Layers of Fears 2 hasn't taught you to be cynical just yet.ĭeveloper Bloober Team has taken the spectacular spooks from its original haunted house tale and reframed them in this mysterious ocean liner. You jump as the room trills with the metallic thump of the door swinging shut behind you, panicking as you realise the room has quietly shifted when you looked away, doors dissolving into thin air, trapping you in a dark, tight space with no obvious means of escape. Here, though, in the beginning, your desire to know more will trump your hesitation, tempting you onwards through the reinforced steel archways. Later, when the game pulls you elsewhere and even the jumpiest of players - a group in which I include myself - will become oh-so-acclimatised to the scripted scares, you'll feel the weight of repetition and the poor pacing pull fretfully at the edges of your enjoyment. The disquieting - and deliberate - similarities to Titanic are strongest there, and the low-key sleight-of-hand horror at its most effective. The further you explore, the more you'll notice its once majestic suites are now crumbling and decaying, leaving you with just scraps of notes and musty memories to piece together the unsettling puzzle of double-u-tee-eff happened here.
While first-class tables have been set for dinner, decanters left to breathe and napkins fanned in anticipation, the dining hall is empty - everywhere across the Icarus Transatlantic is empty. Layers of Fear 2 is never better than when it ramps up this cloying, almost paralysing atmosphere, leading you through claustrophobic corridors and dank, damp interiors where once fine furnishings lie in sodden, mouldering heaps.
Availability: Out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.