Layers of Fear (2023) Reviews
Layers of Fear is a fine choice if you haven't played the first two games, but if you did, it doesn't really offer anything too interesting apart from the two new stories.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Though it is not without its fair share of flaws, the revamped Layers of Fear contains everything that fans enjoyed about the original series and elevates them with improved visuals and new gameplay mechanics that help alleviate some of the monotony. The writer’s story offers an intriguing through-line that sensibly ties together each narrative thread. Technical hiccups aside, Layers of Fear wraps up the series in a graphically enhanced package that is easily the best way for players both new and old to experience the franchise.
Layers of Fear (2023) makes full use of Unreal Engine 5 to elevate its visuals, lighting, and environments to all-new heights, reimagines the original Layers of Fear, and features brand-new DLC content to tie the entire story together. Layers of Fear 2 still struggles to compare, however, and scares often fail to land.
All the tweaks and cosmetic improvements are clearly not enough to consider Layers of Fear 2023 a completely new game. If you were not familiar with the original releases, then be sure to try the compilation. But apart from the main plot, the writer's storyline is clearly not worth the money.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Layers of Fear impressively goes beyond the call of duty of updating both games for modern hardware. It's a remake with significantly enhanced visuals and a strong dedication to creating an immersive atmosphere, while also introducing new content. However, it's regrettable that the newly added content feels lacking in substance and significance. Nevertheless, Layers of Fear remains the definitive way to experience the Layers of Fear series, warts and all.
Layers of Fear shows no sign of creativity or ambition and it delivers a familiar walking simulator experience in horror genre. That being said, if you're a fan of psychological horror games, you're going to love its atmosphere and story.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Layers of Fear really brings a lot of improvements that amplify the game's strongest aspect: its immersive atmosphere. Audio and visuals are almost impeccable in this release, and they're truly worth experiencing. That said, playing through all of the content on offer in this remake/remaster collection does stretch the gameplay a bit too thin over its runtime, and it slowly wears out its welcome. What remains is a repetitive and sometimes tame horror adventure game that's worth experiencing for its presentation alone.
Layers of Fear 2023 really isn't the most necessary remake ever and those who didn't like the original games certainly won't be converted, but this is a pretty compelling package for psychological horror fans.
At its core, Layers of Fear is a rather generic survival horror experience. Most of your adventure will be exploring locations for clues or solving rather basic puzzles. Eventually, you meet hostile forces; they’re more annoying than scary. For these reasons, it’s probably worth it if you love the genre, but you might want to look into something else for everyone else.
With average horror elements that have their moments and a somewhat interesting story that unfolds as you descend into a rabbit hole of madness, Layers of Fear does enough to keep players engaged, but not enough to push the series forward in a meaningful way.
While Bloober Team has achieved immersive visual enhancements through Unreal Engine 5, the game itself did not deviate from the original 'Layers of Fear' series. If you cannot be satisfied with enjoying the game's expanded madness within a single title, it will simply feel more like a definitive edition.
Review in Korean | Read full review
Layers of Fear is a very fun experience for fans of the survival horror genre. It is also an improvement from either of the two original games and the DLCs. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t quite live up to other remakes of late such as Resident Evil 4 Remake or Dead Space. Although, the addition of an entirely new story is a welcome one in the story. If you have never played the originals this version of the game is the version you should pick up. It is graphically fantastic and the combat adds a welcome change to the gameplay.
I wanted to like Layers of Fear (2023). I leisurely traversed the haunted house (and ship) for around fifteen hours, but its horror elements never truly left the realm of abstraction. I walked away fascinated by the spaces and objects left behind by the game’s characters. They left a residue of horror. But I left frustrated by how little this residue manifested in truly terrifying, concrete, or meaningful ways.
If you're a fan of slower horror movies with an exciting story that will stick in your head for a week after finishing it, this is the one for you. It took me about 14 hours to complete the base game with the added chapters, and I think any psychological horror fan will enjoy it. Of course, provided you know that the game is primarily a walking simulator. But he can handle it really well.
Review in Czech | Read full review
The game flexes all the muscles with the excellent use of Unreal Engine 5 but is undermined by obsolete tricks to create tension.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Layers of Fear is, without a doubt, a worthwhile experience for those who are curious to enter the franchise and haven't had the opportunity yet, since the package includes the two main games, DLCs and extras, making it a great attraction. However, it is necessary to emphasize, for those who already know the experience, that you will not find anything substantially new, having in the graphic improvement its greatest strength, keeping the rhythm, puzzles and gameplay loop intact and not correcting the mistakes of the franchise's past.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
'Layers of Fear' is an improved version of the previously released games. All stories are bundled into one whole and have even more depth than before.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Layers of Fear 2023 re-packages the first two games with better visuals and sound, but gameplay is a miss.
Layers of Fear is an atmospheric tour through the shattered psyches of some seriously tortured artists, but predictable shock tactics fail to provide more than a handful of genuine scares, let alone layers of them.
Layers of Fear (2023) starts out strong with the story of The Artist, and loses itself amidst its own ambition during the story of The Actor. Bloober Team’s once meaningful exploration of a character’s descent into madness quickly becomes redundant amidst a sea of film references and blurred storytelling. Layers of Fear is certainly a cohesive remake that brings the original games together, and there’s no denying that it looks great, but its second act feels incredibly lost when contrasted against such a strong start. Layers of Fear (2023) is one major case of whiplash, that’s for sure, but it does showcase Bloober Team's potential to do good if it can nail down the focal points of the stories it tells.