Let’s begin with the most fundamental question before jumping in: Who is this game for? Layers of Fear is a climactic blend of a “walking simulator” and horror portrayed in first-person, with the game’s centre of gravity firmly skewed towards the first of these aspects. Exploration is the most crucial factor here, and it takes the lead. Following that, we will face rigorous tale discovery and problem solving. Layers of Fear may provide you with roughly 10-12 hours of unique experiences peppered with inventiveness and gorgeous visuals if you appreciate the gameplay style centred on exploring ambient settings and reading notes. However, if you’re searching for a dynamic, brutal, and horrifying horror, this isn’t the place to be, and Bloober Team will at best boring you to death.
We start the game with a short prologue about a writer coming to a mystery lighthouse to work on a novel. If you think that the original games’ storylines of the painter and actor were presented here as chapters of a book written by a new character, you’ve won the jackpot. Following a brief prelude, we travel to a familiar estate to begin work on a painting grand opus. Throughout the game, we return to the lighthouse to discover the writer’s fate, although these chapters are not unduly long and can be completed in a matter of minutes. The author’s tale is pretty poor, and by the second visit to the lighthouse, I had had enough of this plot axis. Fortunately, the painter’s and actor’s stories fare considerably better. This isn’t to say we’re dealing with feature masterpieces. The majority of the events are revealed to us through cryptic notes and purposefully perplexing speech. The narrative demands our attention, yet even if we carefully read all of the letters and diary pages, we may still be perplexed by the conclusion. I suppose that this was done on purpose by the authors, but I get the idea that they went a little too far in confounding the receiver at points.
While the new Layers of Fear attempts to improve on many of the original games’ weaker parts and riddles, the activities remain fairly straightforward. The most difficult challenge can just be discovering some keys that are nicely hidden right beneath the player’s nose. Fortunately, indications may frequently be discovered in notes, as well as in the interior design of the rooms, which can discreetly bring us to the goal.It’s also worth noting that the actor’s tale, i.e. the remake of Layers of Fear 2, has slightly more intriguing puzzles than the painter’s story. There will also be a few challenges to solve that border on brilliance and are very innovative. Unfortunately, there aren’t many of them, and the great bulk of the remainder involves either discovering the code concealed in an obvious location or navigating the continuously shifting mazes of hallways. These are my sole criticisms of the new Layers of Fear. Despite a few problems and design decisions that I didn’t agree with, Bloober Team’s creation isn’t a horrible game. It’s just not a great game, which the makers must have known for a long time – after all, it’s not that different from the originals, and the dubbing is still mediocre. However, you can see that a lot of effort and emotion went into this, particularly in the creative layer.
Layers of Fear is a really attractive game that also functions virtually flawlessly. Aside from the creativity and visual flair, the environments appear nearly absurd for a game of this grade, and wandering the infinite passageways is a treat in itself. While certain areas felt a little too bright or dark, some small sound effects occasionally didn’t play at all, and there were some physics anomalies on some items, the creators have long been aware of these concerns and vow to resolve these sorts of defects in the launch update. Even if it didn’t, Layers of Fear is one of the most well-crafted and well-optimised games. The game also has a fantastic atmosphere, despite the fact that it completely fails to terrify, which generally takes the form of jump scares and clichés such as weeping children or flickering shadows of human silhouettes. Nonetheless, the world is continually changing in front of our eyes or as soon as we glance away for a second, which always impresses. Turning around often results in an entirely new area, and the developers make imaginative use of the Unreal Engine and Lumen lighting technology.
We’ll encounter some errors here and there, but they appear to be purposefully put in the game environment in Layers of Fear. It is obvious that this is a lower-quality and lower-budget film, but its creators demonstrated that they had “something” in them. Remember that the majority of the issues here are attributable to the original material, not the Bloober Team’s present talents.
However, I couldn’t get the feeling that Layers of Fear is merely an imitation of the Silent Hill 2 Remake. I enjoyed what I saw aesthetically, artistically, and technically, and I’m sure Konami’s decision makers did as well. Bloober Team with Layers of Fear most likely persuaded the Japanese to offer a blessing and a licence to revive the cult horror.