{"id":2513,"date":"2017-10-04T23:35:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T23:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2017-10-04T23:35:57","modified_gmt":"2017-10-04T23:35:57","slug":"review-layers-of-fear-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/04\/review-layers-of-fear-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Layers of Fear (PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Developed by:\u00a0<\/strong>Bloober Team
\nPublished by:\u00a0<\/strong>Aspyr Media, Inc.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been a long-time follower of the cast of characters on this site, you might remember me from my time writing on the Toonami United page. If not, that\u2019s probably for the better. To keep it short, my name is Kory, but you may refer to my online fursona err\u2026 persona as Ace. For you PC gamers out there, I\u2019m your silent but critical voice on this site, so get used to me.<\/p>\n

Alright, let\u2019s get to why we\u2019re all here. So over the past month or so, I\u2019ve had the liberty of playing a psychological horror game aptly dubbed, Layers of Fear<\/em>. The indie studio that brings you this artistic portrayal of a Victorian horror (Yeah, get used to the puns) is Bloober Team. They\u2019re known for renowned games such as A-Men<\/em>, Double Bloob<\/em>, and Basement Crawl<\/em>. Yeah, I\u2019ve never heard of any of them either.<\/p>\n

To start, we find ourselves playing through the eyes of a skilled painter who\u2019s in the pursuit of painting a masterpiece. When we reveal the canvas, we notice that there\u2019s barely even a background on the painting. Was this an elaborate ploy for me to revisit my middle school Art class trauma? I would soon find out that answer.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n<\/em><\/span>Our lovely art studio<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, once I went through the door to the painter\u2019s workshop, the door behind me no longer led back to the foyer of the house. Yeah, buddy, I\u2019ve just been thrown into a post-P.T.<\/em> horror game. As I progressed through the game, there was a countless amount of paintings that would stare me down, just before the paint oozed off into some grotesque image. And right below the terrifying painting, there\u2019s a little collectible. Here and there, I\u2019d find these and they would shed light on what happened to the house of our limping hero. To add some context, I quickly found out he has a prosthetic leg when I found the schematics lying around the house.<\/p>\n

The game controls somewhat clunky on PC. There were many times where I had to open cabinets and wardrobes and I ended up yanking my mouse off my pad trying to open it. When I came across a crank lever, it was the scariest part of the game. Outside of that, you limp around and await the next jump scare. There is a sprint\/hobble button if you get really spooked and want to make a run for it, but that\u2019s particularly difficult because 99% of the doors lock behind you. In my case, I hobbled my way towards my character\u2019s doom whenever the opportunity presented itself. Sadly, the painter would lose consciousness and wake up somewhere else in the house.<\/p>\n

Layers of Fear <\/em>is very story-driven. Similar to Outlast<\/em>, you\u2019re tossed into a scenario where hell has already broken loose and you need to piece the events together that made it happen. As I said, there are collectibles: tattered pieces of newspaper, photographs, mementos, etc. Occasionally, picking up one of these incurs a little bit of dialogue from the painter, which clues us in on the significance of the item we\u2019re holding. The more I discovered these well-hidden bits of information, the more the story of the painter became clear. The guy is a maniac who is staking everything on painting his masterpiece, and the house changing itself is representative of his erratic state of mind.<\/p>\n