Bringing together both games in the series along with new content, Layers of Fear provides a new way to experience these psychological horror games that should appeal to both existing fans and new players alike.
Layers of Fear
Developer: Bloober Team
Price: $30
Platform: PC (reviewed), PS5, Xbox Series X|S
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review.
While the title might cause some confusion, Layers of Fear is a reimagining that includes both the original Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2, as well as additional content. Instead of being a strict remake or remaster, these two psychological horror games have been adjusted to fit together into a new overarching narrative.
The first Layers of Fear follows a painter trying to complete his masterpiece in an ever-shifting house. As you explore, you find notes and letters shedding light on the backstory and slowly revealing the tragedy of the painter and his family. Like in the original version, one of its greatest strengths is how the environment changes behind you, so that you often turn around to see something different than what was there before. It’s subtle horror, and that makes it all the creepier. Layers of Fear is a largely linear experience, as you walk from one room to another, solving simple puzzles to access the next area the game wants you to be in, which is probably its greatest weakness as a horror game. You use the right trigger to grab objects and interact with them, whether it’s to read a note, hear flashback dialogue to learn a new piece of the backstory, or use the item to solve a puzzle, and that’s a majority of what you’ll do to progress.
However, this new version adds an additional mechanic once you find a lantern. While it allows you to light up dark places, it also can be used to defend yourself. The new Layers of Fear adds enemy encounters to the painter’s story, with a monster appearing at certain points to chase you. Your flashlight only temporarily stops the enemy, which makes these chases quite tense. Layers of Fear becomes genuinely scary as a result, although the first game’s looping hallways and repeated environments often turn these chases into annoyances, as you race through areas that all look the same, trying to figure out what the game wants you to do to progress. While this makes for quite a substantial difference, it felt in keeping with the story’s themes. Most importantly, this and other changes make the game much less reliant on jumpscares than the original was.
Layers of Fear also includes the original game’s DLC episode, in which you play as the painter’s daughter and see the story from her eyes, as well as a new side story that follows the painter’s wife. Her story features areas that allow for a bit more exploration to solve their puzzles. It also sees the return of the enemy encounters, although they seem a bit more out of place here. While getting yet another perspective on the first game probably wasn’t necessary, it was a nice change of pace with some excellent symbolic imagery in its environments.
In contrast to some significant changes and additions made to the first game, the new incarnation of Layers of Fear 2 is fairly close to the original. When I reviewed Layers of Fear 2 back in 2019, I criticized it for having tedious chase sequences and an underwhelming ending. I still think this story, which follows an actor on board a mysterious ship, is the weaker of the two games in terms of narrative, but the addition of the flashlight mechanic made its chases much more enjoyable. Like in the painter’s story, your flashlight only stuns the monster briefly, but that’s just enough to buy a few extra seconds so you don’t have to rely on having perfect timing. The flashlight also plays a role in the rest of the gameplay, as focusing it on mannequins makes them act out their roles. For example, a mannequin under your flashlight’s beam might break down a door to open up the required path or reach out to give you an item.
Now, this isn’t just a collection of Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2 with some added mechanics. A new story has also been added to tie everything together. This story follows a writer, who has come to a mysterious, creepy lighthouse in order to work on a story. Rather than be told all at once, the writer’s chapters are spread throughout the game. At certain points in the game, it cuts back to the writer for you to play as her and get a few more details about her story before returning to the others. Narration from the writer also plays at certain points in the other stories, along with some hints and signs that they’re all connected.
I almost wish the writer’s story was a third game in the series instead. I was much more interested in what was happening in the present-day storyline with the writer than in how these new story elements influenced the other two stories, and I was disappointed by how quickly the writer’s story was wrapped up after the end of the Layers of Fear 2 segment.
Outside of the new storyline, Layers of Fear has some other useful additions. For players who don’t want to worry about the monster killing them (or get stuck on a chase one too many times), there is a safe mode option where enemies can’t kill you. For players interested in seeing different aspects of the story, there is a Chapter Mode that lets you start from any completed chapter to play through again and tracks your progress separately from the regular Story Mode. Meanwhile, the game looks beautiful, and I ran into only a few technical issues aside from a bug where I slowly fell out of the game world, which occurred twice during the painter’s story. Layers of Fear is an interesting approach to remaking the previous games, and I look forward to seeing if they intend to do any more with this series in the future.
The Final Word
If you’re hoping for something new with Layers of Fear, you should be aware that the majority of your time will be spent on the original Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2. At the same time, if you just want to replay those games, keep in mind that the new structure means it’s not as simple as that. But for fans who want to experience the games in a new way or newcomers to the series trying it out for the first time, the new Layers of Fear keeps the games largely true to the originals’ themes while also making some notable improvements.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
