Key

I was originally going to do a "first impressions" entry on Layers of Fear, but then I discovered that the game was actually released this year, so that allowed me to be a little bit more thorough with my review on the game by throwing it into the mix of reviews that I have been doing for 2016 releases.

I'm surprised that I didn't pick this game up upon release, because it's right up my alley. It's a horror game, ffs. More specifically, it's a psychological horror. So, if you're looking for a game that throws monsters or bad guys at you in order to scare you, this won't be the game for you. It's not a jump scare filled horror game, it's meant to be a little bit more slow paced while at the same time, creating a universe in your mind that will give you chills going down your spine. You play the role as a painter, but you come to find out more details about his personal life, his past mistakes, his relationships, while simultaneously going through your mansion of a house and finding more family heirlooms. The twist is that when you walk through a door, don't expect to see the same room behind the door you just went through. Sometimes you'll end up in a room you've seen before, but other times you'll end up in a room that you didn't know existed. It's done really well in the sense that some rooms will react to you stepping foot into them, like a figure will pop up and scare you, thus changing the mood and environment completely, or the game will throw nothing at you. From experience, it's kept me on my toes throughout my time playing, and I've only played about 2 hours so far.

The whole idea behind the game is really well done and unfortunately upon further inspection, the game really didn't do as well as you'd think in terms of critic reviews, but if you look at steam reviews, the people speak very positively about the game. I picked it up for the sheer fact that it was on sale, and the fact that I was itching for another horror game that I can submerge myself into. Granted, I've not touched Alien: Isolation in quite some time, but that's because I grew a little tired of it. At some point I'll go back to it. But this game really scratches that itch that i've been looking for. It's got everything I like in a game. It makes me think instead of just throwing things at me, and it's got a really good story. The cool thing about the story aspect is that it can change based on how you react to certain things that happen in the game. I've not really come across anything that could potentially change the way the game changes, but I can see why it would happen. But at the end of the day, every time I play it, I really get drawn into the story, especially since it's very well narrated and it's not just some straightforward "try to save this person" story, it's much more than that, but I won't spoil it.

Just keep in mind, if this review has interested you at all and you're curious about playing this game, don't expect a horror game that will make you **** your pants at every corner. It's much more than that, and it's why I've come to appreciate the psychological horror genre a lot more and the typical scare your pants off horror games have taken a bit of a back seat. I don't know what else the developer has done besides this game, but if they keep making horror games of this quality, I will be behind them one hundred percent. I look forward to either this game getting a sequel or whatever. I did pick up the DLC along with this, so I'll be interested to see how they plays out, but for the moment, I'm having a damn good time with this game, and I urge you to pick it up if you're interested in being psychologically freaked out.