• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

[Gamesradar] The Medium - Bloober Team's Wojciech Piejko and Jacek Zieba talk The Medium, their ambitious horror game for Xbox Series X

JareBear: Remastered

JareBear: Remastered

Banned
www.gamesradar.com

Big in 2020: The Medium is channelling the spirit of Silent Hill to pull psychological horror games into the next generation

Bloober Team's Wojciech Piejko and Jacek Zieba take us inside The Medium, its ambitious horror game for Xbox Series X
www.gamesradar.com www.gamesradar.com

EW5jw6CgjwBr9menuXZvt8-650-80.jpg.webp


"We are creating horror games not only to scare the shit out of people, but to deliver a specific story and to tackle specific subjects," says Wojciech Piejko, lead game designer
Click to expand...

You'll follow Marianne on this journey of shifting perspectives. She is haunted by a vision of a child's murder, a medium living between two worlds – though she has never truly felt at home in either of them.
Click to expand...

With that in mind, you should think of The Medium as Bloober Team's largest and most ambitious game to date. The team isn't creating one world, but two: a version of our own, and a reflection of it in the spirit realm. You'll be able to shift seamlessly between the two in The Medium with – Bloober promises – no discernible load times or impact to game performance and graphics, thanks to the power of the Xbox Series X.
Click to expand...

"The Medium is completely different from Layers of Fear and Observer. The game uses semi-fixed camera angles; it's more like an old-school horror game," Piejko says of the change. The pair note a number of reasons behind the decision, but the prevailing one appears to be Bloober seeing the appeal in being able to "design the game like a movie", with respect to being able to prepare shots and better direct the player's attention.
Click to expand...

WgejcMRnMzYRecLrfeQ9F9-650-80.jpg.webp



Zięba likens the "semi-fixed camera" to games like Until Dawn, Silent Hill, and early Resident Evil games. Essentially, you should expect The Medium to be more cinematic than anything we've seen from the studio in the past.
Click to expand...

"We are able to pull different emotional strings for the player than from the first-person perspective," Piejko continues, reflecting on Observer and Layers of Fear. "Of course, it's easier to scare people who are playing a first-person game, because they think that everything is jumping on them. But with the third-person, you can have a bigger emotional palette that you can pull from the players, because you can see the character – her face, her eyes, her emotions. It completely changes our approach to the game"
Click to expand...

"I think most people from Bloober Team are inspired by the Silent Hill series. I would say that Silent Hill 2 is my favourite horror game ever, because of its great story, atmosphere and music," says Piejko, his excitement when discussing the game's dual soundtrack from Bloober Team’s Arkadiusz Reikowski and legendary Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka is palpable. "When he said yes, it was a dream come true for us."
Click to expand...

A lot more in the article for anyone interested in the game. Definitely on my radar
 
darkangel-212559

darkangel-212559

Banned
Silent Hill 2 is my favourite game ever. Already knowing that the SH composer is doing the music was a day one buy for me.

Quite frankly I'm so desperate for a return to Silent Hill and knowing it's taking heavy inspiration from SH2 is enough for me make this game a system seller. It's a huge reason why I'm getting XsX on day one.

Plus Observer was amazing and I can't wait for redux to come out too.

I'm pretty sure this will be on Game Pass day one no?
 
Jtibh

Jtibh

Banned
I feel it will be an average game .
Observer was good but it was really just a walkin sim with some minor stealth sprinkled in here and there which was the highlight for me as it was very scary.
But overall an average game.

This doesnt look any better.
It certainly wont be a aaa blockbuster title.

In 2020 and after playing horror titles from this genre from clock tower silent hill etc to all the jump scare titles i need more then whats showen.

Pt was a good start resi 7 not so much if i look at the fear factor.
 
JareBear: Remastered

JareBear: Remastered

Banned
Jtibh said:
I feel it will be an average game .
Observer was good but it was really just a walkin sim with some minor stealth sprinkled in here and there which was the highlight for me as it was very scary.
But overall an average game.

This doesnt look any better.
It certainly wont be a aaa blockbuster title.

In 2020 and after playing horror titles from this genre from clock tower silent hill etc to all the jump scare titles i need more then whats showen.

Pt was a good start resi 7 not so much if i look at the fear factor.
Click to expand...

Walking Sim is my least favorite critique of games these days. I am not saying they don't exist, I am not saying it isn't a fair label sometimes, but I just think i gets used too often
 
johntown

johntown

Banned
GHG said:
Hopefully just for now.

This is probably going to be more on the walking sim side of horror rather than survival/action horror though.
Click to expand...
If done right (like the first Amnesia) walking simulators can be good but I prefer to have action myself.
 
Jtibh

Jtibh

Banned
Lawrence ‘Chunk’ Cohen said:
Walking Sim is my least favorite critique of games these days. I am not saying they don't exist, I am not saying it isn't a fair label sometimes, but I just think i gets used too often
Click to expand...
Its very accurate in this case.

Layers of fear was nothing more then that.

Observer again other then walking around investigating and hiding away from bosses there was no other mechanics in the game.

I call what remains of edit finch a walking simulator.

The solus project though had some survival mechanics was still just a walking simulator though i very much enjoyed it and finished it.

Obduction though again just walking around is a puzzle game so i would not call it a walking simulator.

If you reffer to death stranding or detroid and co that is always attacked by xfans or lets rewind hellblade that they always called another sony walking simulator till it hit xbox then yeah walking simulator is not the right term.
 
Last edited:
JOEVIAL

JOEVIAL

Has a voluptuous plastic labia
Lawrence ‘Chunk’ Cohen said:
Walking Sim is my least favorite critique of games these days. I am not saying they don't exist, I am not saying it isn't a fair label sometimes, but I just think i gets used too often
Click to expand...
johntown said:
If done right (like the first Amnesia) walking simulators can be good but I prefer to have action myself.
Click to expand...

We have to remember Silent Hill Shattered Memories... it was more of a running simulator than walking simulator :messenger_tears_of_joy: but yeah there was no combat in that game and it turned out be one of my favorites in the series. Incredibly good story!
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
I love how it took this long for one of these new developers to actually recognize all the freedom and tools that the 3rd person perspective can actually provide.

It just better not be yet another retread of SH2 storywise.
 
Last edited:
MoreJRPG

MoreJRPG

Suffers from extreme PDS
MasterCornholio said:
"You'll be able to shift seamlessly between the two in The Medium with – Bloober promises – no discernible load times or impact to game performance and graphics, thanks to the power of the Xbox Series X. "

This answers a really big question that I had.

Thank you for the article.
Click to expand...

They showed that off in the trailer, that Series X SSD at work. Really glad we’re finished with the HDD’s.
 
Last edited:
The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Banned
All their games were ambitious and all their games never delivered. This wont either. 100%. They just dont know what makes horror games great.
 
Last edited:
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Definitely looking forward to this one! May creep me the heck out when I play it but so did my all time fave survival horror, Silent Hill 2.

I hope it's a great homage to that one.
 
Last edited:
Exentryk

Exentryk

Member
Good thing this will be on GamePass. While I end up playing most of Bloober's games (coz of the atmosphere), I do feel they have a lot to improve. Let's see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Bloober Team and KONAMI Continue Their Collaboration (The Game Will Be Based on Konami's IP)
News
33
2K
Badlucktroll replied
Bloober Team Says It's Done Making "Shitty" Games And Silent Hill 2 Remake Wasn't A Fluke
Game Dev 2 3
138
7K
SJRB replied
Cronos features combat mechanic akin to Dead Space dismemberment and Alan Wake 2’s flashlight. Silent Hill 2 team now in preproduction for next title
News
10
1K
TerribleAtThisGame replied
'Silent Hill 2 remake is like fresh paint' Bloober 3.0
2
69
6K
Starbuck2907 replied
Bloober team is moving away from psychological horror
47
3K
Ansphn replied
Top Bottom