The Medium Has Me Compelled

By: Ryan Ramakrishnan

In today’s Xbox Games Showcase, we were treated to a handful of relatively exciting games. I don’t have a personal connection to series like “Halo” and “Fable” and admittedly was a lot more excited after the PS4 event recently. Nevertheless, I am, at the very least, very interested in a few of the showcased titles. “The Medium,” a new psychological horror game, is the one shown I have the most interest in. It is doping the genre differently and in a very intriguing manner. As a result, “The Medium:” is surprisingly high on my radar this fall. 

I like when games try different things. It is admirable to see developers try and innovate and when done right, some gimmicks become amazing gameplay mechanics. “The Medium” is tackling two playable worlds existing parallel to one another. Apparently this is only possible with the advancements in hardware, though if I’m not mistaken, I can still play this on my 2013 Xbox One. Regardless, I’d like to think that the Series X in particular will allow for developers to try to innovate things like it. The gameplay trailer and few minutes of developer narration over gameplay showcase something fascinating. It is a little hard to wrap my head around but they are saying that the real world and a spiritual world are both playable simultaneously with no loading. Even without seeing what this looks like in action, it is undoubtedly an exciting promise.

What we saw shows an interesting dynamic. I wasn’t blown away by the gameplay that was narrated over but of course, it only shows so much. That snippet may explain some details but the trailer itself showed many interesting things happening. I am impressed visually with how the physical and spirit worlds look and the fascinating events that we see unfold.

I thought that the idea of a story having two sides is intriguing. I like the idea of this narrative presenting a normal world but within, much darker things happening. The trailer had me very excited as we saw both glimpses of frightening things and of course, two different elements of gameplay happening side by side.

“The Medium” having me very excited is shocking since I rarely indulge in horror games. In fact, the abundance of horror titles in the last showcase for Xbox Series X left me unsure of what was going to be for me, “The Medium” included. But now that I have seen some of it in action, seeing a very cool setup with a dynamic dual-world system playing live, I’m more than a little curious.

I found the concepts to be of interest. I am very excited for a variety of puzzles and exploration in two different worlds and how they will both counter and complement one another. “The Medium” looks like it will tell a chilling story and I’m honestly very ready for these scary moments and the exploration of a spiritual world existing parallel to our own.

So, those are my thoughts and takes on what we saw today of “The Medium.” 2020 still has big games like “Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla,” “Cyberpunk 2077” and “Marvel’s Avengers” that have me more excited than anything shown in the Xbox showcase. Regardless, I am a gamer and I look forward to trying as many games as possible. Knowing that this psychological thriller of a game will be available on Game Pass has me resting assured I will be diving into “The Medium”: right away. I am just so interested in the dynamic of two worlds. The technological advances and the plot devices and gameplay mechanics should prove to be very fascinating, or at the very least, something interesting to compare to the run-of-the-mill titles released aside from it.

What do you think? Are you as compelled by the mechanics and concepts seen in “The Medium?” Which Xbox Games Showcase titles have you the most excited? Share with me your thoughts in the comments below.