Aside from the actor taking a job on a cruise ship, I couldn’t glean much from found documents and audiologs. The story in Layers of Fear 2 feels as uninspired and confusing as its repetitive hallways.
Perhaps other players will enjoy this change, but it left me flustered and annoyed. I prefer to take my time creeping through horror titles, not dashing through so quickly that I don’t get to absorb the environments. However, I wasn’t dreading them out of fear, but annoyance. Layers of Fear 2 switches up that slow-burn horror with jumpscares leaving me dreading chase sequences.
If a door was locked, I breathed a sigh of relief because I didn’t have to experience whatever horrors were on the other side. The first Layers of Fear hit a sweet spot in slow exploration where I felt fear every time I turned a corner or opened a door. Once they start, there’s no solid indicator for the rest of the game that a chase is about to happen, so any time a jumpscare or loud noise happened, I started sprinting my ass off thinking one was about to ensue. Worse, the chases aren’t telegraphed the first time they appear, so I felt out of my element when they came around. This overly-complicated control scheme combined with a monster hot on my heels with an insta-kill does not equal good design. Sometimes doors opened toward me, sometimes away, and other times they slid open left or right. Instead of opening a door with a single button press or mouse click, Layers 2 requires positioning the cursor over the door, holding a mouse button and pushing the mouse in the correct direction to open it. I can only guess Bloober Team received feedback about the first Layers from people who thought it was too easy, but this new addition only adds frustration. The only events breaking up this string of linear, boring hallways are the chase sequences which are so bad I nearly quit playing over them. Find a locked door, pick up a key in the next room, unlock the door, find another item… wash, rinse and repeat until the credits roll. Walk through another door, pick up another item, listen to another audiolog. Walk through a door, pick up a random item, listen to a voiceover from an unidentified character. Where the first felt carefully handcrafted by clever designers, Layers of Fear 2 feels like the product of an AI designing via ‘horror’ algorithm.
I enjoy it when sequels jump off in a new direction instead of directly following their predecessors, so I wish I could say that Layers of Fear 2 is better, scarier and more creative than the first. Layers of Fear 2 follows in the footsteps of the first, except instead of an elderly painter descending into madness, players take the role (pun intended) of an actor who’s accepted a job aboard a cruise ship. It also didn’t rely on chase sequences, stealthy hide-from-patrolling-monster sections, nor combat. The trick was environmental ambiguity which changed aspects of the immediate vicinity to keep players on their toes - walk down a hallway, find a locked door, and then turn around only to find the hallway changed completely. I loved Layers of Fear and championed it as the closest thing to P.T. we’re ever going to get, as it featured first-person horror exploration that relied on more than jumpscares to creep players out. Long story short, they’ve been busy in those three years. Developer Bloober Team even released an original sci-fi horror IP ( Observer) since then. What started as a game that lingered forever on the Xbox One Preview Program has now seen follow-up DLC, a Masterpiece Edition, a port to the Switch, and a full-fledged sequel in the years since its debut. Has it already been three years since the first Layers of Fear? WTF Why can’t I open a door with a single button press?
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