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Layers of Fear (Video Game) - First Foray


EyeQueue

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This is one of my new Favorite Things: Layers of Fear.

It's a horror survival game that's currently in beta release on Steam. You play a Victorian painter who is obsessed with completing his masterpiece painting, and who is also having memory problems and is trying to figure out/remember what happened to him and his wife recently.

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Gameplay consists of exploring your creepy old Victorian mansion, which is absolutely beautiful (though unsettling in a number of ways). As you make your way through various rooms, you look for clues, such as notes, receipts, letters, and important objects that spur your memories. Sometimes you are treated to an audio flashback of certain things that have happened, and you are able to start piecing things together, although the story is disjointed and not in chronological sequence.

So far, I am loving this game (I'm about 2 hours or so into it). The artwork is beautiful and the sound effects are eerie and evocative. It's super immersive. Here are a few examples of some of the visuals:

Spoiler

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A single chair in a dimly lit room can be hella creepy, y'all!

Spoiler

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Walking down these long corridors with flickering lights is rendered even more unsettling by hearing intermittent sighs, weeping, or floorboards above you creaking.

The best part about this game so far for me is that it almost perfectly captures the essence of "creepy," "unsettling," and "uncanny"--three characteristics of horror that are more important, IMHO, than gore and jump scares (don't get me wrong--there have been some great jump scares so far, and I'm definitely hoping for a few more).

Spoiler

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Pictures like this frequently glare down at you from the walls. If you look closely, you can see the 2nd face peering out at you from behind the main face in this painting.

Ever since reading Mark Z. Danielewski's The House of Leaves (and I've read it thrice, and it's almost time to re-read it again), I've wanted either a great movie or video game that could capture the uncanniness of that novel. Not many movies have done that for me, and I always hope to see this element. One that did it fairly well was Grave Encounters, which didn't deserve the poor reviews it got IMHO.

Spoiler

 

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On your way upstairs in this elevator, you catch a fleeting glimpse of...something. Damn creepy.

This game succeeds in establishing a pervasive uncanny atmosphere. You walk into rooms and busy yourself with a task, and when you open the door to leave...the house has totally changed around you. Sometimes you walk through a door to find the room upside down (and you're standing on the ceiling).

Spoiler

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And in one *great* sequence, you walk down a curved corridor that's almost Escher-like in the impossibility that you end up right where you began, and it just continues in a loop until you figure out how to get yourself out of it. Wonderful! Loved it!

I can't wait to see what else this game has (and it's only in beta, so the developers are still tweaking it). I will post further gems as I get more into the game.

Spoiler

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A naked baby doll hanging in a wardrobe. That's some Uncanny Valley shizz right there (and the shadowplay that writhes around the mansion makes it even spookier).

 

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