Random Video Game Review - Layers of Fear

So now we come to a game that may actually be quite frightening to some. Many of us are not too keen on jumpscares. In fact some of us hate them so much that we just choose not to watch or play anything that has them. But the thing is, I actually don't mind them too much as long as there is some reason as to why its there. In such things like Stephen King's It and the Five Nights At Freddy's games, the jumpscares actually make a lot of sense. But then you get some games and films that just use them because of lazy writing. But yeah they can have a very mixed reception for the most part. Anyway, let's take a look at Layers of Fear and see what horrors await us:

Set at a time when gangsters were the big thing (or the 1920s in other words), the unnamed protagonist of the game returns home following a court hearing. There he explores his empty house before going to his workshop to work on his so called "magnum opus". But as he adds the layers, he soon starts to hallucinate about his past encounters. As a game, it asks the player to figure out how to complete the protagonist's piece of work which can be done through the means of puzzle solving. Most would require us the player to search the environment for visual clues which seems straight forward at first. But this is meant to be a psychological horror game so of course its not going to be that simple. The environment changes with lots of things to collect to complete this piece of work all while taking on a wide array of jumpscares. And guess what, its one of those games that has multiple endings which as you can imagine will depend on the actions of we the players. Plus there is also a DLC that continues the story many years later in the 1960s with the protagonist's daughter returning to the empty house and figuring out what went down while making some tough choices.

So what many of us may not know about this game is that the inspiration came from that famous playable demo of the unreleased Silent Hill game that had the involvement of Norman Reedus, Hideo Kojima and Guilermo del Toro and if that's not a great trio of people involved then I don't know what is (but at least all is not lost as Death Stranding is not too far away). Anyway the game is pretty good. Its one that shows that mental health can actually work well in a video game and like I say, some parts are pretty terrifying. Meaning that it lives up to its name. May not be for everyone but its OK at least. 8/10