Anyone Read the Store Page And Notice the Ego?

[mdesaleah]

"The series, which has left a mark on narrative-driven first-person psychological horror games"

Like wow.

Layers of Fear is a good haunted house simulator and good for some quick spooks (and laughs in some cases), but trying to pass them off as anything revolutionary (especially in story) is kind of sad.

This isnt Signalis where narrative is vague but the important emotions are shown clearly, this isnt Silent Hill 2 (original) where the themes are laser focused, this isnt even Resident Evil 7 where the gameplay builds upon the idea of exploring a scary location and isnt just a straight line even though the focus isn’t on story there.

There’s nothing wrong with a simple haunted house sim, but do get an ego check

[mdesaleah]

(examples listed specifically one small team cult classic, one actually proven old game that impacted horror game narratives, and one gameplay example)

[TinyChris]

I could not play fast in Amnesia Bunker Demo because i shat myself. In here i just burned the Ghost, listened to too much Dialogue and was laughing hysterically at the "thanks for playing" screen.

[mdesaleah]

Originally posted by TinyChris:

I could not play fast in Amnesia Bunker Demo because i shat myself. In here i just burned the Ghost, listened to too much Dialogue and was laughing hysterically at the "thanks for playing" screen.

If you played the original Layers of Fear (and any Bloober Team game that isnt Observer), then you know that the writing in these games isnt exactly good.

But at least the original LoF ended up feeling unintentionally funny, which added to the haunted house sim parts.

[DN]

Originally posted by mdesaleah:

There’s nothing wrong with a simple haunted house sim, but do get an ego check

It's called *marketing*, you lifelong ninny.

[dameon2k]

Huh, when the original came out there was anything close to it in the market. Almost every horror game was either running from dolls before midnight, working at a creepy faux showbiz pizza place/Chucky Cheese, or running away from something chasing you. Literally that was it. Outside of a guy who made a game call infiltration or infiltrator, or something like that, there really was not anything like this except PT which was just a demo. A horror game that explored the supernatural elements and didn't rely on the same tired (scary/crazy guy chases you) scenario. So yeah, they brought something different to the game. Just like you aren't going to be able to get into a certain kind of music you do not enjoy you are not going to be able to get into any game you do not get. To each their own.

[mdesaleah]

True, its definitely marketing talk, but it should at least be a little more believable. Cause its story definitely didnt leave any "mark" on any future horror games.

Leave that description to something like Amnesia the Dark Descent, or the PT short. Both arent exactly story focused, but the former definitely left a mark in that type of Lovecraft horror in games. And PT managed to be very disturbing and extremely unique. Not to mention LoF clearly took "inspiration" from it to the point of almost copying at points.

[Troy Muni]

Bottom line is that it isn't any good by today's standards if the demo is the measuring stick. I read somewhere it was made in UE5 but it didn't look the part either...and that was with a 4090. Uninstalled it after 5mins.

[TysonL]

i just noticed the wokeness

[Kuehnau]

Originally posted by mdesaleah:

"The series, which has left a mark on narrative-driven first-person psychological horror games"

Like wow.

Layers of Fear is a good haunted house simulator and good for some quick spooks (and laughs in some cases), but trying to pass them off as anything revolutionary (especially in story) is kind of sad.

This isnt Signalis where narrative is vague but the important emotions are shown clearly, this isnt Silent Hill 2 (original) where the themes are laser focused, this isnt even Resident Evil 7 where the gameplay builds upon the idea of exploring a scary location and isnt just a straight line even though the focus isn’t on story there.

There’s nothing wrong with a simple haunted house sim, but do get an ego check

I played the first one and while it's an okay game, I personally feel like using words like, "haunted house simulator" is giving it too much credit. It was more of a walking simulator than anything else. A haunted house should allow you to explore, while the majority of the first Layers of Fear was insanely railroad-y to the point they reused room layouts and designs. I beat the first game but was insanely underwhelmed by the overall experience.

[Kuehnau]

Originally posted by dameon2k:

Huh, when the original came out there was anything close to it in the market. Almost every horror game was either running from dolls before midnight, working at a creepy faux showbiz pizza place/Chucky Cheese, or running away from something chasing you. Literally that was it. Outside of a guy who made a game call infiltration or infiltrator, or something like that, there really was not anything like this except PT which was just a demo. A horror game that explored the supernatural elements and didn't rely on the same tired (scary/crazy guy chases you) scenario. So yeah, they brought something different to the game. Just like you aren't going to be able to get into a certain kind of music you do not enjoy you are not going to be able to get into any game you do not get. To each their own.

I mean that's just a generally untrue statement. There's plenty of PC survival horror games that have done better than Layers of Fear. Off the top of my head would be Alone in the Dark, Sanitarium, The Suffering, Resident Evil, Phantasmagoria, Clive Barker's Undying, Clock Tower, the Elvira series, Realms of the Haunting, Wax Works.

Layers of fear doesn't do anything new or original and the writing is mediocre at best.

[MapleOmega]

In terms of horror games within the 2010 to 2016 from an indie space, because Bloober Team was an indie studio. There are a good handful that are comparative, however Layers of Fear was directly inspired by P.T (2014) from a technological standpoint was built on Unity Engine, which in itself is very graphically impressive for the time it was made. Also making a narrative driven horror experience with shifting environments in real time, something you didn't see much of.

And judging by sales numbers, the sequel Layers of Fear 2, and a remaster in Unreal Engine 5. I'd say it left a mark.

[mdesaleah]

Originally posted by MapleOmega:

In terms of horror games within the 2010 to 2016 from an indie space, because Bloober Team was an indie studio. There are a good handful that are comparative, however Layers of Fear was directly inspired by P.T (2014) from a technological standpoint was built on Unity Engine, which in itself is very graphically impressive for the time it was made. Also making a narrative driven horror experience with shifting environments in real time, something you didn't see much of.

And judging by sales numbers, the sequel Layers of Fear 2, and a remaster in Unreal Engine 5. I'd say it left a mark.

Eh.

It left a mark on Bloober Team themselves thats for sure. But not "for narrative driven first person horror". Especially when PT is the game that actually did that and inspired other games. Thats what leaving a mark looks like.

If it was "left a mark on first person horror graphics" than that would be a lot more accurate cause LoF still is a pretty looking haunted house sim.

[Rune1981]

Originally posted by Megala:

Bottom line is that it isn't any good by today's standards if the demo is the measuring stick. I read somewhere it was made in UE5 but it didn't look the part either...and that was with a 4090. Uninstalled it after 5mins.

I read somewhere you actually have to have the card and install it first to tell the differences. Like turning all the features on and turning the resolution up to 4k as well.

Don't worry I'm sure you missed the settings screen writing up your fifth grade response so you could feel cool like all the other immature haters in this thread.

The game was very good both of them. But they both required a deeper sense of thinking to understand what was going on. Almost like it was layered into the meaning.

I'm so sorry you and your friends here just don't get anything past resident evil or some ♥♥♥♥ horror game that is just like resident evil, but top down and it's pixelated. Cause both of those are very lame representations of what "real horror" should be as well. This one doesn't fit that moniker either.

Both these games were about what could be round the corner or what you thought of the situations. It asked you to evoke your imaginations. In that case it asked you all to do something none of you could, use your brains.

[mdesaleah]

^ You can like Layers of Fear all you want, that’s not really what anyone here is arguing against, but tell me you haven’t played Signalis without telling me you haven’t played Signalis much xD?

And also, you clearly ignored the part where I mentioned Silent Hill 2 (original) as an example of a massively influential horror story, while RE was for massively influential gameplay, and Signalis for being a smaller team that nailed both aspects as well.

I also wouldn’t say LoF requires much brain use or thinking since most of the puzzles are just turning around multiple times to see something changing.

Compare that to something like SH1 where you need to interpret a poem to solve a piano puzzle, or Signalis where you need to read a document in another room to apply the definition of a word to solve a locked safe puzzle in a completely different room with the only big clue being a word

[PsyWarVeteran]

Agreed, and it's not like they did something revolutionary. All they did was creating yet another unarmed FPS horror game but they took out the monster.

Last time I checked walking sims were a thing, years before this game came out in fact.