#The medium xbox skin
#The medium xbox full

As you continue, the puzzles become more elaborate, encouraging you to take a closer look at the environment in search of clues that might lead you toward the solution to the problem in front of you. For example, putting together certain items in the real world might spark memories that manifest as positive energy in the spirit world that Marianne can then absorb and use to power her supernatural abilities, such as a shield that can protect her from moths. These moments of dual-reality occur in a good third of the game, transforming areas into self-contained puzzle boxes where an understanding of the space is necessary for moving forward. And what affects Marianne in one world will do so in the other.

#The medium xbox full

Navigating these spaces isn't straightforward, though-a staircase that's still present in the spirit world may have collapsed in the real world, or an empty hallway in the real world may be full of killer moths in the spirit world. At this point, your perspective is split, forcing you to look at and explore both worlds simultaneously. Puzzle Of The SpiritĪs you explore the Niwa Resort in search of Thomas, you'll stumble into areas where the emotional remnants of the world are so powerful, Marianne is forced to traverse the space in both the real and spiritual plane. And via this shared window into both perspectives, The Medium is able to explore the trauma of its characters through puzzle-solving and riddles. Instead, the game posits that they exist as mirrors of one another-one manifesting literally what the other only hints at figuratively. But these two depictions of the world are not black and white opposites. Even Marianne takes on a new appearance when navigating the spirit world, the sleeve of her kickass jacket (she's so stylishly put together, I'm jealous as hell) and pant leg becoming frayed, as if this version of her is an incomplete, less-human being.

#The medium xbox skin

The spirit world-inspired by the surreal dystopia portrayed in the paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński-is a nightmarish hellscape, one where the doors are made of human skin that you have to slowly carve open with a rusty knife, and the inhabitants are either monstrous creatures or creepy mask-wearing spirits. To that end, The Medium plays out on two planes of existence: the normal world and the spirit world, the latter of which acts as a twisted reflection of the former.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

As a medium, Marianne is able to commune with spirits and help them pass on to the afterlife, a skill she's developed working in her foster father's funeral home. She goes there in search of Thomas, a man who leaves her a strange message telling her to find and help him, promising that he'll give her the answers she seeks about her past in return.

In The Medium, you play as Marianne (voiced by Kelly Burke, who does a fabulous job), a powerful clairvoyant who travels to the Niwa Resort. It's here that The Medium finds the basis for its story, one that leaves a lasting impression The aftereffects of such actions can fester in the heart and mind of victims for years, an unsettling truth that is often glossed over. There's something disturbing about being forced to confront the evils that humans can inflict on one another, and recognize how horrific acts of sexual abuse, ethnoreligious discrimination, and physical violence rarely, if ever, result in a singular trauma. Recognizing these similarities, at times, can be even more terrifying than facing an actual grotesque creature. The world of The Medium begs to be closely examined, to be parsed for small details that begin to paint monsters as something not too dissimilar to humans.