just like in RE4 Remake which is better than the original, they can get help on making colorful and substantive additions to the characters and story like in dialogue or plot to make it fresh and better.
So yea in conclusion, they excel in one aspect and are good if given the meat of a work. I have no doubt Silent Hill 2 remake will be perfect and pass the original, MARK MY WORDS.
Visuals. That’s why, the visual concepts in this game are astounding and are heaps in potential. As well as the execution of said supernatural concept. The world and visuals are brimming with horrific imagination.
So what’s the problem here? Everything else. The character, plot, gameplay all lack substance or intrigue. Or anything tbh. It’s just a nothing sandwich. It’s not garbage but it’s not average either. It’s bad. So what’s carrying it is the world conceptualization and the visuals executed in said world.
Which brings me to my point. These guys are the PERFECT guys for the remake. Because they don’t have to rely their own shit. All they gotta do is use their exceptional visual and world talents and take the basis of Silent Hill 2 and adapt it to that.
And all the character, story and writing work in general is already taken care of. And since they’re working alongside Konami. Just like in RE4 Remake which is better than the original, they can get help on making colorful and substantive additions to the characters and story like in dialogue or plot to make it fresh and better.
So yea in conclusion, they excel in one aspect and are good if given the meat of a work. I have no doubt Silent Hill 2 remake will be perfect and pass the original, MARK MY WORDS.
They really trusted these hacks with Silent Hill 2 it's so over.
- Mom, let's buy Silent Hill
- We have Silent Hill at home
- We have Silent Hill at home
A gameplay se salva mas a história...
a very mid game, earns it's score due to the story and little else. after playing this game i struggle to understand why so many are looking forward to the SH2 remake, considering it's being helmed by bloober team. the one saving grace is that it's a game that already exists; not many ways they can screw up its release... hopefully.
This review contains spoilers
The medium is a great horror walking sim that mixes up the gameplay with puzzles, stealth, exploration and chase sequences.
While the exploration part is the most enjoyable, especially with the main mechanic allowing you to explore both the physical and spirit world at once, it is great that the game mixes it up a bit sometimes. The visuals are great, and exploring the haunted resort is incredibly tense.
The voice acting, and especially visuals inspired by Beksiński's gorgeous art is absolutely fantastic. The story is interesting throughout, and generally the game gives you just enough information about characters, events and stories to keep you intrigued through the whole game. You always have a sense of "I wonder what will happen next".
While the game does make it to the finishline, it very much stumbles its way there. The further into the game you make it, and the more characters and threads are introduced, the more clear it becomes that the game is not prepared to answer all the questions it brings forward.
- Everything we play through did not need to happen. Seriously. If the demon can only survive if it catches a strong enough medium, why would you invite the strong medium? The creature would just die given enough time, and the story would conclude.
- How come Sadness, the child part of Lili can be outside of her body, when it is established earlier that bodies do not work without their child version? Is it because Sadness didn't "move on"?
- If Lili has to die before the demon can be hurt, why can't she just use the gun herself? "The Demon won't allow it" she says, but the demon never controlled her body, and she is allowed to carry a gun so she can give it to someone else who would presumably shoot her. The monster is also not by her side most of the time, so there would be plenty of chances for Lili to solve the issue herself. If not Lili, then why not Thomas?
- There is one sequence in the game where you find Jack's (the person who died in the beginning of the game) tie and pin in the physical world. The monster also teases you saying that Jack was sent to them. You can also hear Jack speak, and even see his spirit. While clearly a fakeout, this implies someone went to the funeral home, got his belonging, and drove back to the resort with them. They would also have to know his voice, and what he looked like. This frankly makes no sense. You find a picture of Jack and yourself, where Jack fades out as you look at it. Who would do it? Even if Jack's spirit is sent there, how would the demon know to find Jack's tie and clip when the demon cannot see the physical world? Do you not really make the spirits move on? Have you been sending countless spirits there throughout your life? What about the spirits you help move on that are already in the resort? Why would they thank you if you just send them to a different part of the resort? The demon is likely lying, and you are actually helping them move on, but if that is the case, how would the demon know Jack?
-The agent that tortures Thomas' spirit version also has a demon. This demon escapes into the normal spirit world after the agent dies during the house fire. How come Thomas' spirit is still trapped? Trapped inside the demon? Wouldn't Thomas' spirit be able to banish the demon after the host dies? Also, how come the agent with seemingly no supernatural powers was prepared to trap Thomas in his mind?
The game also brings up some heavy themes. While I think telling stories about heavy themes like children being molested is incredibly important, I question if this is the right way to do it.
We all have our demons, and our demons can make us do horrible things. Victims of abuse are more likely to become abusers in the future, and this is really the story this game is telling.
However, I can't help but be critical of the way the abusers are portrayed. After the child molester is discovered, you go into his mind and live through his traumatic events. You then find a child version of the molester, scared and innocent. You delete this part of them. It is a great contrast to the adult person, ready to molest a child. However, I do not get the purpose of this. You don't delete the evil part of them, the shame and regret, you delete the innocent child version that suffered in the past. Doing this gives the person brain damage and they can no longer move.
The same goes for Lili. She is abused, and her demons break free, killing everyone. The abused becomes the abuser once more, and the only solution to fix this is to shoot her in the head so her demons can't hurt anybody else? This strikes me as odd. The horror setting of the game may not allow for a happy ending, but surely there is a better way to approach this.
In conclusion, The Medium is a good game, filled with great voice acting, gorgeous visuals, a unique split-world mechanic that is a joy to explore, and a story that is great at building intrigue and mystery, but kind of falls flat near the end.
While the exploration part is the most enjoyable, especially with the main mechanic allowing you to explore both the physical and spirit world at once, it is great that the game mixes it up a bit sometimes. The visuals are great, and exploring the haunted resort is incredibly tense.
The voice acting, and especially visuals inspired by Beksiński's gorgeous art is absolutely fantastic. The story is interesting throughout, and generally the game gives you just enough information about characters, events and stories to keep you intrigued through the whole game. You always have a sense of "I wonder what will happen next".
While the game does make it to the finishline, it very much stumbles its way there. The further into the game you make it, and the more characters and threads are introduced, the more clear it becomes that the game is not prepared to answer all the questions it brings forward.
- Everything we play through did not need to happen. Seriously. If the demon can only survive if it catches a strong enough medium, why would you invite the strong medium? The creature would just die given enough time, and the story would conclude.
- How come Sadness, the child part of Lili can be outside of her body, when it is established earlier that bodies do not work without their child version? Is it because Sadness didn't "move on"?
- If Lili has to die before the demon can be hurt, why can't she just use the gun herself? "The Demon won't allow it" she says, but the demon never controlled her body, and she is allowed to carry a gun so she can give it to someone else who would presumably shoot her. The monster is also not by her side most of the time, so there would be plenty of chances for Lili to solve the issue herself. If not Lili, then why not Thomas?
- There is one sequence in the game where you find Jack's (the person who died in the beginning of the game) tie and pin in the physical world. The monster also teases you saying that Jack was sent to them. You can also hear Jack speak, and even see his spirit. While clearly a fakeout, this implies someone went to the funeral home, got his belonging, and drove back to the resort with them. They would also have to know his voice, and what he looked like. This frankly makes no sense. You find a picture of Jack and yourself, where Jack fades out as you look at it. Who would do it? Even if Jack's spirit is sent there, how would the demon know to find Jack's tie and clip when the demon cannot see the physical world? Do you not really make the spirits move on? Have you been sending countless spirits there throughout your life? What about the spirits you help move on that are already in the resort? Why would they thank you if you just send them to a different part of the resort? The demon is likely lying, and you are actually helping them move on, but if that is the case, how would the demon know Jack?
-The agent that tortures Thomas' spirit version also has a demon. This demon escapes into the normal spirit world after the agent dies during the house fire. How come Thomas' spirit is still trapped? Trapped inside the demon? Wouldn't Thomas' spirit be able to banish the demon after the host dies? Also, how come the agent with seemingly no supernatural powers was prepared to trap Thomas in his mind?
The game also brings up some heavy themes. While I think telling stories about heavy themes like children being molested is incredibly important, I question if this is the right way to do it.
We all have our demons, and our demons can make us do horrible things. Victims of abuse are more likely to become abusers in the future, and this is really the story this game is telling.
However, I can't help but be critical of the way the abusers are portrayed. After the child molester is discovered, you go into his mind and live through his traumatic events. You then find a child version of the molester, scared and innocent. You delete this part of them. It is a great contrast to the adult person, ready to molest a child. However, I do not get the purpose of this. You don't delete the evil part of them, the shame and regret, you delete the innocent child version that suffered in the past. Doing this gives the person brain damage and they can no longer move.
The same goes for Lili. She is abused, and her demons break free, killing everyone. The abused becomes the abuser once more, and the only solution to fix this is to shoot her in the head so her demons can't hurt anybody else? This strikes me as odd. The horror setting of the game may not allow for a happy ending, but surely there is a better way to approach this.
In conclusion, The Medium is a good game, filled with great voice acting, gorgeous visuals, a unique split-world mechanic that is a joy to explore, and a story that is great at building intrigue and mystery, but kind of falls flat near the end.
Duże zaskoczenie. Fabularnie bardzo angażująca historia + wspaniały design lokacji zwłaszcza z pierwszej połowy gry. Troy Baker jako Paszcza rewelacyjny.
The medium may has some good Ideas but it stumbles due to It's mediocre story and lackluster gameplay
zzZZzz.... agora entendi o nome do jogo, realmente é bem mediano mesmo
Short but haunting story. It has some dragging moments and perhaps Team Bloober did not go far enough with the mechanics of the dual world, but I still enjoyed my time in this game.
Akira Yamaoka's work on this soundtrack is up to their usual par, and the ending credit song is one I think I'll be listening to on my commute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjrl1XpUxY0
Akira Yamaoka's work on this soundtrack is up to their usual par, and the ending credit song is one I think I'll be listening to on my commute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjrl1XpUxY0
A rollercoaster of opinion on this one. Puzzles are good, sometimes the story is also okay but the game is so slow, choppy at times and uninteresting. Felt like it was dragged out and that was a hassle at times. Felt like an unfinished school project...
It's really hard to review this game. I'm just going to review it as a game and not as a story. Just know the story is very controversial. If you want a review of that, it's pretty easy to find reviews that cover it. In fact, that's the aspect most people talk about.
The game is gorgeous. The music is really good. The atmosphere is top notch. The acting is really good. That's the good.
Now for the bad. It's not quite a walking simulator and it's not quite a survival horror. The gameplay ranges from passable to inadequate. There's stealth, puzzles, and combat (if you can even call it combat). These are all very basic and you can sleep walk through most the game.
All in all, I feel the good and bad kind of balance each other out and it makes the experience aggressively average. It's also not scary in the slightest so if you're looking for that you'll be severely disappointed.
The game is gorgeous. The music is really good. The atmosphere is top notch. The acting is really good. That's the good.
Now for the bad. It's not quite a walking simulator and it's not quite a survival horror. The gameplay ranges from passable to inadequate. There's stealth, puzzles, and combat (if you can even call it combat). These are all very basic and you can sleep walk through most the game.
All in all, I feel the good and bad kind of balance each other out and it makes the experience aggressively average. It's also not scary in the slightest so if you're looking for that you'll be severely disappointed.
The Medium é um jogo que entrega o que promete, mas em parte. O combo do trabalho visual e sonoro colocado no game encaixa como uma luva em sua narrativa pesada e macabra.
Review completa em: https://reviewdejogos.com.br/reviews/the-medium/
Review completa em: https://reviewdejogos.com.br/reviews/the-medium/
It’s OG Resident Evil (even with the tank controls and fixed camera), but no guns. I actually didn’t know anything about this game, other than people seemed to be excited about it before it was released. I saw it was on PS+ so decided to check it out, as it was a shorter one. When I booted up and saw it was a Bloober game (Observer makers) I was a bit more curious. It starts out with you finding and releasing a spirit of a dead person to their afterlife. Then the game turns into an interesting psychological horror with a bunch of split screen sequences where you can see the spirit world and the real world simultaneously. I found it a nice touch that your spirit world interacts with objects using the X button, and the real world uses the Square button. It can get a little distracting in cutscenes as you are not quite sure where to look, but it can be amusing to watch the “real world you” interact with an empty space. The story gets pretty dark and much like “Observer”, this has cool sequences where you enter someone’s mind, although not as abstract as Observer, but still unique.
Bloober Team does one thing and not particularly well. I'm very worried for Silent Hill 2 remake
This review contains spoilers
After playing this I have zero expectations for the Silent Hill 2 remake.
Ten Second Review of the Medium because I am just going to bitch about the devs here. I played Medium the week it came out and haven't touched it since. But I have played all Layers of Fear since and am reflecting upon my experiences with this developer.
Bloober Team are film school rejects pretending to be artists. They have one good environmental artist working with an engine that cannot render the detail they are going for. All their games are animated like you're playing on a high latency Google Stadia. It's not unique in design, it looks jank and lazy. All their games look this way. Even the Silent Hill 2 remake they are fucking up as I type this review.
This studio exists to damage everything it touches. The games they make, and the themes explored within. Did you know if you were sexually assaulted that you should kill yourself and stay dead because you're beyond repairing. That is without hyperbole the message they convey to you in The Medium. I hate these artless motherfuckers so much for speaking so confidently on a sensitive matter when they cannot get a single aspect of their games to not be infuriatingly rudimentary.
They are inspired by other horror games but simply do not understand what made Silent Hill or Resident Evil special. They are a negative asset to video games as artistic medium. They are actual frauds masquerading as a revival of survival horror. If that was even true, I'd want survival horror to stay dead if it meant Bloober Team did not exist.
Truly pathetic.
Bloober Team are film school rejects pretending to be artists. They have one good environmental artist working with an engine that cannot render the detail they are going for. All their games are animated like you're playing on a high latency Google Stadia. It's not unique in design, it looks jank and lazy. All their games look this way. Even the Silent Hill 2 remake they are fucking up as I type this review.
This studio exists to damage everything it touches. The games they make, and the themes explored within. Did you know if you were sexually assaulted that you should kill yourself and stay dead because you're beyond repairing. That is without hyperbole the message they convey to you in The Medium. I hate these artless motherfuckers so much for speaking so confidently on a sensitive matter when they cannot get a single aspect of their games to not be infuriatingly rudimentary.
They are inspired by other horror games but simply do not understand what made Silent Hill or Resident Evil special. They are a negative asset to video games as artistic medium. They are actual frauds masquerading as a revival of survival horror. If that was even true, I'd want survival horror to stay dead if it meant Bloober Team did not exist.
Truly pathetic.
Un quiero y no puedo. Me da pena porque lo que hace, lo hace de puta madre; pero es un juego de misterio y de puzzles, no un Survival Horror. Ha sido una experiencia muy buena, lo he disfrutado, pero por desgracia... No es lo que esperaba.
so overrated on release and I hope bloober doesnt f up silent hill. especially after ascension.... please dont kill the franchise
Luckily for me this was more akin to a horror themed walking sim than a full-on horror game. Piecing together the mystery was fun, it looks beautiful and atmospheric, and it's kind of cozy in the way that Alan Wake is. On the other hand it was just too easy; 'puzzle' solutions are instantly revealed, there's only ever one path to take. Same issue with the split screen gimmick - it was cool but felt like they could have done more with it.
I can't finish this game, too slow and too boring...
The grade is all for the story, which I found mildly intriguing. The game is also often quite gorgeous-looking in a dark, horrorish way. But when it comes to gameplay, it's rubbish, with most of the game having almost nothing for you to do but push forward, and yet the game isn't even brave enough to be a walking sim, instead breaking up the cutscenes and endless shuffling (can't even call it running, especially when they disable the "sprint" button yet again) with meaningless "push a button to continue the story" type of interactions.
The mechanically most involving moments of the game are when you're let loose in a small area and forced to solve some rather easy puzzles in order to proceed, with the one in the Red House being my favourite. It's the only time I felt any intellectual stimulation during the game, even if that too wasn't all that much.
But what's worse is when the game decides to amp up the actions and throw you into some escape sequences with insta-deaths and bad checkpointing. Considering how mediocre I found this game, those were the moments where I asked myself most seriously "why don't I just watch the cutscenes on YouTube?"
So it all falls on the writing, storytelling and acting, to prop up this nothing of a game. To a degree, it succeeds - at least enough that I saw the game through (though not enough to make me want to avoid gameplay videos on YouTube whenever I got stuck). The first half an hour where you're saying goodbye to your step-father was appropriately dramatic and even touching, enough to get me excited what delicious darkness and writing would be waiting for me.
And I did love the dark atmosphere of the game and its old broken-down Soviet hotel setting (even though it's funny hearing everybody talk and write in English in Poland), and I was for the most part legitimately interested in the story, and there were moments and themes where it shocked me and had some nice surprises (though some of the choices are questionable, to say the least, especially in a game that does nothing with them). Part of me even enjoyed playing through this world myself, instead of just watching it on YouTube.
It's just that there were too many moments where I was wondering why I'm even playing it or where I got angry at another aggravating one-hit-death or a meaningless blockade (if I have to cut through another goddamn skin …)
And then, as if the lacklustre mechanics weren't enough, once you arrive at the very ending, the game doesn't have the guts to even end properly, instead going for an ambiguous ending that means absolutely nothing in a game so concentrated on plot and narrative - and I say that as a person who routinely defends ambiguous endings by saying that the story so far has given us the tools to understand what is important to understand about it, that to go on would have actually been meaningless because we already got enough of the story to finish what matters in our heads.
Not here though. But I guess a shocking sound effect on a fade to black makes the game seem more meaningful. Goodness knows this bloody thing needs every support it can get.
Oh, and I wasn't scared even once. Just like in a proper horror game.
The mechanically most involving moments of the game are when you're let loose in a small area and forced to solve some rather easy puzzles in order to proceed, with the one in the Red House being my favourite. It's the only time I felt any intellectual stimulation during the game, even if that too wasn't all that much.
But what's worse is when the game decides to amp up the actions and throw you into some escape sequences with insta-deaths and bad checkpointing. Considering how mediocre I found this game, those were the moments where I asked myself most seriously "why don't I just watch the cutscenes on YouTube?"
So it all falls on the writing, storytelling and acting, to prop up this nothing of a game. To a degree, it succeeds - at least enough that I saw the game through (though not enough to make me want to avoid gameplay videos on YouTube whenever I got stuck). The first half an hour where you're saying goodbye to your step-father was appropriately dramatic and even touching, enough to get me excited what delicious darkness and writing would be waiting for me.
And I did love the dark atmosphere of the game and its old broken-down Soviet hotel setting (even though it's funny hearing everybody talk and write in English in Poland), and I was for the most part legitimately interested in the story, and there were moments and themes where it shocked me and had some nice surprises (though some of the choices are questionable, to say the least, especially in a game that does nothing with them). Part of me even enjoyed playing through this world myself, instead of just watching it on YouTube.
It's just that there were too many moments where I was wondering why I'm even playing it or where I got angry at another aggravating one-hit-death or a meaningless blockade (if I have to cut through another goddamn skin …)
And then, as if the lacklustre mechanics weren't enough, once you arrive at the very ending, the game doesn't have the guts to even end properly, instead going for an ambiguous ending that means absolutely nothing in a game so concentrated on plot and narrative - and I say that as a person who routinely defends ambiguous endings by saying that the story so far has given us the tools to understand what is important to understand about it, that to go on would have actually been meaningless because we already got enough of the story to finish what matters in our heads.
Not here though. But I guess a shocking sound effect on a fade to black makes the game seem more meaningful. Goodness knows this bloody thing needs every support it can get.
Oh, and I wasn't scared even once. Just like in a proper horror game.
I love horror movies but really struggle with horror games, as I just find them so intense. Maybe blame playing 'Silent Hill' at much too young an age for that... So, I went into 'The Medium' with some trepidation but reviews that it wasn't too scary helped ease me in. I still found the scenes with the monster a little bit overwhelming but the length, the pace and the atmosphere helped me to enjoy this rather than want to throw the controller in terror and bury the game 500 miles away from my house, where it can't hurt me ('Resident Evil: Biohazard' I'm looking at you). So yeah, maybe not a hit with everyone but I enjoyed this as someone who LOVES horror but struggles with games where you only have two bullets and something unstoppable is just around the corner. I'd play a sequel.
There are things to praise in The Medium. The art is good and the developers are skilled at creating a creepy atmosphere. The puzzles, while not anything amazing, are decent and serve their purpose in making your interaction with the world satisfying which can be a problem in narrative focused games with little to no combat. The split between two worlds with you controlling the two forms of the main character simultaneously is cool and works really well. They have enough technical expertise to make that work without performance issues. The load times after dying are surprisingly long on the PS5's SSD. The main department where this game falters is the writing which is a pretty big problem for such a story heavy game. There is a certain element that has some pretty awful implications. I would like to think that there was no maliciousness on the part of the writers and they just didn't think it through properly. Either way, they were not equipped to deal with a story with sensitive subject matter. It's worrying that Bloober are working on the Silent Hill 2 remake which deals with a lot of sensitive issues. If they focus on the strengths, i.e their art, and leave the story the way it is, it should be ok but we'll see.
This guys saw classic survival horrors and thought "If fixed cameras are cool, TWO FIXED CAMERAS ARE DOUBLE COOL" and made a game around that.
Story is alright but gameplay is lacking
Story is alright but gameplay is lacking
Not scary, not compelling, not animated well; just boring, uninspired, overly convoluted and needlessly dragged out, with some of the most irritating and thoughtless writing and dialogue I've ever seen in a game. Decent atmosphere and sound design can only carry you so far. The sh2 remake is doa
Silent Hill callback that started strong, but reiterated Bloober Team's usual problems. Badly written and non-committal gameplay. Old horror games used limits of the hardware to their advantage, this used technical advances to limit your abilities in game.