Intro: The veil between worlds shows the soul for what it truly is. The tortured self, the flightless angel, the dying heart, and the massacred childhood. The Medium closes the veil between the world of the dead and the world of the living. Implementing a split-screen technique to show both the material world and the spirit realm allowed for an undeniable experience. This game is met with an eerie trepidation, tears, psychological chaos, and a story in which I was not prepared to witness.
The Morticians Daughter: A medium who’s also a mortician, yeah that sounds about right. The Medium released January 28th2021 was rumored to be “the new Silent Hill” as if anything could possibly be as good, or as in-depth as Silent Hill. The answer is yes, yes it can. When I first went into this game I never realized how much the story would envelop me until I was already in its grasp. I started with the admiration of the controls, the lighting the camera angles, then…Then it all happened at once and I knew there was no turning back. Jack. Jack, the adoptive father of Marianne took her in as his own and when she had to be the mortician that took care of her dead father, I knew this game was going to an experience, not just another game that you would play just out of boredom or because is popular. This game has substance and meaning. If a game can make me cry on the first episode of the playthrough I know it's going to be good.
A message from a mysterious Thomas, and an ability that she thought made her the outcast, actually made her the hero. Marianne goes on a wild goose chase to find answers from a mysterious phone call and ends up not only putting the dead to rest but a withered and tormented past. The story really picked up when I got to the Niwa hotel. It's where we meet sadness and start to unravel Marianne’s story as well, in conjunction with more of what her abilities are.
The Psychology of Sadness: Sadness, aka Lillianne aka the Maw is a character that is one of the most strongly constructed characters of this game. This character has three separate parts the child, the woman, and the tortured soul. The child befriends Marianne to get her help because she is unable to pass on. She’s almost stuck to an extent, but later we find out that she doesn’t want to leave either. Throughout the game sadness’s memory starts to come back as well as Marianne’s. If you’ve played the game you know Lilly is still alive and somewhat well. She is the sister of Marianne and is the reason we are fighting the creature called the Maw. The Maw is the tortured part of Lilly that separated itself as its own entity after her rape. The Maw is the part of her that is destructive and harmful to herself and others. The Maw is the negative self-talk, the hatred towards people who want to help. The Medium dives deep and stays underwater not letting you up for breath really allowing you to see the weight of the subject matter. Psychologically discussing the topic of rape is an iffy topic to cover. This game goes about this task eloquently and treads on a careful line where it's not offensive but is morbid in thought and allows the player room to think about the motives, and causes throughout the game.
The Way Multiverse Theory Plays Out: This game incorporates a concept called the multiverse theory in which multiple universes exist at once. This theory comes to life when I saw Marianne pass through mirrors onto the other side, AND when she is in her childhood home switching mirrors so a puzzle could be solved. It is the same timeline, yet there are different realities. We see this even in Thomas’s story timeline, and when Marianne meets Thomas. We see a switching of the timeline but done in a way that makes sense. Splitting the screen also cements my claims further since we are seeing two perspectives of the same train of thought. The spirit realm and the material realm. Which I’ve never seen done in a game where there is a split-screen to show the things you may not see in one world and vise versa.
The World We See Is Not The Only One, Final Thoughts: I could have easily made this article into ten pages if I wanted. To, but knew I had to keep it short sweet and to the point. There’s a lot to capture with the world of the Medium, and will not be the last discussion I will have most likely on this game and the surrounding topics. This game has a well-interwoven story that takes its time and carries you through the motions of sadness, uneasiness, and a beautiful story that leaves you on a cliffhanger. This game is one that won’t ever forget. Not just because the composer from silent hill 2 and 3 worked on it, or the fact that it's filling a gap that the silent hill games have left but the fact that it was a new story that was genuinely captivating and something I had NEVER encountered before. It was fresh, it was new, it was nerve-wracking at times. And it was beyond hearting wrenchingly beautiful. The controls are the best I’ve seen in a game where the camera flows where the eyes naturally look, so there isn’t a risk of any headaches, but if you are epileptic, certain parts of the game will make it uncomfortable to those who and are prone to seizures. In this game, I would be cautious. I would recommend this game to those who love a good psychological thriller and story that takes its time.
Comments