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dkirschner's Layers of Fear (PC)

[July 15, 2019 11:54:48 AM]

Got this for free somewhere along the line. Mediocre horror game about a tortured artist. I wasn't totally clear on the story, but I think he went a little nuts when his wife got burned in an accident. Either that, or he was already going a bit nuts as his career faltered, and then his wife got burned and he completely lost it. The story seemed to get more interesting toward the end, but the game relies heavily on symbolism to convey significance to the player, like this set piece at the end with a checker board. No idea what that was about. The artist's madness playing his sanity in checkers?

Decent voice acting, some solid artwork with plenty of disturbing imagery. The artist paints his portraits with body parts and whatnot. Oooh ahh, how gross. I suppose one issue I took with the game is that it wasn't scary and didn't instill any layers of fear in my heart. It relied overwhelmingly on jump scares and the aforementioned disturbing imagery to scare and unsettle the player. Jump scares are cheap, and Layers of Fear doesn't pull them off that well. Things predictably move and make noise and change. For example, when you don't see a way out of the room you are in, you can bet that when you spin around, oh no a mysterious force will hurl a vase against a wall! Jump scare got ya!

Game takes 3-4 hours better spent playing a better, perhaps more interactive horror game. This one is borderline walking simulator. There are no enemies to run from (technically there are a couple "enemies" but they can't do anything to you), no weapons, no items to use (except in the most basic sense of like finding a key that unlocks a door). That's another reason why the game isn't scary. There's no real danger. You can't die (as far as I know). It's very linear. No choices. Nothing you do matters. I didn't feel like me playing the game mattered. It just needs someone to walk the tortured artist through his insanity.