Players of The Medium assume the role of Marianne, who is drawn to the hotel Niwa by spirits to uncover the location's tragic past. However, before The Medium players can face the many horrors inside The Niwa hotel, they must first figure out how to get inside.
When players first arrive at the Niwa resort they will notice that the main entrance is chained shut. With no way to use Marianne's powers to break the chain at this point in the game, the only alternative is a side entrance that appears to be missing a door handle.
As one of the first large areas of the game, the parking lot of the Niwa resort can be daunting to explore. This is compounded by the fact that Marianne's movement speed, even when running, is extremely slow.
To unlock the side entrance to the resort, players must travel towards the left side of the parking lot. Eventually, the player will reach a rusted red car with a chalk drawing of a butterfly next to it.
Interact with the car to find a collectible groundskeeper postcard on the dash and then proceed to activate the lever next to it. For players keeping track of collectibles, this should be the second groundskeeper postcard that they have found in addition to the one found inside the office at the start of the level.
When the lever is activated, the hood of the car will open and reveal a screwdriver next to a spare tire. After adding the screwdriver to their inventory the player can now proceed back to the entrance of the hotel.
Before making their way back to the side entrance, there is a missable The Medium collectible that players should interact with before progressing into the hotel. Next to the ramp to the hotel is a payphone that players can interact with. To do this, players must use their insight vision and rotate the phone to activate the echo collectible.
After collecting the echo, players can now proceed to the side entrance and use the screwdriver to unlock the door. After opening the side entrance players will find they are still unable to progress into the main hotel building.
Players may have noticed when inspecting the entrance to the hotel that there is a broken window above the doorway. With the side entrance now unlocked, players can now interact with the dumpster inside and push it towards the main doorway. After pushing the dumpster towards the doorway, players can now climb on top of it and proceed to enter the Niwa hotel.
The Medium launches January 28 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.