Layers of Fear Review

*Copy that was given to us for review is the PS4 copy of the game*

Layers of Fear is a psychedelic horror where you take control over an insane painter in his quest to finish his magnum opus. Heavily inspired by the masterpiece paintings from the past centuries, and the architecture and decor from the XIX century. Or so the introduction tells you as you enter this mind blowing experience from start to finish. Layers of Fear acts like a Story told on rails, with some puzzles and plenty to scare you, or try to scare you as myself personally I never really jumped at all or felt scared during my gameplay session.

What the game does well is place together pieces of a broken puzzle of the who, what, and where inside of this painters mansion. You navigate through twisting hallways, see off the wall supernatural stuff, and get a pretty good experience along the way. As I said before it takes a ton for a game or even a movie to scare me anymore. As a kid sure I could be scared easy, now I am mister tough guy. Under two hours I went through the game from start to finish. Being road blocked by the occasional puzzle here and there. A bit short vs the price tag. Absolutely it was a great two hours. I was playing the game on the PS4 and felt a bottleneck on the system for sure. At times when things happened during cut-scenes or just walking through a room it would get pretty choppy or laggy. Making me think ether the games engine was reaching its peak or something wild like that. I do not want to spoil any of the plot. I will just say the game itself makes you navigate and find six items to make a painting. What these items are I am not telling you.

Gameplay is pretty basic. You move with your gamepad or keyboard and mouse and just wonder around until something happens. Things change or happen if you look around rooms. Many scene break out in front of you, ether hauntingly or making you crack up. Like a Doll running into a book shelf. I still can not stop laughing whenever I think about it. The game it self is more of a sit back experience for a cheap scare. It however is not really bad at all. Horror fans or folks who love good suspenseful films would fall in love with the game. The normal gamer will like its approach to what P.T. Could have been. Or what fans of the cult success of that interactive trailer/playable trailer put out by Konami then pulled back shortly after. Fans of it toke the reins and ponied up what is considerably a great idea in the first place and slapped a price tag on it. Was it reasonably priced? I could say its about the price of a newly released DVD then the twenty dollars marked on it. So about “$14.99”. Sure I could be told by many of its fans I am just flat out wrong. But that is just my opinion like they are giving out to me. A two hour experience is put into effect by the content you are given out. Sort of like by the pound you would get from a buffet Chinese restaurant. Sure the food is good but a lot of customers want the best value for their buck or red cent.It could have been a bit longer. I am not saying the game is bad at all due to the short nature of it. If I am saying I wished it was longer do you not think I want more? Of course! Heck the developers could make a new 7^th Guest game and I would probably buy it. Unity is a flawed engine, but works wonders if used correctly. Bloober Team SA toke that engine and made it shine. Glitches aside. The story itself is entwined with well told depth. You find items ether hidden or in plan sight in the game, that gives you more to the story of this artists life. At the end I was happy with the over all experience.

In Closing:

The game itself is great. It borrows from ideas mostly from P.T., Dear Esther, and dare I say Slender man. Toss in some adventure elements like puzzles and bobs-ya-uncle.

Recommended! –

– If you love a good Horror experience.

– Have two hours or so to kill.

– Do not mind a little gore and dolls bumping into burrows.

– I you got twenty bucks in your steam/PSN wallet itching to buy a game (though the game could be a little bit cheaper.)