|OT| The Medium |OT| Silent Hells

[kittoo]

Can someone tell me why DLSS is set to medium automatically and is greyed out (meaning I can't change it)?
And the performance is terrible (despite DLSS). I have only played the first area (the funeral house). Feels like barely 30fps at 4k on a 3080 and 5600x.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

I could live with some more puzzles in a sequel, as long as not super obtuse like old point and click adventure games.

No it doesn't have to be anything hardcore. But I think even for the casual adventure game they're trying to make the calibration is still a bit too slanted towards easy. At least for my tastes. I'm someone who can enjoy casual or hardcore puzzles depending on the mood I'm in. But especially with the split screen dual reality mechanic, that's something it would be awesome to see explored in more depth.

 

[Armorian]

Can someone tell me why DLSS is set to medium automatically and is greyed out (meaning I can't change it)?
And the performance is terrible (despite DLSS). I have only played the first area (the funeral house). Feels like barely 30fps at 4k on a 3080 and 5600x.

You have seen nothing yet LOL. First area is quite light on GPU compared to rest.

 

[SatansReverence]

Can someone tell me why DLSS is set to medium automatically and is greyed out (meaning I can't change it)?
And the performance is terrible (despite DLSS). I have only played the first area (the funeral house). Feels like barely 30fps at 4k on a 3080 and 5600x.

You need to select DLSS in the anti aliasing options.

 

[Arun1910]

So the general GAF consensus is its a walking simulator, not many interactable items, uneven performance.

Which lines up with reviews I guess. Think I'll pass on this which is a shame as the aesthetic and 2 worlds idea is really intriguing.

 

[Dampf]

The Medium im Technik-Test - Atmosphärisches Next-Gen-Abenteuer mit Raytracing und technischen Macken

The Medium ist ein spannendes und atmosphärisches Grusel-Adventure und ein echter Next-Gen-Titel. PCGH hat den Technik-Test gemacht.

www.pcgameshardware.de

RDNA1: Mr. Turing, I don't feel so good....

 

[BPX]

Game is a real slog. I need to push my way through. This is probably the worst Bloober game.

 

[synce]

I quit very early on, got tired of listening to Marianne. Watched some of the cutscenes on youtube to see how the story unfolded and glad I saved some time. Felt like someone tried to write a "mature" story for the sake of writing a "mature" story, but this person doesn't actually know how to write or understand what they're writing about. If your game isn't going to have gameplay, the least you could do is not fuck up the writing.

 

[wtftad]

Finished this last night.

Spoiler

Took a little over 5 hours or so. The ending was...very unfulfilling for me. I thought I got a “bad” ending but it turns out there is only one ending.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Just finished with the Richard arc, getting to the stuff about The Red House now. At this point some of the puzzles have slightly more meat on the bone, still easy, but it was satisfying enough exploring and working through them. The playable Thomas portion had some interesting moments but it became a drag to walk through the maze for each vignette. Even the player character remarked that it was tedious lol. Still, there were actually some clever moments in this section where gameplay and narratitive were working well in tandem. Like the one bit that's the facade of an inventory puzzle used to show the abuse Richard suffered as a child.

Still intrigued by the mystery and looking forward to playing more tonight.

 

[Moogle11]

No it doesn't have to be anything hardcore. But I think even for the casual adventure game they're trying to make the calibration is still a bit too slanted towards easy. At least for my tastes. I'm someone who can enjoy casual or hardcore puzzles depending on the mood I'm in. But especially with the split screen dual reality mechanic, that's something it would be awesome to see explored in more depth.

Fair enough. They could also go more hardcore on puzzles and just build in the optional puzzle difficulty/hints system some more recent games have had. Important for games where narrative is the main focus to be completable by most anyone IMO, but there are ways to do that while having more challenge for those who enjoy it.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Difficulty settings would definitely be a good approach.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

The Medium will be released tomorrow but we were sent an early review codes a couple of days ago. The timing was too short for us to write a full review, or even to translate our (French) verdict on the game, but at least we were able to complete it

The Medium will be released tomorrow but we were sent an early review codes a couple of days ago. The timing was too short for us to write a full review, or even to translate our (French) verdict on the game, but at least we were able to complete it in one day so we can at least tell you that we...

www.gamersyde.com

 

[wtftad]

Fair enough. They could also go more hardcore on puzzles and just build in the optional puzzle difficulty/hints system some more recent games have had. Important for games where narrative is the main focus to be completable by most anyone IMO, but there are ways to do that while having more challenge for those who enjoy it.

For me I was constantly frustrated by the slow movement speed. Even with the run mechanic the pace of the character movement was a slog. Couple that with the fact that you need to constantly go back and forth between areas as you complete the puzzles, it adds a tremendous amount back/forth to the game. I did really enjoy some of the environments, especially toward the latter part of the game. So the slow plodding through the visually interesting areas was not as noticeable as it was in areas that are less interesting to me like the Resort. Given the length of the game I can understand the decision to slow down the player. Unfortunately for me there was nothing to do in that down time but hold down LT and Up on the left stick.

I have only played a few other contemporary walking-sim type games (and have not played any of Bloober's other titles) so I may be unfairly judging this game based on my own bias/inexperience with the genera. I don't mean Myst or 7th Guest, I am referring to newer titles like Edith Finch, and Rapture. They felt more "complete" when I compare them to the Medium.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Just finished the generator puzzle in the shed outside of the red house and it's an example of what I would have liked to see a bit more of in the game. Clever use of the dual reality mechanic, not punishingly difficult, but not immediately obvious either. There's been a couple like that so far and I appreciate it every time.

In general I've really been enjoying this last sequence. It seems like the game is getting to the final bit so I hope it sticks the landing. Right now I'm feeling a strong 7 to mild 8 (on a real 10 pt scale, not the game reviewer scale where decent starts at 7) depending on how the ending goes.

 

[Exentryk]

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Completed the game last night and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Personally I didn't mind that they left it a little ambiguous at the end. I like that it lets you debate in your mind which decision Marianne was driven to. The only drawback, to me, being that it comes at the expense of having an aftermath scene where the characters get closure. The final third of the game ended up being my favorite because the gameplay ramped up to the point where I felt more engaged. Combined with a consistent string of strong emotional payoffs for most of the story threads up until that point. There's another game, Red Candle's Detention, that used horror as a means to explore the psychological turmoil of people living in an authoritarian state (Taiwan under martial law in the 60s). I think that game is basically a masterpiece and in The Medium's best moments it really reminded me of Detention.

Unfortunately other aspects also hold it back, bad performance, the Thomas sections drag on for far too long imo and overall much more could have been done with the mechanics they created.

Pros:
Gorgeous environment art
Memorable character design
Interesting cast of characters and likable protagonist
Solid mystery
Unique and varied puzzle mechanics

Cons:
Performance issues
Stiff and uncanny facial animation, at times
Puzzles and mechanics lack depth for much of the game
Thomas sections are poorly paced

Other thoughts:
Game suffers from the Silent Hill comparison. The difference in gameplay has been discussed but there's also a major divide in narrative approach. Silent Hill leans much more heavily into metaphorical story telling and having things be open to interpretation. Compare how Angela's sexual abuse is explored in Silent Hill 2 vs Lilliane's abuse in The Medium. In Silent Hill 2 you get a claustrophobic room full of pulsating fleshlike holes, a disturbing creature that resembles bodies tightly wrapped underneath an odd fabric. Angela's dialogue is cryptic and vague. You're left to wonder what all this haunting imagery could mean and it's on the player to piece things together. Whereas in the Medium you're very overtly guided through flashback style vignettes and cutscenes that explain everything to you in certain terms with basically no room for interpretation.

I'm not making a value judgement on one narrative approach versus another, both have their place, but it's just to say that most of the ways The Medium is "like Silent Hill" are surface level. So it's unfortunate that the marketing for this game had so many people primed to expect an SH-like. Since, judged on it's own merits, it's a well made psychological horror adventure game.

Overall I'd give the game a strong 7 out of 10. Any fan of horror and story-driven adventure games should give it a chance. The game has it's fair share of issues but they don't overwhelm the experience by any means and I liked it more and more as the game progressed. I hope this can be a success for Bloober Team and I'd like for them to make more games in this style.

 

[BigLee74]

Just finished it. Overall, I enjoyed it. Slow start, but a much stronger second half (with the exception of one part that I thought was very dull and uneventful).

For once I enjoyed finding the stuff scattered around, and actually read them. No walls of text to turn me off. Must have worked because I actually managed to follow the story.

A wee bit disappointing that missing pieces for puzzles were always pretty much in the same room, and with the exception of three they were all incredibly simple. Nothing worse than getting stumped on a puzzle granted, but they could have ratchet it up just a notch or two.

Well worth my time. 3/10 just as 10/10 reviews were totally wrong. A solid 7 in my book.

 

[Ovek]

Just completed this. It's a good story and I actually like the ending. My initial assessment from the launch trailer is very accurate because it is literally a "spooky walking simulator", a horror game this is not.

I don't know why people keep saying it has puzzles, they aren't puzzles. They are nothing more than getting different colored keys ALA Doom. Masks, butterflies or bits of mirror they are all the same shit.

Ray-Tracing was also the most pointless addition that only serves to trash your FPS especially on scene changes.

Decent but average 5/10 - Observer was better.

 

[RaZoR No1]

I am somehow disappointed..
I expected a bit more of the first next gen only Xbox game.
It had texture bugs, animation was not that good etc..
The game itself was interesting, atmosphere was nice and the music fits perfectly, but as soon it started to get interesting I already reched the end. They game is too short...
In comparision I had more fun in Blair Witch than in The Medium.

I am happy thou, that the game was part of Gamepass.
If more people should get interested in the medium world, maybe we will get a sequel which hopefully wont make the same mistakes as in the first one

 

[D.Final]

Just completed this. It's a good story and I actually like the ending. My initial assessment from the launch trailer is very accurate because it is literally a "spooky walking simulator", a horror game this is not.

I don't know why people keep saying it has puzzles, they aren't puzzles. They are nothing more than getting different colored keys ALA Doom. Masks, butterflies or bits of mirror they are all the same shit.

Ray-Tracing was also the most pointless addition that only serves to trash your FPS especially on scene changes.

Decent but average 5/10 - Observer was better.

Wow

 

[Ovek]

Wow

In awe of my small review? I don’t blame you. Just this once I shall let you bask in my glory...

 

[ZlleH]

Now this technically isn't a Medium specific issue, but it's been a long time since I've seen this message in a game I have played.

"Best experienced with headphones" is what is stated at the start when you boot up the game.

As a person who have;
-saved up for a few years
-fought with his wife tooth and nail for this setup
-researched online about best products to get, what not to do, etc.
-spent who knows how many hours constantly tweaking/changing A/V, wires, Speakers, TV, etc.

All the above to finally set up a cool 7.1 surround sound man cave, then to boot up a game that states
"Best experienced with headphones" was very soul breaking, LOL!

I'm just glad my wife was not there to see the message. I would not hear the end of it

 

[Redlight]

I think I'm on my own here but I enjoyed the early part of the game more than the last third. I'd just come off 150+ hours of Valhalla, with its relentless combat, so that first third, quietly exploring the abandoned building and uncovering mysteries without much threat, was really refreshing.

I am a sucker for abandoned buildings though.

The character animation is a little clunky and the 'running' is really not much more than a shuffle. It's a bit galling, given that there are sequences when your character can actually run and then she moves like the fucking wind.

Like many others, I think the 'two worlds' mechanic is a bit hit and miss, there really aren't many instances where both have to appear on the screen at the same time.

Overall, solid, but not spectacular. I'd give it a 7 or 8.

 

[TheDrunkenMerchant]

I was truly looking forward to this game, and wanted to support it in anyway I could because I'm really missing "B-Tiered" and "Single A Games." The environments are beautiful and capture a real sense of loneliness, though their linearity is a result from a big problem in this game: The lack of combat. I know some people would prefer just to watch the story, but it really does show why there is combat in all of the Silent Hill games. Without it, there's no resource management, no need to explore every area (especially since you can't in this game), and no true threat other than going through the game's "script."

This game feels like an alpha/beta to a wonderful Silent Hill game that the fans deserve. It just needed more mechanics and player involvement. It suffers from the same issue that Resident Evil 3: Remake did: It's potential. It could have been a 9/10. Instead, it'll rest in the bargain bin one day as a solid 6/10.

Also, I hate how sassy the main character is. Her sarcastic remarks take me right out of the game. Are you truly scared at what you're seeing? Or are you reluctant to the fact that you need to run away from this monster? Imagine if James Sutherland was running around Silent Hill and randomly said "Oh WOWWW...feels like I took a hot shower and steamed up the bathroom in this foggy town. It'd be SOOO nice if I could actually see anything right now."

 

[horkrux]

The game kinda blows and I regret finishing it.

They made some nice environments, the characters were also well written I guess, but the actual game underneath is really poor. I can stomach this in a 2-3h interactive novel (or walking sim if you prefer), but not for 8h.
And almost every puzzle or encounter so easy, it's basically solving itself come the hell on what is this

 

[rofif]

so it's not good?
I am watching some gameplay and the game is so polish... is it suppose to take place in poland? Hell apartment looks exactly like my grandmothers... the cars, street.
It's so weird they don't talk polish.
I really am not a fan when devs put their country references all over the game like some proud statement... unless it really takes place in 1999 poland
The graphics are very good though but why is everything so dirty... oh ok it's Poland

 

[TheMooMan]

so it's not good?
I am watching some gameplay and the game is so polish... is it suppose to take place in poland? Hell apartment looks exactly like my grandmothers... the cars, street.
It's so weird they don't talk polish.
I really am not a fan when devs put their country references all over the game like some proud statement... unless it really takes place in 1999 poland

I'm British, not Polish, but found it really weird it was set in Poland without Polish voice actors.

I know it's common for games, films and TV shows to do that, but I always hate it. There's no shortage of actors all over the world.

If you like walking sims/adventure games, play it, but know it's a slow burner. If you don't, it being set in Poland isn't enough reason to play it.

 

[M1chl]

so it's not good?
I am watching some gameplay and the game is so polish... is it suppose to take place in poland? Hell apartment looks exactly like my grandmothers... the cars, street.
It's so weird they don't talk polish.
I really am not a fan when devs put their country references all over the game like some proud statement... unless it really takes place in 1999 poland
The graphics are very good though but why is everything so dirty... oh ok it's Poland

Krakow, yes

I'm British, not Polish, but found it really weird it was set in Poland without Polish voice actors.

I know it's common for games, films and TV shows to do that, but I always hate it. There's no shortage of actors all over the world.

If you like walking sims/adventure games, play it, but know it's a slow burner. If you don't, it being set in Poland isn't enough reason to play it.

Well this happens when you need to sell your game to general public, aka Kingdom Come Deliverance, some Czech dub was recorded, however it was never implemented, because shit like this is not cheap.

 

[rofif]

I'm British, not Polish, but found it really weird it was set in Poland without Polish voice actors.

I know it's common for games, films and TV shows to do that, but I always hate it. There's no shortage of actors all over the world.

If you like walking sims/adventure games, play it, but know it's a slow burner. If you don't, it being set in Poland isn't enough reason to play it.

I like these slow games but don't like tedious puzzles etc. Might gamepass it over the weekend.. or watch some fun streamer play it honestly.
Being set in Poland is ok, just weird how too much stuff is in english etc. I am polish so it's a bit nostalgic for 1999 but also it's weird.
I kinda don't like games being set in a VERY REAL time and place. Now we all know that hell is in fact polish

 

[TheMooMan]

Well this happens when you need to sell your game to general public, aka Kingdom Come Deliverance, some Czech dub was recorded, however it was never implemented, because shit like this is not cheap.

Oh yeah totally. That's why so few shows have subtitles, because people are stupid and/or lazy.

Still, always bugs me, regardless.

 

[rofif]

Oh yeah totally. That's why so few shows have subtitles, because people are stupid and/or lazy.

Still, always bugs me, regardless.

for example, english is great in souls games but in sekiro You really need to switch to japanese even if english dub is good (which it is)

 

[Exentryk]

Finished the game. I didn't mind the ending, and walk up to it was neat. I'll collect my thoughts and post later.

But I have to say I'm not a fan of the escape scenes. Dying once or twice completely kills any tension and has a negative effect on the overall pacing and buildup.

Anyway, if anyone is having trouble figuring these out, below are all the escapes:

 

[M1chl]

I love that they ask you for a review and they reply to bad ones. I don't think this needs a translation : D

 

[Exentryk]

I love that they ask you for a review and they reply to bad ones. I don't think this needs a translation : D

I clicked on the review button on my Gamepass pc version and the button just spun for 2 min leading nowhere. Had other bugs as well, but I'll mention those in another post.

 

[M1chl]

I clicked on the review button on my Gamepass pc version and the button just spun for 2 min leading nowhere. Had other bugs as well, but I'll mention those in another post.

Hmm I don't know loaded fine on my sh!tbox : D

 

[Exentryk]

Finished the game. Thoughts below:

Pros:

• Visuals - Gorgeous environments
• Music
• Atmosphere
• Lack of jump scares - This is good because all of Bloober's previous games have been filled with cheap jump scares. This one only had one I think. They're much more effective when used sparingly. Let the environments, music and the story build the tension and horror as it's much more effective.
• Cutscene direction - The last scene is pretty nicely done. Overall, Bloober has improved a lot in this department.
• Story

Cons:

• Performance - The game runs so poorly, even on a powerful PC. Stutters at the start of every cutscene and frame rate drops to single digits when viewing items closely just made the game really annoying to play. Bloober's games always perform really bad, so it is a shame to see they haven't improved here at all.
• Bugs-
  • Game is fairly buggy, even with its very basic gameplay. Playing on Gamepass PC, my local save and cloud save weren't synced, and this somehow resulted in the game just not starting up. It was stuck on a black screen after the initial Bloober logo. When I closed the game via task manager, it popped up a window saying which save file to use (local or cloud), but clicking on that doesn't do anything since the game exe has already been closed via task manager. The problem is this window doesn't show until I close the exe. So was stuck on this for a few hours until I decided to just delete all my local saves and go with the cloud ones. It worked fine after that.
  • Game crashed a few times.
  • In some instances, the game just wouldn't do anything. For example, inside Richard, when Thomas has to fire the spirit energy towards the monster, the action just wouldn't get triggered. Kept circling around that energy pedestal, and eventually it worked somehow.
• Gameplay - The gameplay was pretty boring. Everything was just too slow. It actually keeps you from enjoying the story as you get bogged down in mediocre gameplay. I'd rather they remove the boring gameplay elements and just focus on telling the story (like Edith Finch which ended up being better for it).
• Escapes - I hate escape/sneak/hide from the monster gameplay bits. It's just not fun, and dying once or twice completely kills any tension and has a negative effect on the overall pacing and buildup. I think having an optional 'safe mode' where you can't die (used in Soma) would be better.
• Character face animation - The main character's face was pretty poorly animated. The eyes were so dead. This made the cutscenes look really amateurish.
• Main Character dialogue and voice acting - I feel the main character's dialogue direction was poor. This girl is in a haunted hotel all alone and when she encounters Sadness, her dialogue is something along the lines of - "Take it easy, Sad". Like what? The way she speaks, and uses short forms, it just doesn't help the narrative effort. It took me out of the game.
• Not scary - I feel like they could have made the game a lot more scarier given such good locations (haunted hotel, ruins, forest, destroyed house, etc). My favourite scary scene was when meeting Henry's inner child. Need more of this.

The story was interesting, but it could have been better if the gameplay didn't bog it down. Overall, not a bad effort from Bloober, but they definitely need to continue improving in some core aspects. Let's see what they do next.

Below are all the scary scenes from the game. Which one was your favourite?

 

[ZlleH]

It was an okay game.
Nothing too scary, more of cheap jump scares.
I might have given this a 6/10 and then they did a tired cliché ending which pushed it down to 5/10.

I was also disappointed in the main monster, this thing is supposed to scare the beejeebus out of you,
but it looked so ridiculous that my first reaction was to roll my eyes and laugh instead of being scared.
Only scary thing about it is the creepy voice coming from it. This thing felt like it talked more than the
main character.

 

[Zefah]

Any updates on a performance fix? Delayed trying to play more of this due to just how awful the performance was. Must have been getting drops into the 10s or something with RT on at 4K.

i9 10850k + RTX 3080.

The visuals simply did not justify that kind of performance drop, so I was assuming something was wrong.

 

[Tickle My Tendies]

Any updates on a performance fix? Delayed trying to play more of this due to just how awful the performance was. Must have been getting drops into the 10s or something with RT on at 4K.

i9 10850k + RTX 3080.

The visuals simply did not justify that kind of performance drop, so I was assuming something was wrong.

I just logged on to ask this. I have similar problems on a similar build (5900x instead of i9). I beat the game but would like to run through it again if it gets performance patched up, just for my own personal benchmarking.

 

[wolywood]

There are some legitimately scary design choices (those masks all the spirits wear in the afterlife were genuinely unsettling, at least to me). Others like the Jabba the Hutt looking tentacle monster.....not so much.

 

[Ovek]

Speaking of voice acting was it me or did the main character just come off as more irritated and annoyed by the monster than being deathly afraid of it.

Also I bust out laughing when the monster called me a selfish bitch. I didn’t see that coming, it got a good chuckle out me which I assume is the complete opposite of what your supposed to be feeling at that point.

 

[Jesb]

Thinking of jumping back on gamepass to play this. How do you think a 7970 would run this game?

 

[Exentryk]

Thinking of jumping back on gamepass to play this. How do you think a 7970 would run this game?

Even a 3080 struggles in this game. The optimization is really poor. Check the minimum specs in the OP.


The environments are really amazing in this game.

 

[nikolino840]

Finished..hope for a sequel

 

[saintjules]

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Speaking of voice acting was it me or did the main character just come off as more irritated and annoyed by the monster than being deathly afraid of it.

Also I bust out laughing when the monster called me a selfish bitch. I didn’t see that coming, it got a good chuckle out me which I assume is the complete opposite of what your supposed to be feeling at that point.

It's not just you, I also found it weird (to say the least) and it completely broke immersion with the whole atmosphere taking a nose dive because of it.
Also: Marianne's witty one liners/jokes every couple minutes, I mean, here you are in abandoned, ultra moody building where terrible things happened and the mc is making witty "jokes".

Now that I think about it, i take back what I wrote previously about the game having mostly OK writing, it really doesn't - save for 2 scenes (apartment/funeral home in the beginning and the ending)

 

[cormack12]

Progressing in this as I parked it for a bit. Just had the transition where you play as Richard. The start was quite slow and ponderous in parts, but it really went up a level here. The art design, the VA, the graphics, writing, direction etc. all went up a notch. Was quite a dark little interlude. Game looks really good in certain area's but screenshots do not do it justice really. And I'm struggling on the xbox to get normal pngs uploaded. It just gives me the hdr version which is a weird file.

 

[cormack12]

So completed this a couple of days ago. It got much stronger once Richards levels were brought into the game. I think it was really solid, it started out slow and I think the pacing could have been picked up. The encounters with the beast where a bit hit and miss. I think they need to find a way to incorporate them a little better. The chase scenes were quite decent, but the stealth sections were quite underwhelming (especially with spirit vision).

A couple of good puzzles were the water chambers and clocks, as well as world changing. I think it switched between a lot of split screen, single screen and focused screen which were balanced well. The sound design was really good as well. Art style is great - but at times it feels like a bit of a pre-rendered background given how the characters stand out from it, I think they've started off quite well here, there's an opportunity for a sequel (without spoiling the end) if they choose to pursue it.

Richards levels were by far my favourite sections in the game.

 

[M1chl]

So completed this a couple of days ago. It got much stronger once Richards levels were brought into the game. I think it was really solid, it started out slow and I think the pacing could have been picked up. The encounters with the beast where a bit hit and miss. I think they need to find a way to incorporate them a little better. The chase scenes were quite decent, but the stealth sections were quite underwhelming (especially with spirit vision).

A couple of good puzzles were the water chambers and clocks, as well as world changing. I think it switched between a lot of split screen, single screen and focused screen which were balanced well. The sound design was really good as well. Art style is great - but at times it feels like a bit of a pre-rendered background given how the characters stand out from it, I think they've started off quite well here, there's an opportunity for a sequel (without spoiling the end) if they choose to pursue it.

Richards levels were by far my favourite sections in the game.

Yeah I think that Niwa resort slow gameplay wasn't exactly best idea for the beginning. Richard sections should have been incorporated sooner.

Besides maybe i am crazy but it seemed that animation of Richard are way better.