- Publisher: Bloober Team
- Release Date: Feb 15, 2016
- Also On: iPhone/iPad, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Feb 14, 2016Everyone who mourns for the recently terminated new Silent Hill game will find consolation in the Layers of Fear. Both games use similar tools in order to give you goosebumps: sudden noises, objects moving under mysterious circumstances, paranormal apparitions and an ever-changing level-structure. Personally, I’m not much of a jump scare fan but – if you choose to ignore the minimalist gameplay – Layers of Fear is almost a perfect example for a horror game. The story is thrilling and graphics as well as sound are of very high quality. My biggest issue with the game is its short playtime, which clocks in at around 3-5 hours.
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Game World Navigator MagazineApr 21, 2016Layers of Fear brings Pan's Labyrinth to mind – with the caveat that there’s no monsters in it. The game’s more weird than scary, and it’s very hard to die here, yet it manages to keep players in suspense. [Issue#208, p.62]
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Mar 7, 2016The horror story of the mentally disturbed painter will appeal to you with a mood and a suspense. The unexpected changes of environment you get the most, environment though lacks more interactivity at some moments.
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Mar 4, 2016Layers of Fear is one of those games which has great potential but later on, is wasted. It could have been a great game but thanks to the cheesy jump scares and horror clichés it makes itself an ordinary game.
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Mar 4, 2016Despite the abundance of clichés, you can see that a lot of effort went into setting the right tone and atmosphere. There are some downright mind-blowing scenes and unique uses of audio and color.
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Feb 25, 2016A superb atmospheric horror experience, Layers of Fear succeeds in taking terror videogames to the next levels in terms of immersion, but fails to deliver little else than another artistic walking simulator.
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Feb 20, 2016Layers of Fear masterfully toys with your sense of reality, when it's not throwing cheesy jump scares in your face.
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Feb 16, 2016In a game that has a lot of fresh ideas on how to build suspense and let your mind do most of the work, it's disappointing to see frequent usage of those tautologies (it's scary because it's scary).
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Feb 14, 2016Layers of Fear wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be based on early impressions, but I was still entertained by its mind-bending haunted house even when the jump-scares fell flat.
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Feb 14, 2016On the surface, this is a simplistic horror game with a claustrophobic atmosphere and plenty of creepy moments. The straightforward puzzles and unusual visuals give it wide appeal. Beneath that there are secrets to uncover and the subliminal pleasure of playing as the monster. For those that want to probe deeper there are angles of art and psychology to ponder. Stacked up like the rickety tiers of a gothic building, Layers of Fear proves aptly named.
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Mar 2, 2016Stomaching the jump scares and heavily recycled horror imagery will earn you a handful of mesmerizing vistas, but Layers of Fear fails to challenge or transform its central trope.
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Feb 15, 2016Layers of Fear is a linear game that is a few steps behind the horror titans. The 4 hours needed to see the ending couldn't be considered wasted time but I had some doubts during. The game can scare you pretty well - unfortunately after a while the pattern becomes too repetitive (at the same time this is the moment where the rooms become more interesting). Layers of Fear takes some stuff from the P.T. demo - but when you copy, you should do it from the best source possible.
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Feb 14, 2016Layers of Fear is an intriguing experimental haunted house, but without a proper sense of pacing, it fails to scare.
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Feb 22, 2016As a lifetime fan of horror, good, bad, and cheesetastic, I’m pleased that we’re experiencing a renaissance of horror in books, movies, and games. But recent games (SOMA, Penumbra, Amnesia) have set a pretty high bar, and in comparison to those Layers of Fear falls markedly short.
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Feb 14, 2016If you’re looking for something to scare you for an hour or two on a dark night, then this is a title you should consider picking up. If you’re looking for the next great horror title, however, your efforts will be better served elsewhere.
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Feb 14, 2016Layers of Fear lacks the surprises and subtlety needed to keep things interesting all the way through. It makes a strong first impression, but quickly exhausts its best ideas, making it hard for them to really shine as scary or meaningful moments. It’s hard to be terrified when you can see what’s coming at the end of every long dark hallway.
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Apr 3, 2016Pretty visuals do more harm than good to Layers of Fear. The game looks like a sleek, smart, serious interactive experience, but in reality, it disappoints every step of the way.
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CD-ActionMay 1, 2016Layers of Fear can send shivers down your spine, but it lacks a good story and moderation. It looks like developers could not decide which favourite horror motifs to use, so they used all of them and although the game started really well, after two hours I was already tired by the throng of predictable clichés and jump scares. [04/2016, p.57]
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Feb 19, 2016Despite some creative visual tricks, Layers of Fear doesn’t have sharp enough teeth to maintain its bite.
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Feb 19, 2016Layers of Fear is well made, but commits a potentially greater sin than a game that’s simply bad. It’s dull. It’s dreary. It’s got as much bite as a beach ball.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Feb 16, 2016Layers of Fear is an effective scare ‘em up but the sense of dislocation and the lack of character development left me feeling as if I’d enjoyed a thematically messy series of shocks rather than a cohesive horror story. It’s a collection of scary things that are tangentially related to the idea of creative blocks and familial cruelty rather than an exploration of the artist or his personality flaws. By the time the credits rolled, I knew very little about this particular painter that I couldn’t have learned by reading a brief synopsis.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 260 out of 445
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Mixed: 120 out of 445
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Negative: 65 out of 445
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Aug 27, 2015
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Feb 16, 2016
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Feb 16, 2016