Layers of Fear (2023)

Layers of various Quality.

The chime of the clock startles me, but it's the eerie laughter of a child that continues to haunt me as I navigate what seems to be a maze of broken furniture, scribbles of crayon adorning the walls, and a horrifying doll that peaks from behind the worn cushioned chair in front of me. As I approach the door to leave this haunted room, the lightning cracks loudly in my headset and I jump. I then open the nearby door to hear it suddenly latch behind me, trapping me inside a room filled with a hurricane of dolls' heads, their laughter echoing in my ear as they swirl around me. While my torment eventually ends, the silence that follows frightens me even more. 

Layers of Fear is a reimagining of 2016's Layers of Fear, its Inheritance DLC, as well as 2019's Layers of Fear 2. It also contains two new additions in the "Writer's Story" which ties the events of each game together through a new character and the "Final Note" chapter which bookends the events of the first game rather nicely. Given the confusing use of the original game’s title to encompass this reimagined collection, I’ll do what I can to differentiate between calling the game Layers of Fear and ensuring I don’t confuse you when talking about 2016’s Layers of Fear instead.

This collection of all Layers of Fear games has been entirely remade in Unreal Engine 5, being one of the first games outside of Fortnite to release and be built using this new and impressive piece of technology. While this collection is by far the best way to experience these games, as well as the new pieces of content added to them, the overall package is disappointingly uneven, with only most of this collection really being worth your time and money. That said, what is present here that works is certainly worth checking this title out for. However, that also depends on whether or not this is your first time experiencing these games or you are simply wanting to enjoy them once again with consistently better visuals.

While I played through most of the original Layers of Fear back at release, it was Layers of Fear 2 that I saw entirely to completion. While the game itself was rather impressive from a visual standpoint, the gameplay itself surprisingly lacked any convincing horror or tension, which made for a rather bland and boring experience that I ended up scoring a 4.5/10. For a deeper dive as to why I didn't fully enjoy it, check out my original review for Layers of Fear 2, because my thoughts on the title have not since changed, regardless of the small difference this release brings to it.

Where this version of Layers of Fear largely succeeds is in the other contents of this package. The initial Layers of Fear was a far darker and more traditional horror experience than that of what we got in Layers of Fear 2, which told a psychological horror tale with the lights on. Here, the mansion is dark and terrifying, creating moments of pure dread, especially with the addition of using a lantern to burn away threats that will endlessly stalk the halls unless you escape them.

Layers of Fear may come across as something akin to old-school point-and-click adventures, but its use of its environments in a 3D space, which often have the levels shifting around you when you are not focused on them, create a truly great sense of horror and intensity as your very reality is often re-written. While some aspects of the series will convey its story through dialogue, much of the narrative is told through the documents and lore that you’ll find on newspaper clippings, scraps of paper, or words etched or stained upon the walls.

Whether through a lantern or a flashlight, this new mechanic to the collection aids in providing some additional gameplay elements, such as the above-mentioned method of dealing with the game’s new physical threats. Each story arc of this collection grants a flashlight or lantern to its protagonist and you’ll use it in various ways depending on the story. In the events of Layers of Fear (2016) you’ll be given a lantern that allows you to burn away a ghostly presence that haunts you, causing the apparition to explode in a splash of blood before rising back up again to continue the chase. The same use of using light to combat a physical threat also occurs within Layers of Fear 2, but the light itself can also cause mannequins to act out animations, such as reaching out to offer you a key or falling backward off a platform to gain you access. I also have to note that the projector sound when using the flashlight is a damn impressive touch.

While the lantern has a true purpose in the remake of 2016’s Layers of Fear due to how dark and moody its mansion is, its use in Layers of Fear 2 feels lacking due to how bright and open the interiors of the cruise ship already are. While I adore its use to animate the mannequins, their use to grant us keys or photo slides is a fairly hollow replacement, given how the method of acquiring these items still happens in those moments. It feels as if its inclusion here is simply to have this mechanic present across each different arc to create a cohesive experience.

When it comes to the game’s original DLC and the additional new stories, it’s sort of a mixed bag. The Inheritance story itself is a short affair that is easily completed in an hour or so and while the story is rather good, as well as each of the different endings, the puzzles and gameplay presented here simply don’t hold up to how impressive the base game of Layers of Fear (2016) was. 

That said, “Final Note”, which is a brand new chapter that bookends that game is impressive and was just as engaging as the main game. Here, you’ll take on the role of the wife mentioned during Layers of Fear (2016) as she attempts to break free of the chains that are placed upon her situation. While you’ll revisit much of the mansion as it was, the physical presence of the chains really adds to the atmosphere and narrative being told here. And, much like Inheritance, this is a short affair that can easily be completed in a single sitting.

Playing through this release, I simply fell in love with what the team has done here with the original Layers of Fear. It's been some time since I felt a true sense of dread while exploring a moody environment, especially one that is as well constructed and designed as this one. And with the game supporting Binaural Audio, the sound design is impressive and truly added to the experience. While Layers of Fear 2 also supports this feature, I never found the audio to be as immersive or really present at all in the same way. 

When it comes to the voice work done here, Layers of Fear (2016) sees plenty of its various documents and files fully voiced. While the delivery and performances of much of it are uneven in their quality, I was rather surprised at how little was voiced in Layers of Fear 2, apart from the effort here by horror icon, Tony Todd. Both Inheritance and Final Note, as well as the Writer’s story each benefit from some decent performances, despite their short length.

Layers of Fear, Layers of Fear 2, and Final Note are each centered on an artist of some nature. Layers of Fear tells the story of a painter looking to create his masterpiece, all while dealing with the fallout of his life in general. Both Inheritance and Final Note continue to add more to that story as you get to understand more about the painter from different perspectives. Layers of Fear 2 is unconnected, dealing with the life of an actor aboard a cruise ship as he attempts to understand just why the director found him to be perfect for the role.

Each story tells the narrative of a tortured artist, and in a way to connect these stories, we see the events of these games written by a writer, a woman hired by a mysterious party to write these works of fiction, all while confined to a lighthouse that is haunted and moody in its own way. This framing device works extremely well as the writer becomes fixated on the ghostly nature of her surroundings, including voices that have their own agenda. Occasionally, throughout each of the storylines, you’ll return back to her to uncover more of her story, talking with several characters that focus on different emotional states that she is going through. 

Each of the returning experiences do see small changes to certain points in their story, to the lantern and flashlight mechanics mentioned previously, and more. While Bloober Team refers to this package as a reimagining, they are for the most part remakes that remain very faithful to what came before. Some puzzles have been slightly redesigned with a few visual changes or how they are structured, but fans of the original games will notice that much of this package appears to be mostly untouched, at least from what I can remember. 

As each game has been rebuilt, I found some inconsistencies between Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2, largely in the controls. As the game is developed by two studios, Bloober Team, and Anshar Studios, I found the controls to not be as intuitive for the events of Layers of Fear 2 as opposed to the events of the first Layers of Fear. This is largely in how you hold a button down to swing open a door or additional methods of unlocking doors or puzzles, or opening chests to find documents and other items. In the events of Layer of Fear, I found no issues in the cursor moving from the chest to the item, but this quality of life feature wasn’t present in my time aboard the cruise ship, often having me struggle with selecting its pickups. Whether this is due to each studio being responsible for each of the main storylines here, I do not know.

Utilizing Unreal Engine 5 and its stunning use of Lumen lighting technology, Layers of Fear is a technical showpiece for its visuals with next to nothing holding it back from simply being gorgeous. Playing the game on Xbox Series X, I swapped frequently between Performance and Quality modes to get a sense of what it truly changed. I did find minimal ghosting in quality mode as some shadows would and moments of lighting would echo out as I moved, but the performance mode was relatively flawless and consistently stunning. 

The effort here to remake, and in some cases to reimagine these games, is certainly impressive, especially with how effective Unreal Engine 5 is at creating detailed and atmospheric horror environments. Bloober Team and Anshar Studios have taken games that looked great for the time, and even to this day, and crafted what is easily the definitive edition of the series. While not all its parts satisfy, the bulk of what is here can certainly entertain, especially that of the original game that started it all. It may be a bit uneven in its quality to produce a genuinely engaging horror experience, but if nothing else, it's gorgeous to look at. 

Developer - Bloober Team / Anshar Studios. Publisher - Bloodber Team S.A. Released - June 15th, 2023. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC. Rated - (M) Violence, Blood, Partial Nudity, Alcohol Reference, Strong Language. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.