12/27/2023 0 Comments Layers of fear![]() It winds up more memorable than the original's house, which feels the same room to room, albeit with some nightmarish scenes of its own to play off of. While the other games all take place in endless darkness, Layers of Fear 2 is set aboard a cruise ship where a movie was to be filmed, and it's not afraid to turn the lights on at times, constantly toying with different palettes and scenery. ![]() Unlike the needlessly overt original, the sequel is perhaps too shrouded in metaphor at times, though it does make piecing it all together more interesting.įor those who never played the original Layers of Fear games, this reimagined package is definitely a better first experience than the old versions The highlight is certainly Layers of Fear 2, which does more with its setting and story than the rest of the series combined. ![]() Inheritance also winds up being mechanically frustrating due to some confusing puzzles, but its intent to show the world through the eyes of a child make it more memorable than anything the other pieces do, unless you count the new DLC's broken enemy encounters, during which the ghost chasing me get stuck halfway in the floorboards. The Final Note DLC seeks to over-explain even more by putting you in the role of the one person you never play as in the original or its Inheritance DLC. The first game also feels desperate to avoid being misunderstood, to the point where its story is laid out so bare, it betrays the adage of "show, don't tell" at every turn. The novelty of entering a room, seeing something weird happen, then turning to find the environment has seamlessly changed before you is occasionally mind-melting, but never, ever scary. Even in these new versions-which try to add more possible game-over screens-moments are too scripted and enemies are basically non-existent. Layers of Fear has always been more like an amusement park ride than a survival-horror experience, and that MO just doesn't feel conducive to generating actual tension. This delivery is compelling, but it has the odd effect of making each individual piece more of a letdown, as they largely struggle to hold up on their own. Light combat elements have been added to address past complaints, but they don't add much to the games. It feels like a horror anthology, such as V/H/S, only in this case, all the individual stories ultimately share a universe. Like those in the main games, the writer is dealing with her own hauntings, and I find the format classy and quite novel for the medium. Built directly into the game as you progress through its connected parts, you'll routinely jump back to a lighthouse where a writer tells the story of the game's other haunted artists: the painter, the actor, and the musician. The best part of all of this is actually the framing narrative, The Writer's Story. The first game's brief Inheritance DLC is also included, and a brand-new DLC meant to wrap the series up more neatly than before, The Final Note, makes its debut. Both games receive new but ultimately shallow mechanics allowing for a few combat sections in which you'll need to blast stalking ghosts with light to stall them while you escape their maze-like settings. Some scenes have been redesigned or added-or even removed, if my memory serves me correctly. Layers of Fear and its sequel both return roughly 80% the same as you may have experienced them before. Perhaps the first hurdle in critiquing the series' reinvention is explaining exactly what this package offers. The new engine makes the game a visual benchmark, but it still feels more like a haunted house at a theme park, offering the illusion of danger but never something sincerely threatening. However, its haunts remain largely empty. Now, reborn on Unreal Engine 5 with new content interspersed with what was there before, Layers of Fear (2023) looks to be the definitive way to experience the horror series. Both games were, in my opinion, fine, but nothing more. The sequel continued the original's themes of tortured artists, but swapped a painter for an actor, and offered arguably even more inventive visuals. Bloober Team's original Layers of Fear (2016) became an almost overnight gaming sensation when its mind-bending Steam Early Access version gave players some truly imaginative sights.
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