The Medium

Intense overall intensity
Highest flag: Dark themes — graphic
AdventureHorrorPuzzle

What's in it

Dark themes graphic
High

Central plot deals with child sexual abuse, a family burned alive, wartime human experimentation, grief, and a girl's tormented soul made monstrous.

Horror & psychological sustained dread
High

Psychological horror built on dread, a hunting malevolent spirit (the Maw), and unsettling dual-reality environments rather than jump scares alone.

Language strong
High

Dialogue includes strong profanity fitting the game's bleak adult tone.

Violence realistic
Moderate

Murders and a mass-killing (the 'Niwa Massacre') are shown and recounted, including a man shooting a girl and bodies with blood; combat is minimal.

Torture depicted
Moderate

A backstory sequence describes an agent forcing a father to watch as his home is set alight with his children inside.

Suicide & self-harm depicted
Moderate

In the climax the protagonist turns a gun on herself and threatens suicide as a bargaining act.

Mutilation / body horror depicted
Moderate

Disturbing imagery includes flayed and warped bodies as part of the spirit-world horror.

Nudity revealing/suggestive attire
Low

Grotesque body-horror figures in the spirit world appear partially unclothed as distorted, fleshy forms rather than sexualized nudity.

Substances referenced
Low

Alcohol bottles and cigarettes appear as set dressing in the abandoned communist-era resort; no player use.

Crime & lawlessness crime depicted
Low

Murders and a massacre are depicted in the story, and at the climax the player character fires a gun in an ambiguous killing.

Occult & ritual occult imagery/references
Low

Spiritualist mediumship, contacting and guiding the dead, and travel into a spirit realm feature throughout.

Sexual violence referenced
Low

The plot reveals through clues and visions that a girl was molested and later raped by a trusted family friend; it is recounted, not shown interactively.

Who can reach your kid

What it is

The Medium is a single-player psychological horror adventure set in 1999 post-communist Poland. You play Marianne, a spirit medium who can move between the everyday world and a decaying spirit realm at the same time, using this dual perception to solve environmental puzzles and evade a hostile spirit called the Maw. As she investigates an abandoned resort tied to a massacre, the story uncovers heavy adult material: child molestation and rape (recounted through visions and clues rather than shown), murder, arson that kills children, wartime experimentation on a fellow medium, grief, and a climactic suicide threat. Expect strong language, blood, unsettling body-horror imagery of distorted and partially unclothed figures, and a constant atmosphere of dread. There is no combat-heavy action, no purchases, and no online or social features.

How it's framed

The game treats its darkness soberly, framing the abuse and violence as tragedy and the roots of a haunting rather than as spectacle; the player is positioned as a compassionate medium trying to understand suffering and lay tormented spirits to rest, and the morally hardest choice at the end is left deliberately ambiguous.

Details

Developer
Bloober Team
Publisher
Bloober Team
Released
2021-01-28
Metacritic 72critic score (third-party) · out of 100

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