For this week’s Indie Highlight, I decided to choose Layers of Fear 2. Its still fresh in my memory, since I completed it just last night. It takes aspects from many modern horror games, the real divergence is in the psychological depth of the story. If you have played any of Bloober Team’s previous games, you’ll know what I mean.
Layers of Fear 2 takes the conceit of the first game, an artist in turmoil, and spins another horror story out of it. Only instead of a painter, the sequel focuses on an actor, one who is currently on an ocean liner to film a movie. That’s about where the easily-explained ends.
The first Layers of Fear was a surreal head-trip; it had shifting geometry (turn around and there’s a hallway where there wasn’t before), an unreliable narrator and some decent scares. Layers of Fear 2, I’m happy to say, keeps much of what made the first great; unfortunately, it’s not as creepy, but it’s still worth a look. Even if only because of the voice-acting of Tony Todd, the Candyman himself.
There are many atmospheric tricks and narrative beats to keep you interested, so don’t count it out if you liked the first one. I won’t say what creates most of the moment-to-moment scares here, but they didn’t work as well on me as they might on others. Not because Bloober did a bad job, but because I don’t find them inherently scary.
The monster that chases the player on the other hand…while not overly intimidating, it works thematically and is just uncanny enough to cause discomfort. Gameplay consists of the player exploring the constantly shifting world while trying to discover answers to their predicament. You do this by collecting objects and reading notes. There are also smaller puzzles to complete, but none of them should cause more than a minute or two of contemplation.
If you are looking for a psychological horror game, you couldn’t do much better than any of Bloober Team’s offerings, particularly for those looking to engage with a game’s story a little deeper. Layers of Fear 2‘s narrative is disjointed, but it rewards those who pay attention.
Layers of Fear 2, Informed Pixel’s Indie Highlight, is out now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For more reviews and gaming news you can keep up to date at Informed Pixel. Want to speak to the team and interact with other gamers? You can do so over on the Informed Pixel Facebook page or on the Informed Pixel Twitter account.
