The Medium REVIEW: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

2. Marianne & The Story's Pace

I've mentioned how leading lady Marianne receives a phone call propelling her into motion, and The Medium's defining characteristic after its split-screen effect is how supremely well paced this mystery is.

Taking place across an 8 hour runtime definitely helps, but it means The Medium has a solid balance of exposition, cutscene flair with its split-visual dynamic, and puzzle solving. This combo neatly propels you to uncover not only what's going on with Marianne and the caller, but what Bloober's world-building has in store.

Staying away from spoilers, I really enjoyed watching all of this unfold, but again I'm curious about how a wider player pool will take to what's on offer. The Medium walks a fine line between all-out exposition and having fun with un-knowable entities haunting Marianne's every step.

As mentioned, there is a narrative swerve halfway through that blows everything wide open. By the time you know the full picture as the credits are rolling, it's a feeling of wanting to replay, just to stitch all those formerly disparate parts together.