When Bloober Team and Anshar Studios first announced the new Layers of Fear game, they introduced it to horror fans with the name Layers of Fears. Fan feedback saw Bloober Team change the title to simply Layers of Fear, meaning the game shares its name with the 2016 original. And while the 2016 original has indeed been recreated for this new Layers of Fear, the new game is much more than a simple repeat.
The 2023 Layers of Fear game is scheduled to launch in June 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. It combines the content from the first Layers of Fear game, the Inheritance expansion, and Layers of Fear 2, while also introducing a brand-new chapter for the original game in the form of The Last Note. In The Last Note, players take control of the painter's wife from the original game, which should shed new light on the franchise's overarching narrative.
Game ZXC was recently shown a hands-off presentation of the new Layers of Fear in action, with this presentation focused on a new story called The Lighthouse as well as the remade first game. The Lighthouse looks to tie the Layers of Fear narrative together and has players taking on the role of a writer who is staying at a secluded and creepy lighthouse in an effort to get inspiration for their work. In typical Layers of Fear fashion, players will walk around, interact with items, and be bombarded by jump scares, but with far superior graphics compared to the older games.
The new Layers of Fear is built using Unreal Engine 5, and Bloober Team is putting the new technology to great use. Even in its current work-in-progress state, Layers of Fear looks incredible, with highly-detailed environments and atmospheric lighting. It could very well be Bloober Team's most visually-striking game to date, which is saying something as the studio has a history of putting out graphically-impressive games.
After spending some brief time with the new writer character, the Layers of Fear demo then transitioned to gameplay from the recreated original game. Here the graphical improvements were even more obvious. Comparing the scenes from the original Layers of Fear to this remade version, it's clear that the 2023 iteration represents a massive leap forward in terms of graphics, to the point where it feels like a brand-new game.
The graphical updates would honestly be enough for most Layers of Fear fans to be interested in this new version of the story, but there are some important gameplay changes as well, with one big one on display in the presentation. In the new Layers of Fear game, players have access to a lantern that can actually be utilized as a way to fight off the wife's ghost.
Players are basically helpless in the original Layers of Fear game, but this re-imagined version gives players a means of defending themselves. Near the end of the gameplay presentation, the painter was confronted by his wife's ghost. The player was able to shine the lantern on her, causing her to catch aflame, slow down, and eventually explode. The player used this respite to book it to a different room, though it didn't take long before they were pursued again.
While some hardcore fans of the original game may not like the addition of the lantern, it should allow for more engaging moment-to-moment gameplay and will potentially make the game more appealing to those who prefer having a way to fight back against enemies in horror games. Plus, the lantern has the practical use of functioning as a way to illuminate dark areas, addressing one of the bigger complaints that people had with the original Layers of Fear game.
Bloober Team wants this new Layers of Fear to be the studio's "crowning work," and based on what we've seen, it's well on its way to achieving that goal. The new content looks to be worthwhile, and the visual upgrades are considerable. The 2023 Layers of Fear should be the definitive way to experience the series, but time will tell if it lives up to expectations.
Layers of Fear launches June 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
