PS5 Game: The Medium by Bloober Team (2021)

Bloober.  That's a fun word to say.  Bloo. Ber.  They hail from Poland and also made the '90s-tastic Blair Witch Project and the more recent (and ace) cassette futuristic Observer, starring the late (and ace) Rutger Huuurrrhhh.  Oh, and Layers Of Fear, which I ain't played meself.  So they're well into their scary games, good on 'em.

I lurve this genre, I must say.  Resident Evils, Silent Hills, Amnesias, The Evil Withins, Realms of the Haunting, Clive Barker's Undying, erm...Transylvanian Tower.  All classic scary gaming experiences I've enjoyed through the years. As long as it's psychologically disturbing, I'll love it.  If it's merely teenage slasher jump scary, I don't dig it.  Laaaaame.

So I got my PS5 in June and predictably I love the chips of it.  It plays games fast and they look so purty with it.  Being a fully paid-up subscriber to PS Plus during my PS4 days, I suddenly had access to their PS5 vault too.  Sweeeeet.

The Medium was the first game I loaded up, apart from Astro's Playroom of course.  I've always been a sucker for old school games, even in these heady technological times.  It's pretty cool that there are software houses around who still make this kind of thing, and I guess there must still be quite an audience for it in that case.  Quite reassuring.

This is more point and clicky than arcadey, although it does have its more frantically paced moments too.  It centres around Marianne, a Medium sized lady (not funny) who can explore the spirit world, which is handy if unsettling.  She's having bad dreams about a girl getting killed and decides to get to the bottom of it

So sometimes you're in the real life, sometimes just fantasy.  But you never get caught in a landslide, so it could be worse.  And frequently the screen is split to show both concurrently, which is a nice effect.  Things get gradually more unpleasant and unnerving as she goes along, as you'd expect (and hope for).  The dystopian artwork of Beksinski is a major influence for the game's otherworldly scenery, and it's all beautifully designed, if rather icky.

Gameplay is slow but steady, with occasional monster chase scenes.  But the narrative builds nicely, if that's the right word to use.  And the game looks great, so thanks PS5!  It'll take no more than 10 hours to complete, so only quite a short experience really, but it definitely makes an impression.  And it might just scare the Bloobers out of you.

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