At predetermined points along the main story path the screen will split to reveal the spirit world side by side with the material world, and you’ll suddenly be controlling two versions of Marianne at the same time. Of course, almost every room in The Medium is a dark room, and they only get darker. But elsewhere there are some satisfyingly hands-on methods you need to employ, and I particularly enjoyed the simple pleasure of arranging trays of photography chemicals and dunking the paper in the right sequence of solutions in order to develop a photo correctly in a dark room.

Much of the clue gathering is admittedly fairly straightforward in a mechanical sense, using Marianne’s insight ability on discarded objects found in the world to reveal information about the fate of their owners, for example, or to highlight the ghostly footsteps that point the way forward. Determining the extent of the evil atrocities that went down within the hotel’s walls and identifying the perpetrators soon becomes the main focus, one that I took great morbid delight in as I pieced together each and every sinister scrap of evidence along its bloodsoaked breadcrumb trail. She’s a spirit guide who is lured to an abandoned resort in the Polish hinterland hoping to uncover the origin of her clairvoyant abilities, and her consistently wry observations – delivered by actress Kelly Burke – kept the mood from becoming too dire in what is an otherwise intensely disturbing detective tale. I quickly warmed to the self-deprecating charm of The Medium’s split-screen scream queen, Marianne. It’s a stylish and clever technique that’s used to consistently engaging effect, allowing for some stimulating puzzle design and exhilarating moments of reality-hopping cat and mouse with a truly memorable monster. Such is the novel gameplay hook central to The Medium, an enthralling psychological horror adventure that splits your focus between a gloomy real-world setting and a haunting parallel spirit world, with actions performed in one having a measurable impact on the other.

There are always two sides to every story, but rarely does the audience get to experience them both at the same time.

The medium review