Which brings us to Layers of Fear 2, a meticulously crafted homage to classic film that uses the visual language of horror to explore artistic creation-and specifically, acting-without uh…being scary.
Games can do the same, as evidenced by first Soma, then Layers of Fear and Observer. I definitely felt the emotion and gravity of the themes, and the story becomes clearer as you progress through the game’s five acts, but this thing rides the line between poetic and obtuse to the point where, at times, I just gave up trying to understand what the hell was going on.But there’s a rich horror tradition, one where the threats are mostly unseen or unknowable- The Thing, The Shining, The Omen, even In the Mouth of Madness and Jacob’s Ladder.
Firstly, it’s so nebulous and lyrical that, honestly, it was hard for me to follow. It’s difficult to break down the game’s central narrative for two reasons. Even the pacing and structure of the experience is cinematic in that the scares and silences are spaced out deliberately and rhythmically - the best films are musical in their storytelling and Bloober Team seems to subscribe to the same philosophy. In fact, the game’s codename when it was in development was “Project Melies,” a reference to the great George Melies, whose ahead-of-its-time film A Trip to the Moon is paid homage to in spectacular fashion late in the game. References to classic movies can be found at just about every turn, with nods to The Shining, Psycho, Metropolis, The Night Hunter, The Thing, and more woven into the narrative. But it really is the outstanding synergy between all aspects of the presentation that make this game seep into your pores.īloober Team’s main source of inspiration, aesthetically and thematically, is golden age cinema. The sound design contributes just as much as the visuals, giving the presentation a true sense of three-dimensionality that gives you a rock-solid sense of where you are in the environment (which the developers, of course, manipulate and warp at times to make you feel just a little nauseous). Every room is rendered beautifully, down to the tiniest details - like the way light bounces off of the cabins’ polished wood molding, or the way every material looks tactile and lived-in. The key to the game’s ability to creep you the fuck out is the stellar presentation and art design, which work harmoniously to create a thick, pervasive atmosphere that can be extremely transportive and encompassing. There aren’t any overt threats of violence in the game, so the way developer Bloober Team instills fear is by making you feel perpetually off-balance, unwelcome, and unsafe.įurther Reading: The Games You Need to Play in 2019 I never found myself actually frightened by the fact that the dark closet I just walked out of turned into a dingy kitchen, while I had my back turned, but it was certainly amusing and kept me on my toes. There are a lot of little tricks of the mind sprinkled throughout the game, and the cumulative effect of them is amusing at the very least.
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