preface
Psychic Medium is a third-person psychological horror game. Deserted abandoned mansions, flashing lights and jumpface plot (the game has the impression of looking like a jump face) is almost the standard of horror games, and what attracts me to the game is its dual world of real world and psychic world setting. The overall difficulty of the game is low, the game flow is also very short, I only took 9 hours to complete the level, the game fragmented recounting although the play time is compressed a lot, but the game's story is also more jerky to understand. However, the horror atmosphere of the game is less rendered, not so much a horror game, and a more specific description should be a puzzle walking game with a horror atmosphere.
Angels and demons
Psychic medium refers to a person who can communicate between the yin and yang worlds and transcend the ghosts of those who have left behind the world, as a special profession, the game only refers to the heroine Marianne. Because she works in the funeral home and is understood by the owner and adoptive father, the heroine has been silently like an "angel" who has exceeded her wishes. The balance is shattered with the death of his adoptive father Jack and a plea for help from a stranger, Thomas. The heroine's adoptive father Jack this section is very infectious, the father is still preparing for the next trip to the funeral home, Marianne persuaded Jack to take a break, this section not only shows the ability of the medium, but also shows the heroine's self-improvement and gentle side.
There are ghosts and ghasts, demon monsters formed by the distortion of negative emotions, and have independent and paranoid thoughts, because the ability of the body survives, and the monsters that exist as doppelgangers are almost immortal beings. Monsters have the ability to come to this world for a short time, but if they want to stay in the world for a long time, they need a skin bag, and the heroine is undoubtedly the best candidate. As the only and most terrifying existence, the sense of oppression given by the Demon Giant Mouth in the chase and peek-a-boo links is also very large. The best way to overcome the fear is to face him, as long as you face the monster once, the horror of the game is not enough to be afraid, which is why I think the game is not enough to fear the atmosphere, the source of horror is single and clumsy.
Fragmented collectible plot
The game takes place in an abandoned resort, the traces left in the ruins, the soul remnants and monsters are crying in this building of the tragedy, the game takes a path of collecting items and soul remnants, and independently piecing together the plot fragments. All things that can be interacted with can automatically display interactive prompts after approaching a certain distance, which is a very convenient detail in the puzzle solving process, and many items that can be interacted with will have a spot of light on them, and if you look directly at a period of time, you can hear the dialogue of the stored items, in addition, some scattered soul remnants can be repaired by adjusting the angle, and at the same time obtain a dialogue of the shadow at that time.
It can be said that the game is a linear play process, through the restriction and guidance of each person who plays to experience the same game, but the game experience gives me the feeling of a time-limited puzzle, in the same process, not only to collect enough fragments, but also to sort out the plot well, there is no straightforward plot narration to tell you what happened, all of which are based on their own collection of items to summarize and reason out. Some people know what happened after playing, but there are also players who don't know what to do.
The game's narration is in a human tone, and the cutscenes occasionally give Marianne a leisurely seat at a table telling the story of the adventure the player is experiencing. Playing is telling, Marianne is talking to the player This is my initial conjecture of the game cutscenes, because there is no one opposite Marianne, can't the player still talk to the air? But this is "Psychic Medium", at that time, I did not expect to be a dialogue with the soul, in addition, taking two glasses of water and handing out and retracting the action also confirmed that there was someone on the other side, and finally arrived at this table, accompanied by the "Fade" created by Akira Yamaoka, the memory and reality were in line with reality, and the perfect connection continued to go, the truth was still revealed, and the next thing was how to save her sister Lillian.
The collaborative puzzle of the two worlds in the split screen
What attracted me the most about the game was the setting of the two worlds of reality and the spirit world, two perspectives. At first glance, it seems particularly novel, but when you really experience it yourself, it feels more or less familiar, a flash of inspiration, isn't this VR? The screen is divided into two, one side is the body, one is the spirit body, the main body side is like wearing a device in the air, and the spirit body side is your appearance in VR. And this kind of scene is the same action, and the puzzle made in the similar scene can be said to be to find a difference, when the two worlds have the same road to go, on the contrary, as long as one of them hinders the action, they cannot move forward together. The gameplay in the split-screen mode is to find a path in the spirit world that cannot be traveled in the world, and then split the spirit body to explore. When the routine is used repeatedly, this cooperative puzzle solving is more or less disappointing.
But the negative feedback brought by such a split screen is still quite obvious, one is to drop the frame, each time it cuts to two different pictures, it is accompanied by a large drop frame, I myself am a 30 frame to 10 frame fluctuation experience, I can play on the line. The other is the distribution of attention, two pictures, two people, but the terrain of the two is roughly the same, staring at a screen is easy to miss the clue on the other side, such as a road interrupted by reality, in the spirit world is intact, this time can let the spirit body first look for clues, at this time if you have been looking at the real world, the default rules out the possibility of this broken road. Staring at two screens at the same time is not very realistic, it may not have much impact when watching videos, and the attention is basically on one screen when actually playing.
Fixed lens of the third point of view
Not a first-point horror game, the jump face plot is very rare, in fact, the game does not have a sudden jump face scary plot. Fixed lens is also said to be a film lens, this perspective gives people a feeling of looking at the story, is an ordinary straight line, during the close shot, side, and then pull a long shot, all kinds of angles without dead angle shooting, drawbacks also have, can not adjust the perspective at any time according to their own needs, sometimes it will always be very uncomfortable, when the straight line suddenly turns to a perspective of other directions, but also need to adjust the walking direction according to the perspective, for example, when the underground chase war, is the perspective of various east and west turns. Although in the end there is no danger. This perspective reminds me of another puzzle game, Seberia: Before the World, with the same perspective, but the click-through operation makes the perspective change less uncomfortable.
summary
9 hours of cinematic plot perception, almost unsolvable dead end, "Psychic Medium" to give me a very good game experience, but the way to hold your breath and squat can play the devil giant mouth is really a bit boring. I hope that the game has more content for split screens and is optimized a little more. Regarding the end of the game, with a gunshot, the game quickly ushered in the end, and whether it was Vivian or Marianne who died last, the game left such a question, but thomas, the easter egg ghost in the final screen of the game, has actually hinted at Marianne's tragedy and the possibility of the next game.