What is the one thing that scares you the most about playing a video game? I think most of you out there will say the fear of death. This isn’t the kind of fear where you wet your pants, instead it’s the knowledge that just around the corner, on the next screen, that the next boss can lead to a game over situation. So what happens when you take away any fear of death? What happens when you create a horror themed game yet don’t give the player any real reason to be scared? Well, you end up with Layers of Fear.
Layers of Fear picks up on the popular trend of PT clones, and while PT was simply a demo meant to spook you, the idea of people turning that sole idea of an endless, linear hallway into a multi hour game shows how limiting a concept it really is. Layers of Fear sees you in the role of a person in a spooky house. The game lets you know that you are a painter working on some sort of grand painting as you slowly lose your mind and facilities, or have already done so -things get weird. The idea is fantastic and I commend the developers for using the artist motif to craft something fresh, but it doesn’t really ever rise above being a glorified tech demo for the new Unity engine.
Layers of Fear has you walking around the house exploring to find out just what the hell is going on. As you progress the game will get more wild as your painting progresses into something more and more morbid. Again, that idea works really well, it’s just the that the execution really falls flat. The game is essentially a point-and-click adventure game, but you do at least get to interact with objects in a neat way using a grab commend, and opening and closing doors/drawers with the control stick. It goes a long way to make you feel more involved, but it felt like 90% of the things to look through were empty. Also, you are going to be opening a lot of stuff.. Like, A LOT of needless stuff. As you progress there will be a number of clues about the weird things happening in the house, but Layers of Fear never really dives into the meat of the matter. It instead chooses to keep things really vague, and just when you get a taste of something interesting, the game veers you in another direction. Less is more often works well, but there is a fine line between feeding the audience just enough to let them put the pieces together, or just being vague in an attempt to be avant-garde and snooty.
The game tries to play a lot like Gone Home, but the execution fails to deliver like that game did. Unlike Gone Home, Layers of Fear is one of the most linear games I’ve played in some time. The hallway mechanic of PT is neat for a little bit, but after about 30 minutes you are going to wish you could explore the house at your own pace. The main mechanic that the game uses is neat, but also gets annoying and predictable far too quickly. When you enter a room, or initiate a scripted event, the room behind/around you will change. You may reach a locked door in a room, but if you turn around you’ll be in a new part of the house. or new door (SO MANY DOORS) will show up. This happens all the time and really negates the few jump scares that the game throws at you. Yes, you are going to jump at first, but after you understand the game, you’ll know exactly when to expect that BOO scare that makes so many YouTube scare cam people all that money. Sadly, even the jump scares get recycled multiple times. The crazy PT lady clone is here and snatches you up, then does it again not too much later. You also get a creepy baby-doll scare and then get it a dozen more times. Heck, I’m not even sure there are any other jump scares besides the two things over and over again. I spent the last half of the game just walking about not even being affected by any scares, instead just opening anything I saw while the game tried in vain to spook me.
Layers of Fear relies on these tired and repetitive jump scares and while it attempts to copy the narrative of Gone Home, it just falls really flat. There is an interesting story under there someplace, but it just never gets explored with any great depth. Odds are you will finish the game and say to yourself, “That’s it?” The game also only runs a few hours with my competition time being just over three-hours. Even with such a short game it felt like it was dragging by the end. Again, not having the fear of perma-death really hinders the game from being something truly special. There are times where you have to run away from monster lady, but if she can’t kill you, then where is the real fear in being caught or hauling ass out of the room? I really would have loved to have seen Layers of Feel opened up a bit more gameplay wise and have a stronger narrative pacing instead of being so linear and predictable.
One big issue that cropped up during my review was me getting sick. The game uses a weird walking style (makes sense in the game) for the player, but this motion is so unnatural that it gave me motion sickness on two separate occasions. The first time I have to stop playing and lay down for a while just to get my bearings back. The games transition effects also didn’t help as I was stumbling around. But don’t think that I hate Layers of Fear, no matter how much I am knocking the game. The developers have something special here, and the ideas they are trying to present are worth developing more. Unfortunatly, Layers of Fear ends up being a pretty boring game with small bits of greatness that just never truly get developed like they should be.
Where the game does really shine is in the visual department. Layers of Fear is probably the most beautiful horror game that I’ve ever seen. The mansion, and all the goodies inside are well crafted with a high level of details. When things go into the macabre (as they do) the game really benefits. Locations are truly spooky and will make you want to play with the lights on. Those new to the horror game genre are really going to have a fantastic time playing this one. You really do feel like you are descending into madness as the game progresses. On the other hand, those that have played these sort of games wont be all that impressed beyond the pretty/horrid locations. What’s really cool is that the game is running on the Unity engine and looks even better that many newer games running on the AAA Unreal Engine. Layers of Fear is a real testament to the engine and should be used to promote it, especially the indie developers that are working hard to create awesome content.
The sound also does a good job setting the mood. In horror games especially, the music and sound design has to be top-notch or you’ll lose much of the impact. Audio cues will tell you what to expect in terms of jump scares, but they can also trick you into a false sense of security. It all works really well in Layers of Fear and all of the jump scares the game throws at you are magnified thanks to the audio. Unfortunately, no matter how good the sound is, it doesn’t change the fact that the game gets really boring really fast. I know I sound like a broken record, but if the game only let you lose in some way (it might, but it never happened to me on multiple playthroughs) the game would have kept the tension high throughout the entire adventure.
Layers of Fear is an interesting game that I see more of a proof of concept for the developers and UNity 5 than a fully fledged game. Still, even with all the issues I actually do recommend you pick up the game when it’s on sale (it’s $20 regularly) because it really is something that should be experienced. You just need to come into the game with a certain mindset and treat it more like a really pretty looking storybook adventure sort of thing. I played it on the Xbox One and I never encountered any issues, but many PC players have had problems with the game and various bugs. While Layers of Fear isn’t all that great, it does get me excited to see what comes next from the developer, so supporting them by picking the game it would be pretty cool. I’m just ready for this jump scare YouTube generation of horror games to be done with so we can get back to well told stories that make us question our experiences. It’s a shame that this game feels like it was simply made to capitalize on that instead of creating something truly special. Oh, well, at least Markiplier and Pubes (Pewds?) will probably play it and fake cry, so there’s that.
*A copy was provided for this review*
About Author
