Layers of Fear Launches February 16th on PS4
Play Layers of Fear Launches February 16th on PS4 Video
Rafal Basaj	Bloober Team SA
A tragic past. An unfinished painting. And a crumbling psyche. These are the core elements that make up the setting of Layers of Fear, a new psychological horror game coming to PS4 on February 16th.
In Layers of Fear you play as an anonymous painter, clearly haunted by his tragic past and fixated on regaining what he has lost. His only solace is to delve deep into madness while trying to finish his life's work — his Magnum Opus. The game is a psychedelic, atmospheric thriller, with the plot focused on the drive for perfection and where it can lead you as a person.
One of the first concepts we had for the game was a focus on fine art, and we have made it one of the most important ones. A lot of the artists in our studio have a MA degree in Art and are fascinated by what our predecessors have created. Disturbing paintings of murders and religious reckonings have been in our culture for centuries and are a never-ending bank of ideas and inspiration that haunt people to this day. So why not reinterpret this inspiration into a truly unique horror game? That's exactly what we did.
In creating Layers of Fear, we also wanted to bring a new perspective to the horror genre by introducing a lead character whose own world changes around him as he struggles with insanity and loses his grip on reality. Both the fine art surroundings and the painter's family home, originally sources of inspiration and accomplishment, deteriorate along with the character's own psyche, representing how madness, obsession, and tragedy can influence one's mind and cause the player to doubt his or her every step.
Imagine you walk into an empty square room. There is a door on each of the walls. You dart to the first door to find it sealed shut. You go to the next door and then to the next, only to discover it's the same story for each one of them. But upon turning around you find all the doors are gone. There are just plain walls. You make another circle around the room. Did you see that right? Were there doors there or was that somewhere else? Then the room shrinks behind your back. Feeling claustrophobic? And then a new door appears; this time it's open. What is on the other side is not what you expect.
This is a simple example of how the game works and how we build tension and discomfort for the player. It was a huge challenge for us to create a horror game without simply resorting to jump-scares or enemies chasing you around. We designed, prototyped, and tested the same versions of each location countless times to find players' patterns so we could find the tipping point of creating player tension.
It was a ton of work, and we found ourselves playing our own mind games, discussing how family, work, and tragedy have affected our own lives. I guess you could say creating Layers of Fear has been cathartic for us. But we believe we have done it — a horror game where the scares come from the setting rather than another rotten, faceless zombie that wants to eat your brain, and a game that stays with you long after you've played it.
In Layers of Fear, the more you explore and delve into the game's world, the more gratifying the story gets. We have left tons of personal items, notes, photos, and wall scribbles that expand the plot and immerse you in the story, while also leaving much to the player's imagination. Chapter after chapter you will ask yourself what has really transpired in the life of the main character.
Layers of Fear is a scary and psychedelic wild ride that bends our perception of the world; it makes you think about the gravity of tragedy and how it could define our lives. Horror has always been our passion and forte, and we hope that you will enjoy this trip through madness as much as we have enjoyed putting it together for you.
Please leave any questions or thoughts you may have in the comments.
layers of fearPlayStation 4playstation games
Xer0Signal
January 20, 2016 at 8:15 am PST
Hi there! I know this is in preview/early access on other platforms. Is this a final release? I'm interested to see more.
mblair_aspyr
The release on Feb 16th is the final version! Its actually quite a bit more content than the early access versions.
P_AULOr
Amy 2.0??
RikanMel
That trailer said absolutely nothing, just the reviews. Next time post a actual CG or Gameplay video.
Lots of screens and videos of actual gameplay on the game's website: http://www.layersoffear.com
kdiep
January 20, 2016 at 11:17 am PST
Have to agree with RikanMel, no gameplay vids. Even looked at the website, saw three videos, same style: *poof* positive comment *poof* Blurry screen *poof* positive comment by random person *poof* another blurry screen *poof* repeat repeat repeat.
Looks like a first-person-explore-and-click type game, not really my thing anyway.
voodooblue_2008
Web-site is as bad as this video. Doesn't do the game any justice, if it is actually any good at all.
dragonmagician
I love horror games, so I'm really hoping this turns out to be good. Any information on the length of the game, or price?
Also, are you guys looking at VR?
Transcend-Tony
I have this on pc and it's absolutely fantastic. I got jump scared by a book!
It's very eerie and can be quite unsettling when played with headphones.
I will definitely be getting it on ps4 if there's additional content.
Length of game depends on play style. It took me about 6 hours to complete, but I'm the type of gamer that really explores the environment. A gamer speeding through it could probably finish in 2 hours or so, but they will be missing a LOT of nuance. Price at launch will be $19.99.
Lacerz
Color me interested…
I watched Markiplier play the early access Steam version and loved it.
For those wondering, this game is like Gone Home or Everybody's Gone to the Rapture but… horror. I don't think you can die but you can get the holy Jesus scared out of you. Although, I do think if the ghost catches you you fall through a trapdoor and have to climb back up, screwing up some progress. It's basically a haunted house simulator. But there's a goal… there's drawings you're trying to find, each time you find one, go back to the painting room and it gets added to a collection. Each time you leave the room it changes. The house is constantly changing. Heck, every time you turn around it could be different.
The story is interesting, even if you don't like "walking simulators" this one is a bit more exciting and keeps you on edge. The painter lives alone and is being haunted by what i assume is his dead wife whom I'm assuming he killed.
I can't wait to Let's Play this! :D
Baroque-Legacy
Looks very cool! What can you say about the sound settings? Does this support 7.1 by chance? Thanks much!
It does support 7.1 and we HIGHLY recommend playing in surround sound or headphones. The audio is really well done, and (like all good horror games) really adds to the experience.
great to hear there's discrete surround mixing! are the audio assets 24-bit/lossless?
I love the referenced games, but feel like most of them fall short visually on PS4. (Pneuma and Ether One had low-res textures and low-poly models in numerous places, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture also had low-res textures and tons of shimmer.) Can you talk about your use of *AA, texture filtering, global illumination, high-res shadows, etc?
any support for stereo 3D on 3DTVs?
January 20, 2016 at 12:28 pm PST
The game's Steam page shows gameplay…and it has 2,593 positive reviews to 78 negative, which equates to a 97% positive. Definitely excited now!
HaitianQueen77
Is it too late to get early access? I always seem to be hospitalized when the good stuff happens :(
EA runs all the way up to the launch on Feb 16th. The price will go up at launch to $19.99.
Rafal Basaj
Wow, sorry about your health problems :c Yes, you can grab an Early Access version right now. But have in mind that we have changed a lot of things in the final version and you'd probably have to replay the game after it gets updated to see all of the good stuff added in between.
sealum01
January 20, 2016 at 1:08 pm PST
The price certainly is right, and the game definitely looks terrifying! I'm really interested in playing this!
Please say that you're thinking about PSVR support! These types of games work so well in a completely immersing environment!
Mario763
I briefly watched LoF on Twitch several months ago and I have been itching to play it ever since!
zatanna0zatara
Looks great! 2016 is looking to be strong in the psychologically-intense game realm, excited to play this and others.
Oste18262009
I watched H2ODelirious play that… *Shivers* Creepiest. Game. Ever. God I Don't Know If I should Get it or not. Rafal Basaj What do you think?
Bullseye69
February 15, 2016 at 8:57 am PST
Ok, i have been checking on the psn for any sign of Layers Of Fear on the Playstation Store. It is supposed to be released tomorrow. Anyone know whats going on? Or are they just waiting til midnight to post it?
EpicSimplicity0
February 15, 2016 at 7:56 pm PST
Wil this be available on disc? Or as playstation store download only?
SinnerRenji_69
February 16, 2016 at 12:43 am PST
Its almost 9:00 am and no layer of fear… Whats going on guys????
The game its alredy available on steam and Xbox, and nothing on PS4…
JimmyBoy83
Its still not avalible. When is this game coming out. Was excited for some horror.
isuro7
For some weird reason that I will never understand the ps store updates at around 2:00pm (EST) for some of these "indy" games. Same thing happened with Firewatch last week, I didn't see it in until late in the afternoon.
Trivium090786
Dude… Where is this game? It's almost 9:00 AM PST.
Jonny_191
Where is this game?
It's there now. The good: It was a fast download. The bad: It wouldn't let me interact with the stuff you're supposed to able to interact with AND it crashed my PS4! I deleted it and now I'm re-downloading it. Hopefully it'll work next time because I'm really wanting to play this game.
MrDextraGamer
I really want to play this game, I've already downloaded it but I can't interact with anything. All I can do is walk around in a tiny room right at the start of the game! I've tried deleting the game and downloading it again but that doesn't seem to help at all. Any suggestions on what I should do? Thanks.
CAPTAINREX
Ok so I'm not the only one experiencing this. I know it sounds silly not being able to open a door in the first seconds of the game, but something most be glitched because there is no way to interact or use the hand grab command on the door or the first item?
Does anyone know why I can't open the double door at the very beginning of the game? It says hold R2 and move with the right analog stick. I've been getting frustrated with this as the hand icon never grabs the door handle. I thought it might be a glitch so I reinstalled the game and it still won't open? My controller's fine, but just seems like the button command isn't working. Any help would be appreciated otherwise I payed 20$ to stay at a door and I really was looking forward to playing this.
Reinstalling a 3rd time, but doubtful it'll change anything. I hope there's a patch or fix in the works.
Nope still broke and until it gets fixed I feel like I got ripped off. I'm just getting tired of these indie games having major bugs, not just trophy issues, that make the games unplayable until a patch arrives which sometimes has taken up to a month. I like to support them and especially the horror ones, but stuff like this regularly occurring shakes my confidence in buying them.
For those experiencing the R2 button issue, simply change the controller configuration via your PS4.
Settings>Accessibility>Button Assignments>Enable Custom Button Assignments>Customize Button Assignments>Then switch your R2 and R1 buttons around. Should work just fine after that. :)
Slof
So this game is not released in several European countries. I can buy the game for XBoxOne in the Netherlands but not for PS4. This sucks Sony. This is not the first time i've encountered such dumb rule. Next console will be one from Microsoft. This just plain sucks.
EXtremeHR
Why is this game not available in Portugal ?
They want you to buy a XBoxOne… ;) Seriously Sony, don't irritate your customers like this.