Layers of Fear (2023) Review
Layers of Fear (2023) is both a remake, a refinement and an expansion of the series as a whole. This is not a simple new coat of paint, you can tell a lot of love has gone into this collection. In this package, you get remakes of Layers of Fear, Layers of Fear 2 and two side stories from the first game. Tieing the narrative all together is a brand-new scenario set in a lighthouse.
It’s essentially five different campaigns you are getting to playthrough and takes around 20 hours to see the all through to their conclusions. Each game plays similarly to the other and they are story-driven, horror-themed walking simulators with some light puzzle-solving thrown in for good measure.
Layers of Fear is split up into separate chapters which are all cleverly tied together by what I am going to call the Lighthouse Scenario.
The Painter is our primary protagonist in the first Layers of Fear, a once well-renowned artist. He married a very talented musician who was essentially the Painters muse, they had a daughter together and all was well until an accident caused the wife to be permanently disfigured.
You’ll find out through various newspaper clippings and notes scattered throughout their mansion that the Painter desperately did all he could to restore his wife back to her old self asking for second opinions and willing to spare no expense. Sadly, nothing could be done and the Painter slumped into a deep depression and without his wife’s music, he lost his muse and his ability to paint diminished.
The main gameplay in this campaign is the Painter wandering around his mansion desperately trying to finish his magnum opus while slowly being driven insane in the process. You collect notes and scraps which expand on the story involving the fire, the gradual breakdown of the Painters and Musicians’ marriage along with some darker stuff I will not go into due to spoilers. It’s a good story!
There’s an overwhelming creepy atmosphere to the mansion, you’ll often see something out of the corner of your eye. Controls are very simple, apart from the analogue sticks you’ll only be using R2 to open doors and investigate items and the square button to zoom.
R2 functions like grabbing something with your hand, you hold down R2 to grab and release it to let go. This allowed me to successfully pull every single door closed behind me, which is something I would definitely be doing if I was in the same situation.
Great use is made of the PS5’s DualSense controller with haptics used for footsteps adding immersion. This is the one PS5 title that I found to make fantastic use of the adaptive trigger functionality, certain gates and metal doors you would slide closed had a much heavier feel to them and it was something that I was pleasantly surprised by during my playthrough.
Layers of Fear uses the mansion to great effect, rooms shift position often and you can feel the insanity that is forming within the Painter. As you progress through the highly detailed Victorian rooms you’ll discover pieces of canvas that act as a sort of pseudo-collectable with around five to find within each chapter.
Each chapter of the Painter’s story feels more demented, you’ll constantly be second-guessing every room you enter as you solve some of the mansion’s clever puzzles. Throughout the first part of the game, there’s no real threat to the player apart from a couple of chase sequences, the second half of the game sees you equipped with a lantern, which can slow down a certain pursuer-type enemy that you’ll come across later.
The lantern also can ‘dispel’ interference, you’ll often come across red and black distorted areas and items that you can use the lantern on to reveal an item or pathway.
Personally, I found the Painter’s chapters to be the most interesting, I much preferred the more Victorian setting and characters. The story further expands in The Inheritance where you play as the daughter and even more so by the inclusion of the Final Note where you play as the Musician and get to see things from a different perspective. Each of these side stories will take you a few hours to complete and are well worth a look, especially if you enjoy your time with the Painter.
After wrapping up the painter’s story, it’s back to the Lighthouse, here you will have the option to start either the Inheritance story or the Final Note which is done in a very clever way allowing you to choose to play them by selecting a book. If you don’t select them, after a little bit of story that I won’t spoil you’ll end up on a ship.
The Actor’s campaign takes place on a cruise ship and has some of the best sea visuals I have ever seen, the setting makes me feel like I want to be there. Apart from the mannequins, they give me the creeps and rightly so!
You’ve agreed to take on an acting role onboard this ship and follow orders from the director, a somewhat eccentric person who essentially narrates a lot of what happens to our main character mainly via small interjections and observations of the player’s performance.
Gameplay is almost identical to the first Layers of Fear except this time around you can duck using the triangle button. In lieu of the lantern, you’ll now find a flashlight. The flashlight can be used to animate various mannequins throughout the ship, this can be used for something as simple as the mannequin lifting a box so you can duck under it to proceed further or to animate to lean over and give you a set of keys, it’s quite the nice mechanic.
As you explore deeper you unravel a story of child abuse and eventually, another fire which had life-changing results on our protagonist and their sibling. I won’t go into much more detail due to spoilers, but a few mechanics have been reworked such as the way combination locks work etc, it took a little bit of getting used to coming directly off the Painter’s scenario.
Overall, Layers of Fear 2 didn’t grip me in the same way as the first game although I have to admit, I was quite taken with setting the different endings are can unlock are quite clever. It’s still a great game and kept me wanting to find out more about the narrative.
Layers of Fear is one of the most visually impressive games I’ve played. Even in performance mode which is where I spent most of my time. It’s really exciting to see what Unreal Engine 5 can do when in the hands of a competent team, I lost count of just how many times I found myself stopping and looking in awe at the hyper-realistic environments.
The use of music is subtle but effective, especially the haunting piano pieces played throughout the Painter’s campaign. That’s not to say that the other campaigns’ music was bad, but I much preferred the first’s use of sound.
Conclusion
Layers of Fear is a fantastic horror collection and a is a must-play for any fan of the genre. The additional narrative elements tie everything together nicely and in a subtle manner. The Painter’s story is still by far the most interesting to me so it’s nice to see the inclusion of the two DLC stories for that campaign.
The great stories told are equally backed up by great visuals. Each of the games in this collection looks stunning and Layers of Fear will now be my benchmark going forward in terms of visuals.
For the 20+ hours of content Layers of Fear is well worth your time and money even if you have already played through the original games.
8
PS5 review code kindly provided by Evolve PR