Layers of Fear Review (nns2009)
Huge disappointment (2/10)
This "game" was a huge disappointment.
It's literally one of the most boring games I've played.
I remember seeing "Harshly Critical" (now John Wolf) playing this game and back then it seemed cool, so I wishlisted it and years later, once I forgot the plot, I could play it myself afresh.
Graphics
Yes, it's beautiful and atmosphere is nice but that's it. Hint: it's exactly as beautiful if you watch it on YouTube.
Gameplay
There is none. You just walk around, click on objects. That's it.
You can't die. There is no pressure.
Story
is not deep. The entire story can literally be described (described, not summarized) in ~7 lines:
Man used to be a great painter
His wife used to be very beautiful and also a great pianist
Her music inspired and helped him to create masterpieces
Wife was caught in fire at the department store,
which induced severe burns including face (so she wasn't beautiful anymore)
and fingers (so she couldn't play piano anymore)
Man, which had already overworked before, continued overworking, drinking alcohol and slowly spiraling to insanity
After completing the game, I watched some videos on YouTube about the game, hoping to find something interesting, but I couldn't.
Linearity
Game at the beginning: this game is non-linear, your every choice matters
I, after playing: this was literally one of the most linear game I've ever played
You just walk forward, backward, look around, click on items. There are very few choices throughout the game, but none of them is meaningful in a sense that you can't possibly see a choice and how your choice might affect the outcome. It all feels random. Speaking of which ...
Incoherent
Such level of incoherency is truly astounding. Not only the few choices you have, have obscure unclear impact on the outcome, the gameplay (=walking) itself feels so random: you walk through numerious rooms, which, although cool by themselves and very aesthetic, seem to have absolutely no order and connection. In a game as linear as this one, I would expect the journey to be carefully arranged to tell the story, but the only remaining feeling after completion is that it was pretty random, like protagonist's mind hallucinations.
Inheritance DLC
I hoped to get some extra story details and there were some, but, again, pretty shallow.
DLC also introduces some questionable puzzles, I had to look in the walkthrough twice
(I didn't need to in the main game)
Conclusion
I can't understand how this game has so many positive reviews
Play "Outlast":)