Bloober Team and Anshar Studios are taking players back with a reimagining of the cult classic horror-narrative game, Layers of Fear. This time the game is served up with a twist for fans that include an all-new narrative following the story of The Writer, being tortured by her craft. I want to thank Bloober Team for allowing me the opportunity to check out the game, how does this latest installment fair compared to the others? Let’s check it out!
Layers of Fear takes place at an old lighthouse where players take on the role of a writer who is struggling with both writer’s block, and success, all the while she’s trying to make a deadline but a supernatural entity makes its presence known and offers to help.
Now onto the game itself. I’m going to be very brief here because there are other things that should be mentioned about this game: Overall control-wise, fans of the first two games will be happy to know that in this one the controls are pretty much the same. The sound design is OK but there are some glitches (late sound effects, missing sound, (non-in-game) static noises, and as usual, stunning art.
The main thing about Layers of Fear that I really don’t like is this, It’s a replay of the first two games… you play them all over. The only difference is once in a while, there’s a break with the writer showing what she’s up to at the lighthouse…which is not much. The game includes two DLCs from the previous games that you can play but has nothing to do with the Writer’s story, much like the other two games which is being implied that they’re the works of the Writer.
This is where it gets confusing from the viewpoint of the story, the entity claims to have been involved with helping the Painter and Actor achieve their goals, this is true because you do see her appear in the first two games, BUT this game makes it look like that the stories of the Painter and Actor are a result of the Writer.
Overall the game is great but I was extremely disappointed that it was not what I thought it was going to be. The impression I got was the game was a new installment and that you will visit the worlds of both the first and second Layers of Fear as part of the Writer’s story… not that you replay both games and once in a while there’s a break with the Writer. I’m sure there are multiple endings for The Writer based on how you do in the other games, but the ending I got was so sudden. It felt like the whole “The Writer” story was an idea but no one could come up with a good story for it so in the end they just repackaged the game.
On my scale of 1-10, this Layers of Fear, the inclusion of the two DLCS did not save this Clip Showesque game from its 5 rating as there’s nothing new that was brought into the story. I would honestly say if you’re interested in getting this game, you should really wait for it to go on sale because if you want to just play Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2, play those on their own. The complete lack of story for the Writer and how it was blatantly discarded really bothered me. What worries me more is that this lazy attempt at a game was done by the same people who are remaking Silent Hill 2!
If you’re still interested, Layers of Fear is out now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
