Unusual gameplay, composer Silent Hill and impressive system requirements
The Medium , a psychological horror movie from the creators of Layers of Fear, Observer and Blair Witch, will go on sale at the end of January . It will be the first major nextgen-exclusive on the new Microsoft and PC consoles, and will be co-created by industry legends. We tell you what to expect from a trip to the other world.
Plot and gameplay
At the center of the story of the new game is a medium capable of communicating with the dead and moving between two realities. The girl is able to be in different worlds at the same time, and this feature is taken into account in the gameplay: the screen is divided into two parts, and the player moves at once in two different versions of the location. Some obstacles exist only in one reality, and sometimes puzzles will have to be solved in two at once.
Depending on the situation, one of the worlds can “prevail” and take up more screen space. But the authors understand that playing in this mode is not very easy, so most of the time will still have to be spent in one of the realities.
Inspiration
The creators of The Medium were deeply impressed by the work of Zdzislaw Beksiński, a Polish artist and photographer. He began his work with the creation of sculptures from plaster, metal and wire, and later moved on to photography. The author’s photographs are characterized by a heavy atmosphere: they show broken toys, people with bandaged faces, bodies pinched by threads and other creepy shots.
Later, Beksiński turned to abstract art and surrealism, depicting monsters, strange creatures, destroyed worlds and death. He can even be called the “Polish Giger” – in the works of Zdzislav and the author of “Alien” there is much in common.
The last years of Zdzislav’s life were overshadowed by the death of his family. First, his wife died, and then his son, Tomasz, committed suicide. The artist could not come to terms with the death of the latter and even wrote a letter for him in case of his own death. In it, Beksiński addressed a seemingly living son, and he always kept the envelope right in front of his eyes, attaching it to the wall.
In 2005, Beksiński was killed for $ 100: the artist refused to borrow money for the son of the commandant of the house and his friend. The criminals inflicted 17 wounds on Zdzislav with a knife and received prison sentences: the killer – 25 years in prison, and his assistant – 5 years.
Developers
The Bloober Team studio is responsible for the development of The Medium – the authors of not very expensive, but plot powerful and unusual games. Their first hit was Layers of Fear, a creepy first-person psychological thriller about an artist in an empty house. According to the plot, the hero tries to complete the picture at any cost, but encounters paranormal forces.
Layers of Fear was very creepy and the space around the player was constantly changing. The game did not allow you to relax and get used to nightmares: sometimes turning 180 degrees was enough to find yourself in a new room with a new monster.
Layers of Fear
But the Bloober Team didn’t focus on being successful in one genre. In the next game, Observer, the studio decided to send players into the world of the future, where they had to get used to the role of a private detective specializing in hacking and penetrating the minds of suspects. The cyberpunk action was also creepy enough, but this time it was more interesting for the team to ask philosophical questions. What is Consciousness? Can we preserve the soul with technology?
The team later released the horror films Layers of Fear 2 and Blair Witch. They were greeted less warmly, but there were no outright failures in the studio’s portfolio so far. The Medium is being created with publishing support from Microsoft, so the game has every chance of becoming the studio’s largest release.
Soundtrack and voiceover from the Silent Hill team
Akira Yamaoka, an iconic composer made famous by the Silent Hill series, is responsible for the soundtrack of The Medium. He worked on all the main parts of the series, and not only on the music, but also on the sound effects, creating an atmosphere of horror and despair.
The last time Yamaoka fully worked on the game soundtrack was five years ago. In 2016, he completed work on the action RPG Let It Die and since then has only dealt with music albums and small collaborations. For example, he took part in the creation of the track Like the Moon for the Silent Hill expansion for Dead by Daylight and wrote the song “Battle in Japan” for World of Tanks. The Medium will be Yamaoka’s first major project in several years. And this is at least one of the main reasons to wait for the game.
The vocals for The Medium were recorded by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who also worked on Silent Hill. And one of the key characters was voiced by Troy Baker – the voice of James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2 HD, as well as Joel from The Last of Us, Booker from BioShock Infinite and the heroes of many other games.
They wanted to release the game almost 10 years ago
The Medium could have been released back in 2012 on Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS3. True, then it was a completely different game, although they tried to implement the idea with two parallel worlds at that time. But the developers, for unknown reasons, abandoned the project and returned to it only now.
The hotel and the apartment from the game exist in reality
The events of The Medium take place at the Niva Hotel, which the developers copied from the real Cracovia Hotel in the center of Krakow. The virtual version is different from the prototype, but the authors visited the hotel and photographed the interiors. They tried to recreate the unique atmosphere of the institution in the game.
The main character’s apartment is also a real place. She can be found in the center of Krakow, and the team has already added these interiors to their other game, Observer.
Easter eggs
Wicker Man – A nod to Blair Witch
It will take 8-10 hours to complete the game, but the authors urge to look for numerous references – to well-known horror films, TV series, previous studio games, and so on. For example, on stamps you can find photos of developers
System requirements
The Medium is called “the real nextgen” – the game requires the latest graphics cards for comfortable ray tracing. But even the minimum requirements turned out to be impressive.
Minimum (1080p / 30 FPS):
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6600 or AMD Ryzen 5 2500X
- RAM: 8 GB
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon R9 390X
- DirectX: 11
Recommended (1080p / 30 FPS):
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-9600 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 16 GB
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 SUPER or AMD RX 5600XY (6GB)
- DirectX: 11
High (1440p / 30 FPS):
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-9600 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 16 GB
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER or AMD 5700 XT
- DirectX: 11
Maximum (2160r / 30 FPS):
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 16 GB
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (8GB) or RTX 3060TI / AMD RX 6800 (16GB)
- DirectX: 11
Minimum to play with ray tracing (1080p / 30 FPS):
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-9600 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 16 GB
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (8GB) / AMD RX 6800 (16GB)
- DirectX: 12
Recommended for ray tracing games (1440p / 30 FPS):
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 16 GB
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (8GB) or RTX 3060TI / AMD RX 6800 (16GB)
- DirectX: 12
High for ray traced play (2160p / 30 FPS):
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 16 GB
- Video card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD RX 6800 XT (16 GB)
- DirectX: 12
Release date and platforms
The Medium is out on January 28 for PC and Xbox Series X | S. The PC version will be available on Steam, EGS and the Microsoft Store. For a pre-order, you can get a discount: on Steam they ask for 1,439 rubles (1,600 after the release), and in EGS – 1,394 rubles (then 1,549 rubles).
On release day, the game will immediately go to both versions of Xbox Game Pass – on PC and on Microsoft consoles.
