Bloober Team's highly anticipated next-gen psychological horror game The Medium has been on horror fans' radar for a long time. Fueling the excitement of many, the company revealed a lengthy new gameplay for the game ahead of its launch.
The Medium is one of the first next-gen only titles that Xbox fans will get their hands on, launching directly via Xbox Game Pass. Revealed last year during Xbox Games Showcase, The Medium is set to be a defining next-gen horror experience with its dual reality gameplay elements. Even though the game has looked polished since its reveal, Bloober Team has been shying away from showing players more footage. Thankfully, that's not the case anymore as the company just revealed 14 minutes of brand new gameplay, focusing both on its narrative and the intricacies of its gameplay.
The footage kicks off in the lobby of a spooky hotel where Marianne, the game's protagonist, is looking for a man named Thomas. There she stumbles upon a little masked girl in the spirit world called Sadness. Sadness agrees to help Marianne find Thomas if she would play along with her. From here, the game starts to render both the spirit world and the real world simultaneously, as Marianne navigates to the second floor of the hotel to find what she was looking for.
Longtime Bloober fans would notice the shift in perspective of the game. Unlike the company's previous titles such as Layers of Fear and Blaire Witch, The Medium plays from a third-person perspective with a fixed camera angle, which pays homage to classic horror titles such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
The haunting score from the spirit world is in full swing here, which many would recall is being composed by Akira Yamaoka of Silent Hill. The new footage also shows off how transitioning between the two worlds will help players navigate and solve the game's various puzzles. Here, when navigating the elevator, the Marianne in the real world meets with a dead-end, but the Marianne in the spirit world can leave her body to explore and ultimately open up new possibilities for the Marianne in the real world.
The new footage also gives players a glimpse of an enemy called The Maw. The Maw is a metaphysical entity that is present in the spirit world but can also haunt Marianne in the real world. Navigating such stealth encounters feels similar to the BT encounters in Death Stranding.
The Medium is shaping up to be an incredibly ambitious title from Bloober Team. Its dual reality exploration-based gameplay takes full advantage of the powerful SSD's that next-gen consoles boast. More importantly, the game is indicative of a promising 2021 for Xbox Game Pass.
The Medium will launch on January 28 for PC and Xbox Series X.