The Medium's Marianne might be lacking a standard-issue Matilda handgun, but did you catch these other nods to 90's Resi tropes?
There are no guns in The Medium. Nope, not even one.
Instead the game is built around puzzles. Much like the stealth-reliant psychological-horror machinations of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and obviously Silent Hill, heroine Marianne is virtually powerless as she uncovers the secrets of her past, able to only run from her demons rather than engage them in combat.
But aside from the dynamic split-screen offered by her psychic Insight, and aside from the austere setting of 1990's Poland, the game which The Medium seems to tip its hat to the most is none other than Capcom's early Resident Evil franchise (1996-1999).
Did you sense it too?
1) Fixed camera angles
Fixed camera angles and I do not get on, out of sheer principle. Yes I get that they add that extra aspect of framed narrative, wresting some control from the player and forcing them to always wonder what is waiting just out of shot, but honestly? I despise it.
Yet I was quite charmed by how The Medium (2021) used it to its advantage, a new and improved take on a decidedly 90's gaming trope.
The camera does move to shift its perspective with each step Marianne takes, allowing the player to discover alongside her as she traverses the derelict Niwa Centre. What's more, since The Medium is a puzzle game and not a survival horror gunslinger like the RE games, you don't even have to worry about the frustrating lack of aim precision!
It does make running away from the Maw quite aggravating as you need to be on the ball for those perspective changes, but in the end the tanky fixed-cam angles were one of the more memorable aspects of the game design.
2) Bolt cutters
The bolt cutters appear in almost every Resident Evil game. Dating back at least to 2003's Resident Evil: Outbreak and appearing right through to 2021's Resident Evil: Village, they may as well be billed as a recurring character in their own right.
In The Medium, Marianne spends a good chunk of the game picking her way through the detritus of Niwa in order to acquire her own.
Red, chunky, and with you to the bitter(sweet) end, these bad boys are as sure a sign as any that developers Bloober Team are fellow diehard Resi fans.
3) Setting & significance
Despite taking place in two separate countries, both Resident Evil games 1-3 and The Medium take place in 1998/99. A historically tumultuous time, one filled with excitement and uncertainty for the century to come, the games take stock of the past and gear up for the future in diametrically opposite ways.
Taking place in Raccoon City, somewhere in North America, Resident Evil can be seen as an externalised representation of the pain and suffering experienced by the American people at the hands of their own government.
Conversely, The Medium is an introspective analysis of the psychological permanence of loss and pain, leaving echoes through time which can't be erased.
The setting of post-Communist Poland allegorises this; Marianne must confront the ghosts of the past, helping them let go in order to move on.
Leon and Claire and Jill? They fend 'em off with bullets.
The Medium and Resident Evil are available on Steam and console now.
The latter is also still out there on PS1 and 2 of you're feeling old-school.
By Jasmine GW