Game review 05 July 2019, 16:56

author: Darius Matusiak

Layers of Fear 2 Review – More Ambitious, but is that Good?

An atmosphere which is not that spooky or terrifying but... quite strange, disturbing, literally "creepy." Layers of Fear 2 is not the Polish P. T., but a Polish TP. “T” for Twin, and “P” for Peaks.

The review is based on the PC version.

The first part of Layers of Fear by the Polish Bloober Team studio is often compared to the unfortunate announcement of Silent Hills, the P.T. demo by Hideo Kojima. Actually, it was a bit of P.T. – it's without Hollywood stars, but has a very spooky setting, with a dense atmosphere and gloomy story in the background. The tragic story about a painter turned out to be so good that today on Metacritic, the average player rating is even slightly higher than the scores of reviewers. I think Layers of Fear 2 will be a quite similar case.

The second part eliminates some of the problems of the first installment, but because it’s twice as long, you can also see its drawbacks. Some are known from the previous part and some newer ones. Some not very interesting escape sequences have been added and puzzles are still simple, but finally, the daft jump-scares have been abandoned. Instead, we got an atmosphere which is not that spooky or terrifying but... quite strange, disturbing, literally "creepy." Layers of Fear 2 is not the Polish P. T., but a Polish TP. “T” for Twin, and “P” for Peaks.

David Lynch meets Donnie Darko

Though sometimes some clumsy monster will sneak around, in Layers of Fear 2 you can see and feel the spirit of magnificent David Lynch. The whole game is practically a collection of increasingly bizarre and strange scenes. Surreal visions with disturbing music and mysterious monologues. Movies with running deer after burning mannequins on some enigmatic designs. If you put in the game every odd moment from the last season of Twin Peaks series, such as an atomic bomb explosion, a gold sphere or the return of Phillip Jeffries – kettle, they would blend in with the atmosphere and gameplay offered by Layers of Fear 2 just perfectly.

Personally, I'm a little tired of such a big dose of surrealism. First of all, because the normal story hidden underneath it does not arouse any particularly great emotions at the end, and the degree of twisting of these visions has nothing to do with trivially simple riddles. It seems to me, however, that this is one of those elements which may be perceived as the main advantage of this title. If somebody likes such weird think-overs in the style of Donnie Darko or Twin Peaks, then in Layers of Fear 2 he or she will be delighted! And for the cherry on top, there is also the voice of the narrator, played by Tony Todd himself – the Candyman.

A ship and a damned cruise

At the beginning, there is nothing to indicate that we have reached a place that will test our imagination. We play the part of a famous actor who makes a film on board a luxury transatlantic ship. We're just supposed to feel the part and give it our best shot. We find telegrams from our agent, announcements that part of the deck is not available for passengers, and the film crew has every freedom of action. We visit the cabins, pass luggage carts, filmmakers' equipment, crew rooms, we even go out on board to look at the endless ocean – it's empty, but quite normal.

The ship, however, lives its own life, as did the house in the first part of Layers of Fear. Just take a step or look in a different direction and the corridor layout changes, some doors disappear and others start appearing. From narrow quarters we get to underground tunnels, labyrinth in the garden, and even blocks of flats with raw skyscrapers. Above all, we pass strange film sets with mannequins in various poses and situations. We initiate disturbing scenes, sometimes take part in them, and even make choices – according to or against the director's or narrator's orders.

With each step it becomes more strange, more surreal. Mannequins are everywhere, but they are still only an addition to disturbing representations of light, sound and scenery. Although we sometimes recognize a reference to a popular film, the ingenuity and fantasy of the authors really do make an impression. Not only the scenes change and surprise all the time, but also the linearity of the gameplay and slightly claustrophobic levels have been cleverly designed. Once we are in the center of events, once we look at something from the right position or through a small hole, and the projects of omnipresent narrow corridors can be considered an absolute masterpiece. There is no issue of backtracking at all, although we sometimes have to visit places we already know.

Contrast magic doesn't work

Somewhere beneath this endless parade of sleepy visions and nightmares lies a real story of ordinary people, which we are slowly discovering. It is a pity, that the finale does not make such an impression as many previously seen scenes, and the volume of the story seems to be much smaller than what we saw and experienced on this ship with constant lack of space. It's hard to get rid of the impression that some elements were only meant to extend our time with the game, such as poorly realized sequences of escaping from some kind of monsters. Deaths and rebirths at checkpoints do not fit in at all in "walking" simulators where you mainly concentrate on narration and exploration.

Simple riddles and puzzles are another problem of Layers of Fear 2. If a player passively and consciously gets into such a twisted story, it is rather easy for him to tie up certain facts, items or remember something he saw a moment ago. Placing a safe in the game just to put in the code opening the lock directly on its door looks a bit like an unpleasant joke. It's a pity, cause in a few stages it was clear that the creators could also afford more ingenious and interesting puzzles. This is the case with hiding the code in a scattered deck of cards or going to a room in slides.

Too many layers?

After completing Layers of Fear 2 I'm sure the game would have profited a lot from being a bit shorter. If what we see and experience had corresponded better with the story (although perhaps my interpretations of some surreal scenes did not quite resonate). It seems to me that after the first part of the game could be finished relatively shortly, this time they tried to reach the "magic" number of 10 hours at all costs, even at the expense of a consistent vision of the whole. Alternative endings, or even the "New Game+" option – quite unique in this type of productions – are supposed to make us want to play the title for as long as possible.

Walking simulators, however, are rather a specific genre and a good narrative is usually fostered by short gameplay. The creators of the amazing What Remains of Edith Finch have proved that even a less than two-hour game can delight in every aspect, if only everything is subordinated to the story. With Layers of Fear 2 I had the impression that the priority was unnecessarily placed somewhere else, so the end result is not as perfect as it could have been. This is still an exceptionally atmospheric production, very specific and bold, but the biggest impression is made by single scenes, not by the whole or after seeing the credits. The lacks a bit to achieve the genius style of Edith Finch.