Layers of Fear 2 is a genuine horror experience that will perplex your senses and, after a slow-burn opening, scare the daylights out of you. It doesn’t have the most challenging or intensive gameplay, but this isn’t a stodgy guided tour of somebody’s graduate philosophy thesis or a drawn-out political lecture. But make no mistake Layers of Fear 2 is not a walking simulator.
Layers of fear game review simulator#
It’s all quite vague as you roam the corridors of this massive vessel, which imparted an unpleasant aftertaste of walking simulator “isn’t this so artful?” pretense that put me off at first. You’re not sure if you’re dreaming, hallucinating, reliving the life chapters of dead people or actually stumbling about with amnesia. Played with subtle distain and gravity by the legendary Tony Todd of Star Trek and Candyman fame, his signature gravelly voice intones about choice, pain, loss, death and rebirth.Īll of this narrative is pretty abstract. There seems to be some kind of narrator giving you hints about your role in what is clearly a travesty. Even worse, something horrible is loose on the ship-some kind of awful, twisted phantasm-that hunts you relentlessly and kills you on sight. The captain puts all food onboard under lock and key, and the two hapless children begin to starve as they desperately scrounge for something to eat. However, as you press on through your investigation, it becomes clear that the ship’s crew does not take kindly to the stowaways. It turns out the ship has two stowaways a young girl named Lily and her even younger brother James, who are playing a game of pirate and having fun eluding the guards.
It’s hinted early on that you might be more than a touch unhinged, which is why you got the part but also why most of the people around you are a little freaked out.Īs you begin to explore the ship, you encounter a side-story to your magnificent performance by examining curios, clues, letters, hastily-scrawled notes and newspaper clippings. You are onboard this vessel to develop your method for playing the role of a lifetime it’s so important that the ship’s crew have strict orders to leave you and the rest of the production the hell alone. You wake up on a massive cruise ship early in the 20 th century, and from clues gleaned from your opulent quarters you ascertain that you are a stage actor of some renown.
The story to Layers of Fear 2 is a bit difficult to get a handle on, as the game dumps you right into it with very little context.
Layers of fear game review series#
If you’re new to Bloober’s horror series like me, beware: this studio is out to bend your mind, make you jump out of your chair, and impart some truly disturbing concepts and images to you. I missed out on their freshman effort, the original Layers of Fear, but I was duly impressed (and freaked out) by their mind-sifting cyberpunk masterpiece _Observer, which made me eager to jump into their latest game, Layers of Fear 2. Polish studio Bloober Team is one of those rare developers that tackles a horror game as if it were an avant-garde production.
Games certainly are built of art, huge quantities and varieties of art, but there are few studios that relentlessly pursue a central thematic element through abstract symbolism. Many modern games, particularly big budget titles, are undeniably massive edifices constructed of sometimes thousands of art assets, toiled away on by dozens of talented painters, modelers, musicians and digital cinematographers. There aren’t many video games I would consider attempts at fine art.
0 kommentar(er)
