The first title of Bloober Team Layers of Fear surprised and pleasantly entertained for a while. The authors showed a very decent horror walking adventure with the character of a mad painter. As players liked it, the developers did not waste their time and immediately began working on the sequel, which is already here, offering a more extensive and better sophisticated experience. Still in the style of adventure walking.
Layers of Fear will show you layers of fear again. Again, it will not be the scariest game you have ever played, but it will be psycho. Finally, it is an area in which the authors are at home. This time you get on the ocean liner, like a Hollywood actor. The well-known director has sent you an invitation to shoot and you accepted the assignment without further questions. The problem is that things aren't what they seemed to be.
Someone's not on the ship. You don't know what to do. Strange things happen. The world around you is changing unexpectedly. There are strange clues, links. You don't know what to think. So you know, your character will give you a proper comment and you will try to get along with it. But it's not just your story that you follow. It will also be the story of two siblings whose path you follow and see how they lived their lives on the ship and played pirates. Whether they or the director himself will direct you forward.
You will discover the secrets of the ship. While it will lead you one way forward, cross the cabs, small studios created in her bowels and other special places, she will still have something to show and tell. While watching people's stories, you will solve simple as well as more complex puzzle tasks and try to pass different traps. You will try to orient yourself in the tangle of corridors, which will change after each turn. You will always get into the same space to find the right door out. In places it will be that it does not resemble a walking simulator, but a door opening simulator.
On your way, you will also find various things about which people's voices will tell you another snippet of story, you'll find links, but especially logic puzzle tasks where you have to enter codes into locks, even if you don't have to worry - they are always listed somewhere nearby. Sometimes you have to find the key to unlock the other entrances, sometimes to arrange the room so that it is okay and open the way for you, or stop the projector at a certain point to keep the door through the picture.
Individual tasks often do not make much sense except to get ahead, but this does not make this world. You have to go through the chaos and untangle it all. You may be able to do this, but given the chaos, you probably won't even try. Like the background comments, nothing is deep and everything is just a little hint at something bigger that never comes. Only a quick end will come.
The game goes smoothly within 4 hours, which is the average time for walking adventure, while you can get to one of the three ends. However, it is not exactly defined what exactly you need to do to get to which of the ends, so you are more likely to happen. However, there are some elements to choose from in the game. In addition, you can collect various collectibles, posters, photos and more on the way. To do this, after you get New Game Plus, you can try to find the other things you haven't found and possibly try to find another end.
The visual of the whole game is expected to be strange but also simple and the details are mostly poor. In this respect, the authors did not solve much. Rather, they focused on the overall creation of the atmosphere, artistic impression and strange scenes that combine light in the dark as well as different colors and offer a truly extraordinary experience. You won't see something like that elsewhere. Although the ship itself and its corridors take up a lot of game time and in places start to annoy, but specially prepared movie scenes in the hold, or direct trips to other dimensions, very brighten the environment.
However, qualitatively weaker visuals are complemented by an impressive speech and sound side, where the atmosphere builds both the music and the background commentator that motivates you to develop your character. It's like films from the early 20th century, and ultimately the authors tried to feel this.
Overall, Layers of Fear 2 has something to offer fans of walking simulators, has style, surprises, will not be bored, even if it is short and messy. But the authors seem to have achieved what they wanted and created a truly psycho experience. It may be a pity that they did not go after the story, your character, or even the possible news in this genre. Because jump scare, simple puzzle elements and chase are already enriched theme.
