Bloober Team, developers behind survival horror games including Blair Witch and observer_ are back with a new title called The Medium, which uses psychological suspense over two chilling realities.
Created for the next generation Xbox Series X console, it’s visuals are also used as a game mechanic. Players are sent to two different environments on the spot through hallucinations while challenging different perspectives on horror. It’s a mechanic that was touched on for cinematic purposes in BioShock Infinite and Titanfall 2‘s time travel sequences. But for Bloober Team, The Medium does so to varying degrees which forces players to adapt in enemy encounters and exploration.
According to Xbox, The Medium stars Marianne, a woman plagued by visions of spirits and sinister copies of the world she lives in. Her own experiences with post traumatic stress disorder also take players into nightmarish memories, forcing them to question what really happened in her past.
The themes are also layered in real-time over bleak environments while the Series X powers two separate maps at once. This also changes the playstyle for Marianne at any moment while different enemies and characters will transition from the spirit world. Most of the game also takes players into abandoned locales during the late 80’s, opening up The Medium‘s own gothic-style hotel in Krakow.
Atmospheres also shift in tones through an original score by Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. The spirit world’s faster-paced madness is likely to juxtapose its emptier counterpart in a “seamless cinematic experience.”
Following the style of Bloober Team’s previous games, exploration also leads to story-shattering player choices based on their interactions with various NPCs. While The Medium offers two realities, players could find both their decisions in one can have unintended consequences in the other.
The Medium is being developed for the Xbox Series X console, set to release around Holiday 2020. The game itself has no launch date yet.