The Polish studio Bloober Team-authors of the disappointing PlayStation 4-Brawl and Aspyr they bring to the digital bazaars of compatible and next-gen consoles a new title belonging to one of the most prolific genres of recent times: the adventures of terror in the first person.
Many options are available but with very different results: from the notable Outlast , Amnesia or the most recent SOMA to titles that left us quite cold, such as Hektoror The Park . But the title that now occupies us, Layers of Fear ,
seems to be closer to the first group, thanks in part to a great reception by many users in its Steam Early Accessversionreleased last summer.
Now, at the beginning of 2016, we can enjoy the final version of a proposal that will convince fans of the genre but that can stay halfway to the eyes of the general public. Let’s know all the details of Layers of Fear in our analysis .
” Each portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the model .”
Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Dorian Gray .
Perhaps for this reason, and in its final version, Layers os Fear does not come to surprise as expected, with a development too subject to the clichés of the genre seen again and again in so many other adventures marked by frights and constant anguish.
Although it would be a mistake not to recognize the enormous work of its creators in terms of setting and artistic direction, since from the first moment it will absorb us without remedy, submerging us in its dark and oppressive art deco world. But let’s go back to its mechanics, the central axis on which turn the rest of the elements that make
up one of the most oppressive and ephemeral experiences of recent times. And it is that completing Layers of Fear will take between 4 and 5 hours, depending on what we want to delve into its macabre argument. Although that will be its main attraction, a script that will not let us escape until completing an adventure difficult to forget.
Based on the versatile Unity graphics engine, Layers of Fear presents a remarkable graphic section, with rooms and environments that are even photorealistic. Much has to do with the fact that the adventure takes place only in closed environments, in a perfectly recreated period mansion that will be transformed along with a growing madness of our protagonist.
And it is that this mansion will become almost a living being, an organic entity that will take us to the limiton many occasions.
The use of tricks such as dynamic rooms, walls and doors that appear from nowhere and other similar effects will be recurrent -with a great level design, by the way-, resulting in a constant transformation of our most interesting environment.
At the level of performance the title has been quite solid in both PC and PlayStation 4, versions analyzed for the occasion, with the exception of occasional falls of framerate in some sections, resulting less fluid than desired.
