When people are trapped in fear, our animal instincts come out. When we’re scared, our brain produces adrenaline and cortisol, the neurotransmitters that get our heart beating, our blood pumping faster, and our body preparing to defend itself and flee to safety. The whole body is on high alert and our instincts take control of us. This is exactly how I feel, brimming with adrenaline and cortisol after playing the new Layers of Fear.
Layers of Fear is a psychological thriller, but despite the name it’s neither a remake nor a remaster of the original of the same name (nor is Layers of Fear 3). The “rebirth” of the franchise is best described with reimagined versions of the original Layers of Fear and its sequel, Layers of Fear 2, as well as The Final Note (a new expansion) and The Writer, a new chapter that connects to all describe the above.
You begin by playing The Writer, set in an abandoned lighthouse where a writer has locked himself away to find the quiet time he needs to write (remember that, Alan?). After a brief introduction to The Writer, you come to what I remember from the original Layers of Fear, or aka The Painter as it’s called here. This time you take on the role of a painter with serious mental health problems who is about to create his final masterpiece. Now her sanity is in question as she constantly moves around her huge Victorian home while horrifying events unfold before your very eyes. The new expansion “The Final Note” sheds light on the painter and his family from his wife’s point of view.
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Next, play The Actor (or Layers of Fear 2) and put yourself in the shoes of an actor who, on the orders of a sophisticated 1930s director, boards a cruise ship to see if he has what it takes to be the star of the director’s next film (remember that, King Kong?). However, one notices immediately that it is about much more than a normal casting.
The gameplay is quite simple: you have to move around the lighthouse, the huge painter’s house, the abandoned cruise ship and other nightmarish worlds while exploring the surroundings and solving simple puzzles. It’s like a running simulator scary and confused and as such it works quite well. The Painter now comes equipped with a lantern that can be used to illuminate the environment to find clues to new puzzles, and to briefly incapacitate enemies to escape. Ditto for the flashlight in The Actor.
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Layers of Fear is a game where the atmosphere is crucial and this new installment shouldn’t be less important. Mysterious events are happening all the time, and often it’s the little hints or glimpses, such as silhouettes or shadows, that end up being more frightening than facing the devil himself. You are exposed to traumatic scenes: paintings that melt, flying objects, mannequins that appear where none were, doors you just walked through that become new corridors, rooms that are destroyed the moment They turn around, or entire rooms that become impossible versions of themselves or disintegrate before your eyes.
Obviously, the importance of sound is paramount in a game like Layers of Fear. The scariest moments are those when there is silence or you can barely hear anything that seems to be in the distance. Or the sound of a bell. Or a slight creaking behind you. But it’s so faint that you don’t know if you’re imagining it or not. If you dare, you should play with good headphones, especially considering that the game has an effective binaural sound setup.
Layers of Fear is one of the first titles to use the Unreal Engine 5 game engine. I don’t know how much the game benefits from it, but I’m sure it’s a very nice game. Very beautiful and very well designed. Bloober Team’s designers know perfectly how to design these terrifying rooms and combine them with excellent lighting and other visual details to create one of the most beautiful and well-staged horror games of all time.
The only problem with the graphics is that the contrast is a little off at times and it can be difficult to see what’s going on. Fortunately, the Bloober team shares that they are already working on a patch that should fix this issue ahead of its release. Finally, it should be noted that the game offers two different graphics modes: the quality mode at 30 fps, which offers ray tracing, 4K resolution and enhanced lighting; and Performance mode at 60 fps, albeit without ray tracing and at a lower resolution.
Layers of Fear has always been one of my favorite horror games, mainly because it has always been accompanied by an excellent setting and not so many cheap special effects. The new Layers of Fear takes the atmosphere and terror to a new level thanks to the beautiful graphics and exquisite soundtrack. Layers of Fear may not be for everyone as it is less of a game and more of an experience. The gameplay is very simple as you hardly need to move to open doors, search closets and drawers, solve some simple puzzles and get scared from time to time.
If you like this type of game, Layers of Fear is one of the best I’ve seen. I can’t remember the last time I experienced a game with such an intense and uncomfortable environment as Layers of Fear. And in this context it is to be understood as great praise.