“Insanity runs in our family”
After Blair Witch and The Medium, Bloober Team is returning to the world of Layers of Fear with a “psychedelic” horror game, Layers of Fears, that’s being developed in Unreal Engine 5 alongside Anshar Studios. A trailer debuted at Summer Game Fest 2022 with familiar characters and scenes from the wider series, albeit looking better than ever.
It really feels like history is repeating itself, both in terms of the tortured artist storyline and the gameplay of Layers of Fear 1 and 2 (and Inheritance, the game with the painter’s daughter, which is easily forgotten about and will likely end up feeling the freshest here). We’ve seen tons of remasters and even full-on remakes in recent years, but this is blurring the lines in a way that I wasn’t expecting after Bloober Team’s recent teases.
“Layers of Fears will be the complete, definitive, and at the same time unpredictable way to discover the stories of artists enslaved by their obsessions,” according to Bloober Team. “Prepare for an exquisite horror experience thanks to the expanded plot lines that will cast a new light on the overarching narrative.” You can see some screenshots on Steam.
The developers say they’re “focused on tense exploration and immersive storytelling,” though that’s going to be a hard sell for some people based on the series so far.
I personally have had my fun with Layers of Fear (and to a lesser extent its direct sequel), so I’m curious if Layers of Fears will end up feeling fresh enough, conceptually, to justify itself. The visual fidelity is clearly a step up from the original games, but that can only take me so far. In general, this spooky (?) series has a lot of fans — and a lot of haters.
Layers of Fears is heading to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store.
