When everything clicks like this, Layers of Fear 2 is a special horror experience.
The way the visuals and sound design come together really do feel like the direction of an auteur. Sometimes it brings on a tense fear, other times it can be a source of comfort. The refrain of the main theme is of particular note. Repetitive clanging, your footsteps, and the constant click of doors locking up behind you all of these combine with the original score to establish a lonesome, threatening tone. At times you can hear elements of the 1920s ship creaking and rattling around you. Sound design, too, is equally impressive. There are acts which take place almost entirely in black and white – which took my eyes some getting used to – while others saturate colour to evoke specific feelings and themes.
At times, you’ll be presented with stunning imagery, largely dictated by clever lighting choices and composition, which will make you stop in your tracks to appreciate it. Not only are the environments detailed and authentic, but the lighting is spectacular. At first, it feels like an elaborate exercise in method acting, but as you navigate through dim corridors (which will change and reshape at a moment’s notice), solve puzzles and read snippets of backstory to learn more about the setting, the sense of unnerving dread seeps in.īloober Team have done some fantastic visual work. The deep, gravelled voice of the director guides you from time to time on your quest to ‘build the character’. Shot on set aboard a luxury cruise ship, you’re constantly on edge. You play the role of a troubled, famous actor, chosen as the lead in a reclusive director’s final work. Switching the Victorian mansion setting of the first game for a mannequin-filled cruise liner in the early 20th century, the five acts of Layers of Fear 2 drip with creepy imagery and haunting tableaus. Layers of Fear 2 does some fascinating things in terms of abstract storytelling, using its constantly unsettling atmosphere to tell a surprisingly emotional, engaging tale.
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