There has been no shortage of horror remasters, remakes, and resurrections this year. Dead Space, System Shock, and Resident Evil 4 all got glorious current-gen remakes, Metroid Prime got remastered for Switch, and Dead Island, Alan Wake, Diablo, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are all returning after a long time away. Still, of all the routes developers have chosen to revisit their spooky series, Bloober Team's path for Layers of Fear is the strangest.
Layers of Fear was initially titled Layers of Fears, and while that double S sound is an affront to God and man, it better communicates what this game's whole deal is. Layers of Fear (2023) collects the original Layers of Fear (2016), Inheritance (that game's DLC), Layers of Fear 2, The Final Note (a new add-on that expands the story of the first game), and The Lighthouse Chapter, which introduces a new character called The Writer. All of this is now running in Unreal Engine 5, and new light-based defensive combat mechanics have been added to spice up the series' walking sim gameplay.
When I list the included games like that, it seems like a fairly run-of-the-mill remaster collection. What's the difference, you might ask, between this and Spyro Reignited Trilogy or Mass Effect Legendary Edition? Primarily, the way this is all presented. Those other remasters offer all three games in a menu, where you can scroll through and choose which game you wanted to play. That isn't the approach Layers of Fear takes.
Instead, it bundles it all into one story mode. The Lighthouse Chapter serves as a framing story for the rest of the content included here. If you choose New Game from the menu when you start, it will take you into this new story featuring a woman on a writer's retreat in an abandoned lighthouse. When she goes to her typewriter to begin working, ittransitions to the remastered version of Layers of Fear (2016). Then, you'll play a few chapters of that game, before being pulled out to play a short interlude as the Writer. After that, it's back to Layers of Fear.
Once you complete the first game, there's another interlude, and you have the option to head straight into Layers of Fear 2 by sitting down at the typewriter. But, this is also the point I noticed two books appear in The Writer's room. One represents the Inheritance DLC and the other the new Final Note add-on, both of which expand the story of the first Layers of Fear. If you select one, you'll plunge into that experience, where you'll stay until you finish it.
You can access all of this from the menu from the start, but it's in a separate Chapters tab, so you might not look for it at first. Even there, the games aren't referred to by their official titles. Layers of Fear is Painter's Story. Layers of Fear 2 is Actor's Story. Inheritance is Daughter's Story. The Final Note is Musician's Story. If you hadn't played any of this content before but wanted to, say, check out Layers of Fear 2, there's a good chance you would need to reach for a wiki just to know where to start.
The work Bloober and Anshar Studios have done to the actual games is admirable. They look better than ever, they've added new mechanics that flesh out the gameplay, and there's new DLC here which old fans will be eager to see. The games work okay as a package deal, but Layers of Fear 2 sticks out a bit, because it includes a crouch mechanic, eschews the ubiquitous voice acting heard in the rest of the series, and cuts the other games' annoying design quirks. But, regardless of the quality of the games, the package is so confusing, that I suspect many players won't even know which ones it contains.