I don’t like horror games still I’m drawn to them like a moth to the flame. I guess I want the experience of horrible/grotesque things happening even though I know I won’t like it. Layers of Fear VR takes it one step further by putting me IN the world instead of in front of it.
Finally arrived on PSVR
Layers of Fear by Bloober team is not a new game. In fact, the game had many releases across almost every platform out there and even had some different iterations with DLC and what have you since the original release in 2016. In 2019 Layers of Fear VR was announced and released on many different VR platforms. The only big one left was the PSVR. Finally in 2021 PSVR owners can experience the horror in Layers of Fear in a whole different way both playable on Playstation 4 and the new Playstation 5.
Mad painting
For those unfamiliar with the original game, here’s a quick overview of what to expect. Layers of Fear VR tells the story of a painter wanting to paint his “Magnus Opus”. His final painting in order to reach the ultimate goal of becoming immortal through his art. As you make your way through a Victorian-era mansion to start this task you’ll soon get hints not everything seems as trivial as it sounded first. Once you get in your paint room, things start to get weird. For each layer of paint, you are in need of certain objects from the house. From the moment you leave your paint room, it becomes apparent, everything is changed. The rooms all look different and strange messages start to appear all around you.
With each new room, your sanity seems to deteriorate further and further only clinging on to the task of completing your painting. Along the way, you’ll slowly start to pick up pieces of info as to what actually happened to you and your family. How you interact with the ever-changing mansion will determine the outcome of your Magnus Opus, offering three different endings. Getting to these endings will have you question everything and probably get your heart racing as the horror and suspense ramps up towards the final reveal.
P.T. in VR
Layers of Fear VR is a haunted mansion-type experience like you’ve never experienced before. Seeing “reality” shift in VR gives a whole new dimension to the original game. The feeling of running in circles made famous by Silent Hills P.T. demo is heavily used in Layers of Fear VR, creating an atmospheric experience. Sadly the atmospherical experience gets ruined by the sub-par conversion of the original game to its VR counterpart. VR conversions rarely work well in my opinion. There is definitely a difference between VR games made from the ground up and VR adaptations. Layers of Fear VR is sadly no different.
Layers of Fear VR is all about walking around and experiencing the strange world around you. There isn’t much interaction but the times you have to interact with a certain object feel rather clunky in VR. I’ve had moments where I had to reposition my character multiple times before I could interact with an object. The free movement in Layers of Fear VR took me almost half of the game to get used to which ruined a few jump-scares for me. On another occasion, I had figured out a puzzle to make an object appear but the game wouldn’t let me pick it up to trigger the next level. I had to restart the game in order to get past the puzzle. Once, the game had to render a new room but couldn’t finish it, which made it possible to clip to the next room until I got stuck and had to restart again. These types of bugs will hopefully get fixed but ultimately ruined the experience for me.
VR settings
I found Layers of Fear VR a comfortable experience considering the whole VR/nausea thing. Although Layers of Fear VR uses free movement, the “tunnel vision” mechanic is used to smooth it out. There’s the option to leave the distorted visions out of the game for those with more stomach problems. Some other adjustments can be done to make the VR aspect to the player’s personal liking.
Conclusion
Layers of Fear VR sounded promising but had too many hiccups to make this an enjoyable experience. The source material is good enough to make a better game if it would’ve been handled with a bit more care. Such potential, sadly undelivered.
