Layers of Fear it is certainly a “smart” product, given that we are not actually talking about a remake of the original chapter, but about a sort of great tribute to the series in its entirety. Bloober Team And Ansher Studios have chosen to give life to a package in Unreal Engine 5 designed above all to make themselves known to the new generation, players who have in fact never heard of the horror franchise in question.
This because Layers of Fear isin a nutshell, a repetition of the first two chapters – and of the original episode extra content known as Inheritance and unreleased DLC The Final Notes – plus one new story brand that sees at the center of the story a writer locked inside an old lighthouse. Once again madness, fear and a distorted and sick sense of art will dominate her, all well supported by hallucinations capable of making the nightmare trip increasingly chilling.
The obsessive search for the perfect and impeccable work of art is the objective of the protagonist of the first adventure, which took place in a villa with certainly fascinating Gothic features. Bloober Team tells a story of mental illness such as schizophrenia, with a sense of horror which is also and above all reflected on the walls around us, a “cage” for the mind even before a nefarious place of unspeakable horrors. This, in fact, is the Layers of Fear original, a game that offers very little gameplay side (in fact it is about walking for most of the time, performing rather elementary actions and interacting with some environmental elements), but which at the same time it really leaves a trace strong when we talk about atmosphere in the strict sense.
Speaking instead of its direct sequel, namely, Layers of Fear 2, the story is that of an actor who seems to have lost his way, unable to bear the weight of responsibilities and therefore fallen on hard times. Reconstructing his story will take us into the maze of another sick mind, exactly as happened in the first episode: Tony Todd’s narrative voice will help a lot to immerse himself in the limbs of a man who seems to have lost all reason for living, and who madness seems to wear down from within.
The art of horror
Unlike the progenitor, the second chapter Of Layers of Fear adds some gameplay which tries to go beyond the rather tedious walking simulator mechanics. Also in this case Bloober Team has chosen the path of interaction reduced to the bone, although the game appears significantly better and overall better balanced than its predecessor.
Finally, the chapter set in the lonely and ghostly lighthouse will put us in the shoes of a new protagonist, the writer, calling us to discover an unpublished story that it will effectively unite all the pieces left by the two main chapters. It is therefore not a real one Layers of Fear 3but of a rather short additional content but that will close the story and outstanding issues.
Unfortunately, the novelty at the level of gameplay included in this new edition of the two classics (plus the extra chapter of the lighthouse) are really minimal and almost irrelevant for the general gaming experience: the use of lamp (useful first of all to get rid of some nefarious appearances) is really a small thing compared to the artistic sector, once again able to ooze atmosphere from all pores (and in this case the use of a modern and performing graphics engine like the ‘Unreal Engine helps and not a little).
A scary makeover
It is also true that since these are two “old” games, this reissue in the guise of Layers of Fear however, it betrays a polygonal mass and some texture visibly out of step with the times, although at the end of the fair this isn’t such a serious flaw. Fortune wants the compartment audio is unassailable, today as yesterday, so much so that – in case you are equipped with headphones – the identification is total and the experience as a whole gains a lot, immersing you in a nightmare from which it will be really difficult to get out sane. To give a further hand, one soundtrack decidedly dark by the composer Arek Reikowski, creator of a hypnotic score capable of adding further tension and keeping us in suspense on more than one occasion.
In short, despite being absolutely enjoyable (especially for those who have never tried the series in their life), Layers of Fear it is “only” a revised and corrected version of small classics of the horror genre, neither more nor less. Three different stories with three protagonists obsessed with art (i.e. the painter, the actor and the writer), intertwined to give life to a horror-like experience that is all in all enjoyable in every step and in every facet. It is also true that if you were expecting a brand new chapter you will therefore be disappointed, in the face of a commercial operation aimed more at scraping together some change useful for the development of far more ambitious projects, rather than establishing itself as a new paradigm of the genre to which it belongs.
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