It’s that time of year again to play some creepy games. Not exactly my forte but Layers of Fear is an amazing creepy game for anyone to enjoy. It’s not just full of jump scares and freaky stuff, but it really is suspenseful. It is more of a psychological horror game, instead of gore and scary things coming out at you.
You play as a famous tormented painter that seems to have lost his touch. His goal is to finish his great masterpiece painting to prove to everyone he still has it. Though it’s not that easy dealing with all those inner demons. Layers of Fear is so well written, it makes you want to complete the whole game in one sitting just so you can find out what happens. You just can’t put the controller down.
A Beautiful Artsy Game Set in the Victorian Era
Layers of Fear was put out by Bloober Team and Aspyr Media Inc. It came out on Steam, Xbox One and PS4 in 2016, followed by the Layers of Fear Inheritance DLC soon after. Now there is a VR version called Layers of Fear: Solitude. Earlier this year in February Layers of Fear: Legacy was put out for the Switch. All of these take place in the same mansion during the Victorian Era.
PS4 was the version played for this article, and the controls are really well done. Using the right trigger button along with the right control stick was a super easy way to open drawers and doors. The left control stick controls where you move and the right is for your head movement. It didn’t feel awkward or clunky at all, it was very intuitive. Sound coming out of the controller and the vibration really added to the creepy atmosphere!
No More Wandering Aimlessly…
The game play is great in this game. Not very often do you feel totally lost with no idea what to do. When they developed Layers of Fear, they made it so that if you don’t find all the clues you need in a room the door will remain locked until you find what you need. This is a nice feature and helps avoid walking around aimlessly for hours which can be incredibly frustrating and make you want to quit. While you wander around in this mansion you see tons of broken bottles and crates of unopened bottles. Clearly someone here has a massive drinking problem…
There is a lot of creepy disturbing art, once our artist got some bad critiques his artwork seemed to take a drastic, dark twist. Instead of just Victorian era portraits you see creepy pictures of the grim reaper, skinless animals and even a booklet retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood with the wolf getting his Little Red Riding Hood snack.
What is going on here?
As you explore this mansion in every room you find letters and clues as to what happened here. Sometimes photographs will tell part of the story, a wedding invitation, letters for the artist from various people like his agent or even from his wife. It seems like there were some major communication issues between the two. The longer you go on, more crazy things happen. Soon some rooms really don’t make sense with chairs on the walls, everything in the room melting and doors appearing and disappearing. Without ruining any of the story, you will find many disturbing things revealed as you go.
The choices you make during the story will alter the ending. So your play time can vary depending on what you do. This is nice since you can have different experiences every time you complete the game. This play through took about 8 hours. Only 27% of the trophies were unlocked so there is a lot to go. When the game concluded it felt like there were many holes in the story, and questions that were still unanswered.
Finish the Painting…
As soon as you complete a play through on the menu there is now the option to Finish The Painting. The developers want you to complete multiple play throughs so you can learn the full story of what happened in the mansion. With each additional play, there are new clues for you to discover, so it won’t be exactly the same each time. It will also allow for you to unlock more trophies as you go.
This is one of the best creepy games to come out in a while. Playing through Layers of Fear may become a Halloween tradition. Since it has been out for a while you can get it for a great price of 19.99 and if you want more game play you can always pick up the DLC for 4.99 that continues on with the story.
