Bloober Team’s Layers of Fear launched for the Switch back in 2018, and if you’ve been waiting to get to the sequel on the hybrid platform for some good old fashioned psychological horror, well, there’s good news for you. Bloober Team have announced that they’re bringing Layers of Fear 2 to the Switch as well.

And you won’t have to wait long. Layers of Fear 2 launches for the Switch in less than a week, on May 20. Pre-orders are open on the Switch eShop, and if you do pre-order it, you’ll get a 10% discount. Meanwhile, if you get it after launch, the game will cost $29.99.

Currently, Layers of Fear 2 is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The first person psychological horror title is a sequel to the first game, but it’s a standalone story by and large, so you can jump into it right off the bat even if you haven’t played its predecessor.

Considering the state of the world right now, it doesn’t quite feel like the witching season, but we are just over a week from Halloween. It’s a time when all industries try to put out their spookiest efforts in whatever way, and that includes the Epic Games Store in this week’s free game slate.

This weeks games include the charming RPG Costume Quest 2. The game was a sequel to Double Fine’s rather wholesome title and sees a group of kids fighting evil candy stealing monsters and time traveling doctors on Halloween night in a variety of powerful costumes. The other game is on the opposite side of the spectrum, Layers of Fear 2. It is a first person title that sees you trapped on a boat as a deranged former filmmaker terrifies you through twisted versions of classic film. Just to give you an idea of how long these free giveaways have been going on, both of theses title’s predecessors were given away on the store roughly one year ago.

Costume Quest 2 and Layers of Fear 2 are available to redeem for free on Epic Games Store now, which you can find through here. They will be up until October 29th, and after that the Halloween season will continue with Blair Witch and Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered.

Blobber Team just released their latest game, Blair Witch. Based on the popular film of the same name, the game manages to capture the feel of those movies pretty well. But it seems they aren’t done with their previous titles just yet. The game they released before Blair Witch, Layers of Fear 2, got a new story-focused update that’s free and allows users to tackle the spooky game in a more relaxed way.

The new mode comes as part of a free update for the game. It’s called Safe Mode, and it removes all enemies from the game, as well as reworks some of the puzzles to be a little easier to solve. It’ll let players go through the game’s story at their own pace and soak in the atmosphere.

Layers of Fear 2 is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. To see what we thought of the game, you can take a look through here.

Resident Evil 2 Remake – Mr. X Crushes Ben Bertolucci

The first encounter with Mr. X aka the Tyrant is freaky enough and despite how dapper he looks, you can never really relax. Then again, you don’t really get to see how brutal the Tyrant can be…until he murders an imprisoned Ben Bertolucci by crushing his skull. It’s quick and not altogether messy which just makes it all the more terrifying.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

SNIPER ELITE V2 REMASTERED

Sniper Elite V2 was a solid entry in the stealth franchise back when it first launched, but with its subsequent instalments, it made plenty of improvements to better the quality of the experience. The remaster, released quite recently, had the opportunity to elevate the original title by introducing some of these changes, but sadly, it ends up showing how poorly Sniper Elite 2 has aged. It looks decent enough, sure, but if you’re looking for the definitive Sniper Elite experience, there are much better options out there.

Where an incredibly tense game like Outlast melds together macabre ambiance, jump scares, and genuinely high-stakes gameplay with a sense of purpose, Layers of Fear 2 doesn’t manage to conjure so much as a mildly compelling reason for doing… well, anything. Moseying around picking up items and reading pieces of paper might be more rewarding if any of the game’s bizarre optical illusions tied together into something cohesive, but it instead offers us little more than a collection of rooms and events seemingly saying, “Look at how weird this is. Isn’t this so scary?”

"Moseying around picking up items and reading pieces of paper might be more rewarding if any of the game’s bizarre optical illusions tied together into something cohesive, but it instead offers us little more than a collection of rooms and events seemingly saying, “Look at how weird this is. Isn’t this so scary?”"

But no, Layers of Fear 2 is not scary. There’s the normal flickering lights, hallucinations, and some admittedly trippy one-off segments that impress from purely an aesthetic standpoint with fantastic visuals. Rats scurry past you as you navigate dark cabins and banquet halls on the ship, and some of the otherworldly sections of the game are delightfully mysterious in presentation. But there’s nothing about any of it that leads to feelings of trepidation. An endless onslaught of seemingly old-timey mannequins litter the game’s locations and often change stances or suddenly appear behind you upon turning your back momentarily, but the effect is used so frequently and unenthusiastically that it’s tiresome by the end of the game’s first act. They’re seen as props in some key scenes to draw the player’s attention to items or keys to obtain, but since nothing truly scary ever really happens, I found myself checking my phone during an in-game elevator ride packed full of them. It’s a perfect example of just how apparent the game had made it that I never had anything to actually be afraid of.

There’s a monstrous apparition that shows up in certain scenes, but rather than evoke genuine fear, it often one-shot kills you unexpectedly. One such situation had me walking down a hallway with a door ajar on my left begging to be opened further, but doing so resulted in sudden death by the monster. But since the scene itself built no tension beforehand nor gave me any real opportunity to escape, the shortly-lived jump scare solely brought me frustration, not fear. When it’s not one-shotting you this way, the monster chases you through linear paths until you reach a predetermined point where you escape or close a door on it. These scenes are at least more intimidating than sudden death, and I appreciated the brief sense of adrenaline, even if it was usually followed up with the game’s normal tameness.

Layer of Fear 2’s core gameplay relies heavily on a looping mechanic. When it wants you somewhere specific, it ensures all other paths are blocked off to funnel you in the desired direction. Immediately after, merely turning around will have unlocked will change the scenery and open up new paths to proceed through. There’s nothing really wrong with this type of progression, but Layers of Fear 2 telegraphs them so obviously and constantly that I became aware of the tricks early on and found myself knowing precisely when and where I’d trigger an alteration. “A dead end? Time to turn around and act surprised at the change!”

"There’s nothing about any of it that leads to feelings of trepidation. An endless onslaught of seemingly old-timey mannequins litter the game’s locations and often change stances or suddenly appear behind you upon turning your back momentarily, but the effect is used so frequently and unenthusiastically that it’s tiresome by the end of the game’s first act."

Aside from the fundamentals of being an actor in a movie on a ship, you’re offered very little coherent exposition to set you off on your journey. The movie’s director narrates some sections with vague, nonsensical dialogue that is clearly meant to confuse and concern you alongside its eerie imagery, but without any deeper initial understanding or sense of purpose, it’s a chore to try to comprehend what’s going on beyond the principle theme of early childhood trauma. The game’s obsession with its repetitive mannequin shtick and bottom-tier shock value never seems to mesh with the more intimate ideas it’s trying to convey, and as it tries desperately to prove to you how profound it can be with its enigmatic storytelling, it only comes across as pretentious. I had things figured out by the end, but by then I was bored by its self-importance and frankly didn’t care anymore.

Much of the game’s more intimate details are told through various scattered items and pieces of paper that give cryptic clues to piece together for the larger story. These moments of exposition are some of Layer of Fear 2’s best, providing some insight into the deeper psychological trauma your character experienced growing up. Even when it wasn’t making a lot of sense, I still enjoyed these warmer, dialogue-heavy memory sequences. I couldn’t help but feel that these sections of the story could’ve avoided dragging the game’s horror down with so much tonal inconsistency if they were reworked and placed into a softer adventure game along the lines of What Remains of Edith Finch or Dear Esther.

The puzzles are Layer of Fear 2’s best feature by far. One type of puzzle in particular sees players messing with a slide projector to make doors and items appear. Moving the film to one frame creates a door in the wall, another creates the key, and another spawns a locked doorknob on the door. It’s easy to figure out but unique enough to stand out as a meaningful memory and serves as an interesting pit stop in an otherwise not-so-interesting experience. A few puzzles seem designed to halt progress with ambiguous objectives, but most are more standardized and deal with basic concepts like finding and remembering numbers or aligning mechanical pieces to create new pathways. Ultimately, they’re all a nice reprieve from the monotony of opening doors and holding up on the left stick in an otherwise uneventful game that never brings its scattered ideas together cohesively.

"Though it seems endlessly determined to prove otherwise, Layers of Fear 2 is neither scary nor deep."

Though it seems endlessly determined to prove otherwise, Layers of Fear 2 is neither scary nor deep. An intriguing setup quickly falls apart with a lack of coherent storytelling, bland horror tropes, and an unhealthy obsession with mannequins.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

The sequel to the acclaimed indie horror title, Layers of Fear 2, is out this month, and recently we got a lengthy gameplay preview of the title. The video gives you an idea of how similar the game is to the first, but also how it differs.

The first game, Layers of Fear, was a crowdfunded title and eventually came out to all major platforms. While it focused on a painting and art aesthetic, the sequel will draw more from classic films. Focusing on a new story and a new set of characters, you play as an actor on a cruise ship who navigates a terrifying series of event.

As you can see from the video below, provided by Game Informer, the game features more puzzles, voice over work from Tony Todd (who played the Candyman slasher in the film of the same name), and an eerie effect some creatures have that mimics stop motion. The video also also mention that another new feature is that the game will have a choice system, which will prove to be interesting for a second playthrough in new game plus.

Layers of Fear 2 releases May 28^th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You read about the length of the game in the meantime or check out a previous, but similarly eerie, gameplay video from earlier in the year.

The sequel to the acclaimed indie 2016 horror game, Layers of Fears 2 finally has a release date set for next month. Publisher Gun Media and developer Bloober Team have announced that the game comes out at the end of May- on the 28th, to be precise. We don’t know a huge amount about it, but the bits and pieces we’ve been shown will be very familiar to fans of the first game.

Set on a ship and following a new set of characters (the game is not a direct narrative follow-up to the original), Layers of Fear 2 will have a focus on films as opposed to the art and paintings that took centerstage in the first game, with the main character being an actor named Jimmy. You can see from the gameplay demo showed earlier in the year that the developers are aiming for the same unsettling environments and feel. They also promise a longer experience, with a runtime that is said to be 9 to 10 hours.

Layers of Fear 2 will release on May 28^th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Bloober Team’s Layers of Fear 2 has been seeing more details lately. The recent extended gameplay demo offered a peek into the madness inherent on the new cruise ship setting. Gun Media’s Wes Keltner also recently revealed that the sequel would have a playtime of 9 to 10 hours.

Unfortunately, those hopeful for a Nintendo Switch version at launch will have to wait. At PAX East, DualShockers interviewed Gun Media creative director Ronnie Hobbs, who said, “Our official statement is no Switch at launch.” It could happen somewhere down the line, especially since the first Layers of Fear arrived for the platform with its DLC. Just don’t hold your breath.

It’s also worth noting that despite not having a release date, Hobbs did confirm that Layers of Fear 2 is still planned for release this year on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The new story sees an actor Jimmy being hired for a new project aboard a cruise ship. Things go wrong, as one might expect, with Tony Todd (of Candyman fame) voicing the director of Jimmy’s project.

Layers of Fear 2 was unveiled last year, but we have yet to see much outside a vague reveal trailer and a brief gameplay demo for the follow up to the 2016 horror game. But publisher Gun Media’s Wes Keltner recently opened up about the game at PAX East while speaking with Gamereactor, about how the game is shaping up and what to expect from the sequel.

He confirmed that the game’s story will not be a direct follow up to the first game, and would instead focus on a new story and character, as well as have a focus on film instead of fine art and painting like the first.

“The second one is an entire new story, so it’s not like it picks up where part one left off, it’s not like that; new story,” said Keltner. “It focuses primarily on film […] a lot of horror references are found within, going all the way back from like Nosferatu […] that’s within the colours and the actual environments you’re walking around in, so that’s what we were most excited about when we met with Bloober Team, because we’re big horror people as well, so when we saw the direction they were going with part two, we were like ‘oh my gosh, what can we do to help you guys?’”

Keltner also said that the game would have more content than the original game, stating it would have 9 to 10 hours worth of gameplay as opposed to the much shorter experience of the original.

Layers of Fears 2 has no release date or platforms attached at this time, but you can watch its freaky new trailer here and the gameplay demo here.