REVIEW: ‘Layers of Fear (2023)’ is Beautiful Yet Unnecessary (XSX)

Bloober Team has quickly become a known entity in the horror game genre. With Unreal Engine 5 coming out, they wanted to go back to where their horror journey began with Layers of Fear (2023). Instead of just remaking the original 2016 release and its 2019 sequel, Bloober Team decided to tie everything together. They wanted to complete the story and bring everything Layers of Fear together into one package with some new story elements. Is it worth it? Did the new story elements pay off? Is it worth it for those who loved the first two releases to come back? Well, sadly, not really.

Layers of Fear (2023) recontextualizes Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2 as stories being written by a budding writer who won a contest to work in a lighthouse. However, she quickly learns that this is no ordinary lighthouse. As she writes her stories of a painter and a cinematographer, she slowly begins to hear voices. This is how the story ties together with the first two games. As you play through the first two games in full, you slowly hear more about this writer and how the nightmares of the lighthouse are affecting her and the stories she’s writing. While the stories of the first two games haven’t changed, they do slowly add to the overall narrative of the journey and toils of the writer who weaved their stories in the first place.

At its core, this game feels like a spooky walking sim. You open doors, interact with objects, read notes, and walk through horrific settings as they unfold. It’s like experiencing a more vivid haunted house. The rooms evolve as you discover new items digging up deep fears of the character you’re playing as. As they dive deeper and deeper into why their lives are in ruins because of their passions, more horrors pop up. But nothing feels dangerous or even remotely like a threat.

There are monsters that occasionally appear to chase you… slowly. They always walk slightly faster than your character. Previously, you had no real way to defend yourself. You just had to juke the monster that somehow always knew where you were and run away. In a new addition, you’re given a flashlight that can stun the enemy for a short amount of time. In a way, this basically removes or severely dampens an already minimal threat in the experience.

There are also puzzles scattered throughout both major experiences. The thing is, they are surprisingly simple. Most are just observational puzzles. If you pay attention enough, you’ll probably not even realize you just got through a puzzle room. This remake, and the addition of new features, could’ve been a chance to revamp these puzzles. Their not doing so feels like a missed opportunity. Even for those who may be experiencing these puzzles for the first time, you may be surprised about the simplicity of those puzzles, particularly when compared to other horror games under the Bloober Team umbrella.

If you’ve played the first two games before, there is next to nothing new for you, except for the new writer sequences. While these do add some interesting story elements, it’s a real shame that this genuinely scary location cannot be explored in full. It’s just a setting where you get kicked out to learn more about this new character. Even then, there are no chase sequences, there are no puzzles. You’re just experiencing a spooky story that feels tacked on to the previous two games. If these segments where you control the writer weren’t included, and you had a new voiceover during the two games’ playthroughs, it would add just as much substance to the overarching narrative they tried to go with.

That isn’t to say that the new narrative isn’t scary. There are some fantastic jumpscares. But, numerous times, it felt like it was just a missed opportunity to spin this writer out to be her own game. Unlike the painter and actor, the writer isn’t nearly as cocky. She’s desperate to create what she wants to create. The decisions made to improve her writing led to horrific moments. Yet, if given moments and full environments similar to the two other games could’ve made her story and how it applies to the overall Layers of Fear story could’ve been more impactful than what was implemented here.

Then, there is the DLC. A new DLC story is added, which is supposed to expand on the first game’s story in particular. Unlike the two main games, the DLC stories are strictly optional. If they were given the weight of how the two games played out, they could feel like a more full and complete package. Having the DLCs, particularly this brand new experience on top of the game’s story itself, be separate entities feel like a missed opportunity when this game is advertised as the “final chapter.”

Layers of Fear (2023) felt like it had two goals. One, show what Bloober Team can pull off in Unreal Engine 5. And two, tie together a 7-year story. It succeeded in the former and failed hard with the latter. While Layers of Fear (2023)is beautiful and creepier than ever with its atmosphere, the attempts to tie loose ends that were never really there feel beyond unnecessary. Even with new gameplay elements that breathed life into the older games, the new story additions just feel tacked on. While this game made me look forward to what Bloober Team can accomplish on a new engine, I am just not impressed with why this exists when a remake of the original game could have just as sufficed. If you’re a newcomer looking for an interesting twist on the horror genre, this full package could be worth your time. If you’re coming back as a fan, this game may not add the new that you hope it does.

Layers of Fear (2023) is available on June 15th on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.