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Layers Of Fear is shaping up to be a worthy final act for the seriesThe complete picture unveiled at last

The complete picture unveiled at last

A slashed and decomposing portrait of a human face is just barely visible against a similarly dilapidated wall.

I recently sat in on an early preview presentation of Layers Of Fear, chatting with creative director Damian Kocurek. Listeners to one very specific episode of theEWS podcastmight recall that I’m something of a Layers Of Fear lore theorist, so of course I was delighted to nerd out over what this new(ish) game is all about. Similarly detail-orientedhorrorfans out there will hopefully share my excitement when I tell them that yes, the rats are back, and you can even catch a brief glimpse of the Rat Queen.

Layers of Fear - Official 11-Minute Gameplay WalkthroughWatch on YouTube

Layers of Fear - Official 11-Minute Gameplay Walkthrough

Cover image for YouTube video

I was mollified, though, when Kocurek made the excellent point that, in addition to increased budget and technical improvements since 2016, there’s a practical reason to want to make hands happen. The full incarnation of Layers Of Fear will see you switching between half-a-dozen or so player characters, so having ways to visually distinguish between them will be a big help. OK. Fine. Hands are good, I guess. There’s also an increased presence of voice-over lines for the protagonists' inner monologues, although unlike the hands, you’ll be able to toggle those off if you prefer your spooks a bit more old-school.

A portrait of a woman stands on an easel in a well-lit spot in an otherwise darkened room. The only visible features in the dark areas of the room are dozens upon dozens of thick metal chains.

Kocurek, in his new role as my Layers Of Fear therapist, assures me that there will still be routes to unlocking different endings, and that such encounters may not always even happen, depending on how your behaviour up to that point has shaped your path through the game. He’s also keen to stress that while the addition of such encounters has increased the game’s difficulty slightly from its original status as an infamous horror walking sim, you won’t require lightning-fast reflexes to get through the new sections. Furthermore, under the hood, difficulty in those encounters evolves to match player performance, ensuring higher-skilled players don’t get complacent while those who struggle won’t be locked out of progressing.

The reimagined first game contains several entirely new set pieces within the loopy mansion.Layers Of Fear 2 footage is still scarce, but I’m glad they haven’t skimped on the creepy mannequins.

The reimagined first game contains several entirely new set pieces within the loopy mansion.

In a nightmarishly improbable scene, the staircase and hallway of a spacious yet semi-ruined house are cluttered to the rafters with oil paintings. A black gloopy supernatural figure emerges from the densest concentration of pictures in the lower hallway.

Layers Of Fear 2 footage is still scarce, but I’m glad they haven’t skimped on the creepy mannequins.

In an entirely red-lit corridor, several mannequins cower in poses of fear and submission. Two more humanoid figures can be seen standing at either end of the corridor in more confident poses, although it’s hard to say if they’re mannequin or human.

The remainder of the preview focused on the game’s new sections, which means that I didn’t get to see anything from the reimaginedInheritance DLCorLayers Of Fear 2just yet. There was a brief discussion of The Last Note: the new chapter complementing the first Layers Of Fear narrative, which will revisit some familiar scenes from the wife’s point-of-view, resulting in an interesting protagonist/antagonist do-si-do as we finally get her side of the story.

Mainly, though, the focus was on the brand-new story of the Writer, star of the framing narrative which aims to draw the series' disparate threads together into one connected whole. She’s an intriguing figure. She’s a more modern (although still not present-day) artist, and her seemingly biographical novels about the protagonists from the first two games have brought her to an isolated lighthouse retreat. Cut off from the world with the exception of a dodgy phone-line allowing her to take calls from her adult son, it seems inevitable that the competing pressures of creative expression and familial connection will begin to strain her, in the same way they took their toll on her subjects. Plus lighthouses are just inherently spooky; I feel like you’re guaranteed to start seeing ghosts if you spend several nights alone in one.

The Writer’s study, where she goes to write about all the easter eggs from the original games she’s obsessively collected over the years. An experience I can obviously relate to.

A dimly candle-lit room with a typewriter on a desk under the windows. It’s dusk outside and a nearby chair has a shawl or blanket draped over it. The room is very cluttered with books, papers, and pictures on the walls. An unlit oil lamp sits on the table.

The new Layers Of Fear is being described as both the end of an era for Bloober Team and the crowning work of the Layers Of Fear series. It was the original Layers Of Fear — one of the most lauded games to emerge out of the post-P.T.immersive horror boom in the mid-2010s — that put Bloober on the horror gaming map, after all, and it’s clear that Bloober Team are ready to wrap up their work on this series, as they move into their long-awaited remake ofSilent Hill 2. But it’s also equally apparent from our chat that they intend to do so while honouring the game’s legacy. As a fan of all things related to Layers Of Fear, it’s heartening to see the series bow out as the connected trilogy it always felt like it should be.

Layers Of Fear is expected in June 2023, though we’re still awaiting an exact release date, and will be available onSteam.