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Neither Remake or Remaster
Every since I played the original Layers of Fear (2016) and Observer (2017) from Bloober Team—I’ve been fan of the developer. I simply enjoyed their games and how they were constructed. I did review the original Layers of Fear giving it 4/5, saying it was “confusingly terrifying” and “perfect length”. I also reviewed Layers of Fear 2 saying it had “good leven design” and “unique setting” giving it 5/5.
Layers of Fear (2023) contains both of these games and the DLC Inheritance, and a new DLC called The Last Note. Developer says it’s neither a remake or remaster. It’s something between since they only added new animations, voiceovers, collectibles, rearranged environment, new puzzles, all running in Unreal Engine 5.
The question is: does these new add-ons bring anything worthwile to the game?
The Multiple Stories
Since Layers of Fear contains two main games and all DLCs there isn’t a one story to tell. In fact, the first game contains four different stories tied in one. There is the main character, The Painter, who struggles to make his masterpiece. The Musician, The Painter’s wife, who suffers from her husband’s actions and then there is The Daughter, who also suffers from her parents actions. Lastly, The Writer who ties everything together. The Writer is a new add to the game and it does a good job to pull everything together. The Writer, who goes to live in a lighthouse, writes the story of The Painter and his family, and also the second game’s story of The Actor. (I can’t tell much about this new chapter in the game, since it would simply spoil too much.)
Layers of Fear‘s first game might seem confusing to comprehend, due to its rather artistic nature. But if I say it shortly; The Painter suffers from mental breakdown and goes on nightmarish episode where anything can happen—and lots of will happen. Everything in the story was told mostly by letters and notes that players could find. I always read them when I found any and it made much easier to read since every letter and note had a voice over (excluding Layers of Fear 2 portion of the game where I noticed that notes barely had any voice overs).
In the Layers of Fear 2 -part of the game, the story is about The Actor who is in a cruise liner making a Hollywood movie. As the main theme in Layers of Fear games is insanity, The Actor goes on a wild ride as well.
Gameplay, Controls, Visuals and Sound
As I remember, the gameplay is rather similar to the original release. New things that were added were the lanter that can be used to solve newly added puzzles, light environments, reveal hidden messages and use against enemies to temporarily incapacitate them. As the game is mostly running around and collecting items and keys, it also had enemies that comes after you as you try to open locked doors and do puzzles at the same time. It did feel nerve-wracking as the lantern had limited usability and it needed to be recharge. I did die few times, but thankfully there is an option in the settings that will eliminate dying. So if you find the chase sequences too difficult, there is an option for you.
Did I find the new gameplay mechanics interesting, well, yes I did. It wasn’t shooting or anything like that, just a way to stop an enemy for a while. It did raise made my anxiety little bit higher each time I had to encounter enemies.
The gameplay also relied heavily on the effect “when you turn around there is something quickly changed in the evironment”. It was used nicely and it was effective for a while, but I felt like its magic wore off at some point.
The controls in Layers of Fear was simple and easy. I also didn’t get stuck on enviroments or had any major issues with the controls overall. The only little negative thing with the controls was the way the camera was moving at the same time I did the prompts. For exampe if I wanted to open a drawer the camera moved at the same time. It was little bit annoying especially when there was enemy after me and I had to open doors. What I also wished was 180° quick turn and maybe to run little bit faster.
I have to just say that I love how the game looked visually. Even the original was a good looking game in Unity and Layers of Fear 2 was using UE4. But UE5 brings much more detailed visuals and better lighting. All the detailed artworks on the wall were simply stunning to look at. Here only negative thing was the differences with the voice acting and the text that was shown, lots of times they didn’t match.
The sound design was a top notch. Not just the music, but all the sound effects that were happening around me, just made me uneasy. It is adviced to play Layers of Fear with headphones on since the game’s audio is binaural. The game was composed by award-winning composer Arek Reikowski, who has also composed The Medium and Observer games.
The Final Layer
Layers of Fear was a good game to play—again. New animations, voiceovers, collectibles, rearranged environment, new puzzles, new mechanics, new stories and Unreal Engine 5 did elevate it to the new hights. I had my frights for the rest of the week and I cannot wait what Bloober Team going to release next. Well, if you didn’t know it’s Silent Hill 2 Remake, which I cannot wait to play.
Layers of Fear is available on PS5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, macOS and Windows.
(Review copy kindly provided by the publisher)
SCORE:
4/5
“It did raise my anxiety little bit higher each time I had to encounter enemies.”
One More Level 