With the announcement of the upcoming Silent Hill 2 Remake, everyone started talking about Bloober Team. Not that nobody was talking about them before that, they were certainly a known quantity within the indie horror space, but being at the helm of the revival of such a beloved franchise has put them in the spotlight, and as such everybody suddenly felt the need to voice their opinion on Bloober Team’s games. But I didn’t have an opinion on them, because I hadn’t played any of their games yet. So, when Bloober Team announced a new Layers of Fear, a reimagining of the first two games as well as a new story that brings it all together, it felt like the perfect moment to form an opinion about them. After all, this feels like the definitive version (and what I assume to be the final installment) of the psychological horror franchise Layers of Fear, as always published by Bloober Team, and co-developed by them and Anshar Studios.
To make this review easier to read, let me quickly establish the terms I will use to refer to the different pieces that make up the whole of Layers of Fear. First of all, when I just say Layers of Fear I’m referring to the totality of this newly released game. Then within that, there’s The Painter’s Story, which is a remake of the first Layers of Fear (2016). The Actor’s Story, which is a remake of Layers of Fear 2 (2019). The Writer’s Story, which is a new overarching story in Layers of Fear that’s supposed to connect everything. And there are the DLC stories: The Inheritance, which existed previously, and The Final Note, which is a new addition, that both expand upon The Painter’s Story, but unlike the other three stories, are also fully optional.
It’s no surprise that there are two additional stories building on top of The Painter’s Story and not the other two main stories, since that is by far the best of the stories present in Layers of Fear. In fact, The Painter’s Story is so much better than the rest that it almost makes me think that this story on its own, and by extension, the original Layers of Fear on its own, would make for a better experience than as a collection here in Layers of Fear, since The Actor’s Story and the Writer’s Story definitely drag the overall rating down a bit. But then, of course, this version comes with a few upgrades as well.
Layers of Fear is built from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. It supports Ray Tracing, HDR, 4K resolution and all the other fancy buzz words, but more importantly than that, it just looks stunning, with The Painter’s Story being a step above the rest of the game once again. I don’t want to make it sound like the graphic fidelity is the only reason Layers of Fear looks good though. What really makes it so visually arresting is the art direction. I always love when games use colour in meaningful ways and Layers of Fear does exactly that. The way it weaves green and red into its environments not only looks great but also carries a meaning with it.
As you enter your new surroundings for the first time, it all seems perfectly normal, but over time it twists and turns into something else, leaving any ties to reality behind in the process. These changes often feel so seamless as well, with a million different magic tricks Layers of Fear performs behind your back. It’s like an amusement park ride from hell where every new room has a surprise waiting for you that’s delightful every time. I never got tired of the visual spectacle that was exploring the manor, ship, or lighthouse. And that’s all thanks to the fantastic art direction. This is particularly important for a game like this, as the environments are a vital part of the experience and you’ll want to take them in to the fullest. Layers of Fear is all about environmental storytelling. As the rooms shift around you, straying further and further from reality, they reveal more and more about our characters’ inner turmoil.
Layers of Fear can feel a little too literal in that approach of projecting the inner struggle onto the environment though. A painter is dealing with creator’s block? Block the door to his atelier with a wall that has the word creator’s block across it. A wife feels like she’s being chained to her house? Fill the entire house with endless chains. An actor struggles to find their identity as they change it for every new role they take? They’re being chased by a formless reflection of themselves. I think Layers of Fear would benefit from a bit more subtlety in how it approaches the storytelling and have a bit more faith in its audience as it can often feel very on-the-nose.
Maybe the most emblematic of that is the refusal to rely on environmental storytelling by itself. Even though they do a great job of telling their story without words through the world around you, they have to hammer in what’s happening with a constant barrage of notes, pictures, and memories that are relayed through voice over, to make sure you understand exactly what’s happening. I wish Bloober Team was a bit more confident in their ability to tell a story and would embrace the thematically rich psychedelia they have to offer.
Although here I have to question what the themes of Layers of Fear really are. Every story present within it is some variation of the crazy artist, who in the pursuit of perfection loses their mind. They do all kinds of awful things that ruin their lives and the lives of the people around them, often culminating in murder. And then what? It’s all because of an evil entity that takes advantage of lost artists? That’s it. This whole concept is already so played out and Layers of Fear doesn’t do anything new with it. Early on, there is a reference to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey, and unfortunately, Layers of Fear just ends up being a lesser version of that.
So, all three major stories are a slight variation on that concept, with The Painter’s Story being the best execution of that, and The Actor’s Story being a less effective version of that, which at least brings some other intriguing elements into the mix. And then there’s The Writer’s Story. Quite frankly, I think selling this as the big new story that brings it all together for this new version of Layers of Fear is almost a little disingenuous. It has no substance whatsoever, it’s maybe an hour long, even shorter than the DLC stories, which are explicitly only small side stories. Even the way it supposedly ties everything together is so lazy. The writer is haunted by the same witch that the protagonists of the other two stories were haunted by, and now she writes books about the events that transpired around them. That’s it. And there’s no big payoff at the end either. It’s just a disappointing addition to the game.
So the gameplay, for the most part, consists of walking around the premises, whether that’s an artist’s old manor, a ship that’s been turned into a film set, or a lighthouse that a writer has locked themselves into for inspiration. Layers of Fear is not a survival horror game, it’s a walking sim first and foremost. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, I love a good walking sim, and Layers of Fear is that. But then sometimes Bloober Team will throw in elements that have no place in a walking sim. The most egregious example has to be the chaser sections. It’s a staple of the horror genre that pops up over and over again throughout the genre’s history. But every time some new supernatural being that you have to run away from appears in Layers of Fear, it feels completely out of place. It’s a game that is chained to the conventions of the horror genre when it should let go of them. This is also quite noticeable in The Actor’s Story, a part of the game that, at times, relies too heavily on jump scares.
Layers of Fear is a great walking sim, a decent horror experience, and a questionable exploration of artistic creation. How much you weigh each of those elements is up to you, but for me it made for a mostly enjoyable experience while playing that I pretty much stopped thinking about the moment I rolled credits.
Nairon played Layers of Fear on PC with a review code. Layers of Fear is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
