However, it is very sad and partly disturbing. Layers of fear is an absolutely great game in my opinion. All in all a great game, that I would recommend everyone interrested in horror and psychology. That means, you could play the game completely blind to story, focusing only on the horror elements, or you could take the time to read every single note and maybe, if you're as iterrested in psychology as I am, even try to determine just how the protagonist came to fall into his very own prison of mind. The story is very interesting on it's own, and finding out about it is an even better experience. the game is, with all of it's value, still an absolutely horrifying experience with lots of explicit imagery, some blood and gore and most of all alcohol, though drinking is not directly shown in the game. There are multiple explainations in LoF, most of them in the form of letters and notes, on how you could and maybe should deal with mental illness. The protagonist deals with this mostly unescapable state of mind very unhealthily, which SPOILER ALERT: he realises on his own if you do certain things in he game SPOILER END. I have a mental illness that causes me to see, hear feel or smell things that aren't even really there in reality, so I can safely say that the game is a very realistic depiction of such halucinations. I myself am stuck with some of the mental plays the game does in reality. LoF plays with your head andcompletely flips around the way in which you define what you see or hear as part of reality. It depicts most aspects of a few well known ones really good, so I think the game at least partually deserves to be analysed for this part of it. Progression is also sometimes slightly obtuse as you look for the object/thing that triggers the next bit.Layers of Fear is a game about mental illness. There’s a weird acceleration to looking that can (and should) be switched off first chance you get, and it can also be fiddly to highlight things you interact with. The controls feel gluey and clumsy, taking a little adjusting to. The suggestion and hinting here is easily as effective as the visual sleight of hand in leaving you to do the real work of scaring yourself as narrative clues fester. There are a couple of things I only registered on a second play through, the penny dropping like an icicle slipped down the back of my shirt. It’s worth poking around though, because it gets dark. You can take as much of this as you want, finding notes and objects that expand on the back story, or just collect the gameplay critical-stuff for an abridged version. He’s as much a victim as he is an architect of his own downfall. Of a failing 19th century artist falling into ruin in an empty house as his abilities fail him. Nearly all of them are real paintings too, pulled from actual Renaissance art. Then there are the more threatening options: monsters and freaks, blood smeared shapes and warped images that defy a clear reading. Even the ‘normal’ ones aren’t encouraging, consisting of dour portraits and grim faces staring at you. They’re both the cause, and expression, of the artist’s growing madness. Paintings play an integral part in the game. You're not passively observing scary things: those split seconds of uncertainty as you register changes unbalance you, letting the horror slip past your normal defenses almost subliminally. I’ve never felt such a sense of unease from a horror experience because I’ve never been so much a part of it. When things change it’s often subtly prompted without realising you’ve been tricked until it’s too late. The effect erodes your faith in just simply being able to trust the space you’re in. Pictures twist into horrifying images just on the edges of your vision, as nightmarish shapes and forms slide over the real world while your gaze is directed elsewhere. Or the room will have changed when you look back. Things shift under your eye: the door you just came through might not be there when you turn round. There are jump scares but where it really pushes into new ground, and secures a near groundbreaking status, is the way it wilfully abuses your senses.
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