We thought the notes might get a bit much (who writes and scatters around this many deeply personal notes, anyway?) but the fact that the game references the sheer number of notes from the get-go actually warmed us to them. It drip-feeds little details at you constantly, both with notes lying around the house and pictures and visual clues dotted around. The story itself, while completely wrapped in clichés (alcoholic husband struggling with creativity: check, couple desperately wanting to have a baby: check), isn’t entirely without merit. I’d walk into a room, look for the interactive element the game wanted me to find, and wait for the scary thing to happen. But as the story progressed, I learned to expect it. The first few times either of these things happened – be it a door slamming shut as I approach it or books falling off a shelf behind me as I turned around – I’ll admit that I jumped like a baby. Layers of Fear is Visually Stunning and Features Terrific Emergent Storytelling The main bulk of its attempts to scare you involve the scenery changing around you as you progress, and things being behind you when you turn around – both with audio cues. It also doesn’t help that Layers of Fear pretty much plays all of its cards right away. While it gets loads of points for its lovely visuals, emergent storytelling, and attention to detail (we particularly appreciated the fact the protagonist actually walks with a limp after learning that he’d got a prosthetic limb), it’s not actually all that scary. But, in practice, it doesn’t really work out for Layers of Fear. And what better form of interaction than scaring the life out of you? In a genre that lacks any form of genuine interaction aside from opening doors and reading letters, it feels right that the world interact with you instead. Horror and walking simulators go together like bread and butter, as we’ve seen from the likes of SOMA, to a lesser extent Gone Home, and now Layers of Fear.
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