Layers Of Fear 2
There’s enough ambiTion hereTo sink a ship AdAm BryAnt
PuBlisherGunMedia/develoPerBlooBerTeaM/releAsedAteouTnow / cost £15.99/$19.99
to something far more personal:
revisiting the relationship between a
brother and sister, and the childhood
trauma they shared.
Initially, the game shows promise.
The environments have been
wonderfully crafted, littered with all
manner of items to make it feel like a
lived-in (but now abandoned) place,
and thanks to some chilling sound
design, Bloober Team has built a
brilliant sense of atmosphere.Ghost ship
The game shares many thematic
and structural similarities with its
predecessor. Both revolve around
artists – trading a painter for an
actor – and have you uncovering the
truth behind the story by exploring
increasingly surreal environments,
which represents the protagonist’s
unravelling psyche.
Unfortunately, after the first of the
five acts the game starts to betray
itself, and it seems at odds with its
own design. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the
story is formed piece by piece andMore than
most genres,
psychological
horror provides
the perfect canvas
for experimenting
with game design, but for all the
potential it offers, doing things a little
differently can open up the door to
risk. On the one hand you could end
up with something spectacular that
resonates with players and developers
alike, influencing the future of the
genre, but a game can just as easily
become a victim of its own ambition,
which is precisely the case with
Layers Of Fear 2.
You play as an early 20th century
Hollywood actor who finds themselves
on-board a luxurious transatlantic
cruise liner, a setting which has been
chosen by a mysterious ‘Director’ –
voiced by Candyman’s Tony Todd – as
the location for his next movie. You’re
instructed by him to research and
build your character in preparation
for the leading role, but this direction
quickly reveals itself to be connected
uncovered through picking up objects,
listening to audio recordings and
reading notes scribbled on scattered
slips of paper. This encourages you
to fully explore every environment,
as failing to find all the pieces – to
stretch the puzzle analogy even
further – will leave you with an
incomplete story. However, far too
frequently you’re prevented from
actually doing this. Several times
we found ourselves walking beyond
the threshold of a door only for it
to automatically lock shut behind
us, cutting us off from exploring a
different path.
With no option to revert to a
previous save, you’re left with no
choice but to accept that you may
have missed an important piece
of information. It’s also vital, with
such a fractured narrative, to keep
you immersed, and when you’re
presented with branching paths you
learn to become cautious for fear of
choosing the ‘wrong’ one. This isn’t
an oversight on Bloober Team’s part,
this is seemingly by design as theshort
cutWhAt is it?
afollow-upto the
2015 surprise
horrordelight,
layersof Fear.
WhAt’sit like?
walking through a
mish-mash of horror
tropes from the
historyof cinema.
Who’sitfor?
anyone eager to play
a game featuring the
voice of Candyman.088 TheoFFiCialxBoxMaGazine