Layers of Fear-Official Review
This month, the steam alpha game Layers of Fear had its official release date on February 16th 2016 on multiple platforms, including Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Developed my Bloober Team, this single player, survival horror game takes you on a trippy journey as a painter who is finishing his final piece of art.
You awake in an empty house, it’s raining outside, and there is a locked door with a note stating that the key to the workshop is where it’s supposed to be. With a little exploring you find the key and some newspapers detailing a failing artist. When you enter the workshop, you see the canvas, sitting in the middle of the room blank. This is where the descent into insanity begins. Layers of Fear is a story driven game that takes you through the maze of the artist’s mind as he aims to create his masterpiece but there are many twists along the way.
Peeling back this onion of horror takes many different turns and is deeper than one thinks, as you begin collecting pieces for your magnum opus you begin experiencing more and more terror as you don’t know what you will encounter in the next room or what part of the artists story you will discover.
It is difficult to go into great detail without exposing plot and the fact that the layout randomly generates (shifts rooms to different parts of the story) when you leave and return to the game adds more to suspense and fear. There are puzzles to solve as you progress through the story which adds to the twisted settings that you are presented with.
Unlike traditional survival horror games, Layers of fear is so story driven that there is no battles or fighting, just lots and lots of scares. No matter how the layout of the house is, the game is still on a track and you will end up making progression regardless of where you are at. What drove me to finish this game was the story and what exactly happened to the artist and his family to hit this point, if you are someone who wants a good scare with minimal effort this is one to play.
Revisting this game after the alpha has been a blast. I am a horror adrenaline junkie and this fulfilled some of my need for a good creepy scare. Like P.T., the environment is absolutely gorgeous and the soundtrack creates a great environment to explore. Moving forward with the story has answered questions from before, but still left me with some more questions (maybe I need another playthrough), but Bloober team has taken you into the mind of someone who is off their rocker and nothing can make a game more interesting than being insane while finding answers.
Are you brave enough to complete your painting or will insanity consume you?
Review by Meghan Rodriguez (Twitter: @collins_m81)
