UPDATE: Since finishing this game I have also finished it’s DLC “Inheritance.” Since it is so brief, I have decided to include it as a BONUS section at the bottom of this review rather then write up a whole new one.
This is a game that had my curiosity from the moment I heard about it. Discovery mixed with creepy as hell horror is always a great combination for me, and in fact back in the day is why I had to have the 7th Guest for my 486. But this game had the unfortunate fate of coming out, while cheap for most games, still expensive enough that someone with a developing backlog might think twice… and so I did. Instead, I wound up with this game as part of a monthly humble-bundle package where it would join those other games just like I feared and saved my money because of.
However, this was not a game the dice selected for me. Rather, while talking to Spam of the Spam & Tex youtube channel I mentioned recently, he convinced me to pick this one up in the immediate future, so as soon as I was done with the disappointment that was Saints Row 2, I installed this game. And while I was very underwhelmed in what it asked me to do, it blew me away in ways I never saw coming. Step inside….
Story: Having just arrived home and maybe a little bit drunk, your brain is going at a fever pace. You have long since lost everyone, but it hardly matters anymore. You have a masterpiece to create: a magnum opus! So, after collecting the key from your office, you unlock your workroom and pull down the canvas. Time to finish what you started…
Unfortunately this is about all I can offer you because this is one of those times where discovering the story is part of the game itself. You will do so by finding bits and pieces that cause flashbacks for the artist of his sinister and tragic past… and there is a lot here to unwrap, making the exploration to find these details actually very rewarding. If you have a taste for dark discoveries of the past, you are in for a real treat. And even if you are not, the intrigue is very real.
8/10
Graphics: Simply put this game is gorgeous. Seriously, the game rivals if not looks better then most modern AAA FPS games. The attention to detail provided by the dev-team is almost to the point where I would begin to worry for someone having OCD issues strong enough to need to see someone, but we all benefit for how much they put into the final product.
Now admittedly, some of this does use a little bit of trickery, like, for example without a crouch button, the game can get away with keeping you further from some areas and I am sure to get this level of fidelity the devs took advantage of that, but even with that in mind, prepare to be blown away as the game moves seamlessly between old Victorian era homes to melting hallways to crayon drawings to straight up nightmare fuel fluidly and brilliantly. You are in for one of the biggest visual treats in gaming I have seen in a long time.
9/10
Sound: Any good horror experience, let alone game, that honestly expects to creep you the fuck out needs good sound, and thankfully, the guys at Bloober understood that. The house creaks, you hear when you crunch through shattered glass, and all the little sounds you need to feel the old and decrepit nature of the home you are all here and all sound great.
But it’s the little things like the piano playing in the background, the monograph record player right in front of you that sounds a little muffled and not quite at the right tone or speed, or the low sobbing that isn’t just “out there” but you can pinpoint it’s someone down the hall where no one should be that really make a star here. This game just oozes creepiness and the audio helps it out in a big way. Add to this the voice acting, while generally restricted to the artist’s memory when you find something to remind him of it, is absolutely brilliant in finishing the tone of life at this house, and really, it has been a long while since I’ve found something so perfectly unsettling to hear, let alone play.
9/10
Gameplay: Layers of Fear is very much a walking simulation, and as such I’m afraid there will not be much to talk about here. Not that the game will leave you bored. There is a lot going on in this title, after all. But this time, there is just a lot more to see then to do.
You will play the game from a 1st person perspective as you wander around the house and experience spooky events as you seek out the various items from your memory. Ultimately, the game offers you plenty to find, but there are six in particular that must be found to complete the game. And while everything you find will give you a window into how wrong this man’s life went, these six each represent a gruesome act in the name of your art itself and signals the end of each of the six chapters that make up the game.
5/10
Bugs: I do not believe this game had a single bug while playing.
BONUS: This game comes in two versions, regular, and Masterpiece edition. The latter comes with an expansion you can get on your own called Inheritance. This expansion takes place years later having you play the roll of the child of the artist coming back to the house to find why her father went crazy. It is short, sweet, and well worth the little extra cash to get just another taste of what this game offers at it’s core. If you have the original, it’s a dirt cheap expansion at $5, and if you are looking at picking up the game, it’s even cheaper to get the edition with both already.
Overall: If I were to call this a good game, I would feel like I was lying. That’s not because it’s not good, in fact it is absolutely fantastic, but I have a hard time calling this a game. You do very little while playing, basically roaming through the hallways and finding artifacts to reflect on the artist’s memories. There is no real threat and literally almost no conflict to resolve.
Rather this is a virtual haunted house, and an amazing one, dribbling information about how we reached this desolate point perfectly between the horrors you will be submitted to on your way.
If you are here for gameplay and to survive the house, you are kinda in the wrong place and I recommend you walk away right now. This game will not do anything for you. However, if you are here because the story intrigues you or you are looking for scares more then something to beat, you are definitely going to enjoy your time playing.
Score:
8/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core2 Duo Q8400
- 4 GB RAM
- NVidia Geforce GTX 560 or Radeon R7 250X (1 GB VRAM)
- 5GB hard drive space
- Windows 7
System Specs:
- AMD FX 8350
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 960 with 4GB VRAM
- Windows 10
Source: Steam
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