''Layers of Fear'' is a
psychological horror
Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...
adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
developed by
Bloober Team
Bloober Team S.A. is a Polish video game developer based in Kraków. Founded in November 2008 by Peter Babieno and Peter Bielatowicz, the company is best known for developing ''Layers of Fear'' (2016), ''Observer'' (2017), ''Blair Witch'' (201 ...
and published by
Aspyr
Aspyr Media, Inc. (pronounced " aspire") is an American video game developer and publisher founded by Michael Rogers and Ted Staloch in Austin, Texas. Originally founded to bring top gaming titles to macOS, the company, since 2005, has become a ...
. It was released on
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
,
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
,
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
, and
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
worldwide in February 2016.
In ''Layers of Fear'', the player controls a psychologically disturbed painter who is trying to complete his
magnum opus
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
as he navigates a
Victorian mansion revealing secrets about his past. The gameplay, presented in
first-person perspective
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller, ...
, is story-driven and revolves around puzzle-solving and exploration. ''Layers of Fear: Inheritance'' was released on 2 August 2016 as a direct follow up add-on to the first game. This time the player controls the painter's daughter with the
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
focusing on her apparent relapse into trauma after returning to her old house.
A definitive port for the
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
, entitled ''Layers of Fear: Legacy'', was released on 21 February 2018 and it features, in addition to the ''Inheritance'' DLC,
Joy-Con
Joy-Con are the primary game controllers for the Nintendo Switch video game console. They consist of two individual units, each containing an analog stick and an array of buttons. They can be used while attached to the main Nintendo Switch cons ...
, touchscreen, and HD Rumble support.
A limited physical retail release for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, published by
Limited Run Games
Limited Run Games, Inc. is an American video game distributor based in Apex, North Carolina. The company specializes in the release of digital games on physical media, with the games being sold on their website. The company, founded by Douglas ...
in North America, would be available starting October 2018.
A sequel titled ''
Layers of Fear 2
''Layers of Fear 2'' is a psychological horror video game developed by Bloober Team. It was released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2019, and for the Nintendo Switch in 2021. It is a sequel to ''Layers of Fear''.
I ...
'' was announced in October 2018 and was released on May 29, 2019.
A second sequel, titled ''Layers of Fears'', is set to launch in early 2023.
Gameplay
The player takes control of an
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
who has returned to his studio. His initial goal is to complete his masterpiece, and the player's role is to figure out how this task should be accomplished. The challenge comes from puzzles which require the player to search the environment for visual clues. The house appears straightforward at first, but it changes around the player as they explore it in first person. These changes in the environment provide scaffolding for the puzzles and provide regular jump scares common to games of this genre.
The game is divided into six chapters with various items for the player to find in order to complete his work. The game is heavily dimmed, and there are objects that uncover certain aspects of the painter's history. While completing the painting, there is a letter that is slowly pieced together, which shows the origin of his masterpiece, and objects which explain the secret of the painter through dialogue flashbacks.
Plot
Set in the
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Seán Hogan during the Irish War of Independence; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, whic ...
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, the unnamed protagonist, a talented artist, returns home from a
court hearing
In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency or a legislative committee.
Description
A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and ...
. After briefly exploring his empty house, he goes to his workshop to start working on his "
magnum opus
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
". After he adds the first layer, he starts having hallucinations about his past encounters as he works, and the full degradation of his mental state becomes increasingly clear as the game progresses and his past is explored.
An ambitious young painter, the artist used his pianist wife as a model and muse. Soon his wife became pregnant and she bore a daughter. After she gave birth, he decided to spend more time working on his paintings, leaving his wife to care for their daughter. After buying a dog for his family, the Protagonist develops a drinking problem due to constant stress and noise outside his workshop. Eventually, he muzzles the dog, but was soon plagued by rats, most likely an auditory hallucination. It is implied the dog may have been killed by him.
The Protagonist's talent starts to slowly decay, with the vision for his paintings becoming twisted, driving his friends away by painting disturbing works for even simple jobs, including a set of illustrations for
Little Red Riding Hood
"Little Red Riding Hood" is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th century European folk tales. The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and the Brother ...
. After a long period of neglect, his wife decides to burn his paintings, including his most cherished work, "The Lady In Black". This provokes the artist to beat her in a drunken rage, which in turn causes his wife to leave with their child. Despite multiple attempts to reconcile, his wife rejects him. Later, he receives a phone call explaining that his wife was a victim of a fire, and was horribly scarred, though their daughter survived unharmed.
The artist brings his wife and child home to care for them, but his alcoholic tendencies continue to develop, which he blames on the 'distraction' of his family. Even after regaining her mobility, the wife continues to be neglected by the artist, as her scars had marred her beauty. Another drunken outburst causes his wife to commit suicide in the bathroom, by slitting her wrists. In the present day, it is revealed the artist has fully lost his sanity, and may be using parts of his wife's body in his painting: her skin as the canvas, her blood as the overlay, her
bone marrow
Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It is composed of hematopoietic ce ...
as the undercoating, a brush made from her hair, her finger for the smearing and her eye as the spectator. The character is shown using these items, but considering the cyclical nature of one of the endings and the general ambiguous nature of what is shown throughout the story, it is possible that this is not meant to be taken literally.
Depending on player actions in the game, three endings are possible. These consist of either avoiding the monstrous figure representing his wife or not, likely symbolizing his rejection or acceptance.
The "Loop" ending (done by avoiding and approaching) reveals that the artist's magnum opus is a portrait of his wife. He completes the painting at last, only to see it devolve into a mutilated version that taunts him. The artist takes the painting and throws it into a room filled with identical portraits, which begin to laugh at him. It becomes clear the artist has spent years attempting to finally complete his painting as intended, even as his mental faculties began to degrade. If the room of paintings is entered, the portraits are revealed to be proper representations of his wife, though he is unable to see this. The artist returns to the studio and begins to work on his next painting on a blank canvas, as the scene fades to black.
In the "Selfish" ending (in which he avoids her completely), the artists painting is a portrait of himself. Finally satisfied, he hangs it in the room upstairs. The next shot shows his painting on display among other famous works in a museum.
In the "Family" ending (where he allows her to approach all times), his completed painting includes his daughter as well as his wife. The artist realizes at last his terrible behavior and mistakes, and that it is impossible to bring them back. He retreats to the room of his paintings and sets them alight, along with his newest work, then lies down to allow the flames to consume him as well.
''Inheritance''
The ''Inheritance'' downloadable content add-on tells the story of the painter's daughter coming back to her childhood home to face her past after she left "The St. Martin de Porres Home for Problem Children". Exploring the destroyed home with a flashlight, she relives her experiences and witnesses the full scope of the tragedy that has swallowed the family.
During the course of these relived memories, there are different outcomes depending on the daughter's actions. These include deliberate choices, such as heading more often towards the mother or father's portrait while exploring, which will lead to remembered dialogue portraying them, respectively, in a more favorable light. Non-deliberate choices involve the daughter having to perform in-game tasks that often affect an interaction with the father. One example involves the daughter creating artwork: the daughter can either create childish drawings with crayons (earning harsh disapproval) or follow the father's suggestions (earning praise if done correctly). These outcomes can lead to the daughter either viewing the father as a harsh man who never wanted anything but a protegee or as a caring man who had trouble showing it.
The "Good" ending occurs if most of the memories lead to viewing the artist favorably. Upon entering her old bedroom, the daughter sees a portrait of her with a flower - her inheritance by her father. She views this portrait as an apology, "expressed in the only language
he artist
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
ever truly knew". Seeing the father as a
tragic figure
''Tragic Figure'' is an EP by the American post-punk band Savage Republic, released in 1984 by Independent Project Records. It was later appended to reissues of the band's debut album ''Tragic Figures''.
Track listing
Personnel
Adapted from ...
, who was driven insane and depressed by the memories of the house, she takes the portrait and burns the house down. She leaves accepting the fact that she cannot understand the artist, but can forgive him. The portrait is later shown hanging in the daughter's home, while the daughter admires her own child's drawings. However, the scene ends with the daughter criticizing her child's choice in color - mirroring the same statement the artist made years ago - while the portrait distorts, heavily implying that the daughter is now beginning to experience the same mental health issues and obsession over perfection as her father.
The "Bad" ending occurs if most of the memories lead to viewing the artist negatively. Upon entering her old bedroom, and seeing the portrait of her, the daughter continues having flashbacks of the artist yelling at her for crying and making noise. Still viewing the portrait as an apology, the daughter thinks of the artist's smugness in thinking a painting would resolve her bad childhood. Viewing the portrait as not enough of an apology, in a room filled with bad memories, the daughter smashes it against a dresser. The action inadvertently knocking over a lit candelabra. Fire engulfs the room, leading the ceiling to collapse both trapping and burying the daughter in the burning house.
The "True" ending appears if the daughter collects all of her crayon drawings present throughout the house and is able to rearrange them - with the lights on - to reveal a larger portrait of her. In darkness, a hidden sketch of a large rat reveals a map of the house, showing a marked location the daughter can now find. Realizing her father planted this clue knowing that she would see it, the daughter realizes her true inheritance is seeing the world as her father had. Upon following the map and finding a covered canvas, the daughter remembers being told that "insanity runs in my family", and decides to "let it run". This ending closes on the canvas being unveiled to show the same first layer the artist started with for his story, and the decrepit room appearing bright and intact as it had for the artist.
Development
''Layers of Fear'' was heavily inspired by ''
P.T.'', a teaser game for the cancelled video game ''
Silent Hills
is a cancelled horror game developed by Kojima Productions that was to be published by Konami for the PlayStation 4. It was in development since 2012 until its cancellation in 2015. It was to be the ninth main installment in the ''Silent Hill' ...
''. The plot, in particular the ending with the blank canvas, closely parallels
Anthony M. Rud
Anthony Melville Rud (11 January 1893 – 30 November 1942) was an American writer and pulp magazine editor. Some of his works were published under the pen names Ray McGillivary and Anson Piper.
Biography
Anthony Melville Rud was born in Chi ...
's short story "A Square of Blank Canvas" from the April 1924 issue of ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, prin ...
''. The game uses the
Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...
game engine.
Reception
Nick Monroe of ''
The Escapist'' praised the game. "A magnum opus (...) A superb example of making story and atmosphere work together (...) ''Layers of Fear'' achieves its goal of making you scared as a player, instead of just existing as something scary". Matt Ferguson from ''
Syfy Games'' praised the storytelling calling it "Perfection" and saying the game was, "an evocatively thrilling horror game: it strikes a fantastic balance between narrative, gameplay, atmospheric immersion." Patricia Hernandez of ''
Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
History
...
'' said "''Layers of Fear'' is one of the biggest horror surprises of the year." Danielle Riendeau and Dave Tach of ''
Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...
'' said "''Layers of Fear'' is like ''
P.T.'' on drugs." Matt Thrower from ''
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' rated the game a 7/10 saying, "Stacked up like the rickety tiers of a Gothic building, ''Layers of Fear'' proves aptly named."
Leon Hurley praised the game in a ''
GamesRadar
''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and '' Computer ...
'' review, stating "it's one of the best horror games I've ever played and literally creates a new tool set for interactive scares." He complimented the game's art and the "unease from a horror experience" it provides, giving it a maximum score.
Choi Rad of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
found the subject of the game interesting but declared the game "not scary", "lacking tension", and that "every time he started to enjoy the flow, it was broken by small puzzle challenges that just aren't fun to solve."
Joe Juba of
Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
echoed Rad's statements critiquing the game's telegraphed scares, noting that it felt like a haunted house at a carnival rather than ''
P.T.'', declaring that "After a scary moment, it doesn't allow players enough breathing room, because the next one is always immediately around the corner. Every time you enter a room or a hallway, something happens."
Sequels
In October 2018, developer Bloober Team announced a sequel to ''Layers of Fear'', titled ''
Layers of Fear 2
''Layers of Fear 2'' is a psychological horror video game developed by Bloober Team. It was released for Linux, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2019, and for the Nintendo Switch in 2021. It is a sequel to ''Layers of Fear''.
I ...
'', previously code-named ''Project Méliès.'' ''Layers of Fear 2'' was published by
Gun Media
Gun Interactive (formerly Gun Media; stylized as Gun.) is an American video game publisher based in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded by Ronnie Hobbs and Wes Keltner in 2010.
History
Gun Interactive was founded by Ronnie Hobbs and Wes Kelt ...
on May 28, 2019. In September 2021, Bloober Team revealed a trailer for a third ''Layers of Fear'' project. The game was originally set for release in 2022, but was delayed to 2023.
References
External links
*{{Official website, https://www.blooberteam.com/layers-of-fear, Official page
2016 video games
Aspyr games
Fiction about fatherhood
Linux games
MacOS games
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation Network games
Psychological horror games
Video games about mental health
Video games developed in Poland
Video games set in the United States
Video games set in the 1920s
Video games set in the 1960s
Windows games
Xbox One games
Works about painting
Bloober Team games
Single-player video games