Some of these scenes, the ones that I seemingly stumbled into by accident, made my jaw drop in awe. Lighting effects further exacerbate the horrors that appear both while staring directly at them and when looking away for just a moment.
Other passages lead to entirely new environments outside of the ship, such as floating skyscrapers, ominous gardens, and labyrinths. A door that you just walked through may be gone when you turn around, revealing a new corridor in its place. But what makes this world so interesting is that, like the P.T.-inspired original, Layers of Fear 2 kept me on the edge of my seat by constantly toying with environments the moment I looked away. The ocean liner is more of a central hub than a confining setting, and visiting other locations keeps it from becoming too familiar. Layers of Fear 2 kept me on the edge of my seat by constantly toying with environments the moment I looked away.Įven though the spoken and written story excels, the brunt of Layers of Fear 2’s magic lies in the environments you explore.
Unfortunately, you cannot revisit a previous acts of the story, so you’d have to do a New Game+ run and likely know what you’re looking for ahead of time to ensure you get a different ending. Though these moments work well thematically, it seems easy to miss the actual, subtle moments that trigger alternate endings. Some junctures are presented as critical choice-based moments, but most of the time you don’t actually have a choice at all. Multiple endings exist as possibilities in Layers of Fear 2, but the process for seeing each isn’t exactly clear. On multiple occasions, I loaded the most recent checkpoint to listen to the words again to try and fully absorb their meaning. Coupled with Lily’s doleful lyrical poetry and the earnest performance of her younger brother, Layers of Fear 2 has some of the sharpest writing I’ve seen – not just in horror games, but across all genres. That’s perhaps the greatest strength of the story: its prowess for making me believe, if even for a moment, that the crazy words coming from the void are the stuff of genius. The obtuseness can be a tad much at times, but the delirious diatribes of the director, which are riddled with contradictions and philosophical tangents, frequently border on the profound as well. Steeped in such madness, it’s no surprise that a significant portion of the dialogue borders on the nonsensical. Each of these superb arcs entwine to create a whole that is both disorienting and, yes, satisfyingly layered. And then there’s the tale of you, the actor, who somehow wound up on this ship for this strange role. There’s also the mystery of the crew and passengers who once occupied the vessel. Picking up objects such as a monocular or empty cans of food cues interesting audio logs of the siblings’ own experiences that took place there.
One of the main storylines follows Lily and James, siblings who pretended to be pirates on the ship. But unlike the original’s story, which ironically lacked layers, the sequel has more moving parts to decipher, each of which excites and enlightens. Early 1900s-style films play at the end of each act and a chalkboard marks your progress in your room similar to the painting in the original. This time it’s your movie’s director, whose chilling voice fills the lifeless ship throughout the five Act adventure. Like the original, Layers of Fear 2 uses the “artist gone mad” concept. Trading surrealist art for classic film, Layers of Fear 2 places you in the role of an actor on an ocean liner. It’s a marked improvement on the 2016 original developer Bloober Team has created one of the most haunting and creatively nuanced horror games I’ve ever played. A stirring adventure with incredible writing that consistently subverts expectations.Įqual parts unsettling, moving, and eerily beautiful, Layers of Fear 2 is an astonishing feat of storytelling viewed through an off-kilter horror lens that consistently surprised me.
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