I started to understand around the time I saw Metropolis, or “Mechanopolis” as it’s called on the in-game poster. Or don’t, as may be.Īnd there are so many references to catch. The escalation-the increasing detachment from reality-mirrors the actor’s process, as they lose their identity in favor of digging deeper into the character.
A normal suburban kitchen opens onto woods, with a glimmer of opulence in the distance. An elevator opens up onto a city block, skyscrapers stretching into the mists above. A door projected from film onto the wall turns into a real doorway. These parlor tricks continue through the entire game, but they gradually grow more ambitious. You start Layers of Fear 2 on an ocean liner, but as with the first game the ship is an impossible Escher space where you exit a room and find yourself back inside, or double back to find a new hallway’s replaced the old. It builds, and at first the constant changes in tone and location seem random. All the glimmers of recognition, the moments where you thought you noticed a pattern? You did. Layers of Fear 2 is building towards this moment where you realize it’s all intentional. Layers of Fear 2 is a brilliant work of art. And so if you want to go in blind (and you should) I recommend rereading the first sentence of this review and then walking away. I want to talk about Layers of Fear 2 though-at your expense, perhaps. “The story is great, but I can’t tell you why for fear of spoiling it.” I’ve written some version of that sentence countless times, as recently as last week with Observation. The usual inclination is to summarize as much as you can, then duck out with a vague value judgment and a promise to the reader. Note, it’s very hard to explain any of this without referencing specific examples or ruining the process of putting together this story yourself. 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. 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.
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