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General discussionRelease: Layers of Fear(150 posts)(150 posts)
(150 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 16, 2016
Fear of the blank.



<span class="bold">Layers of Fear</span>, a horror adventure where you brush against your most creative nightmares, is available now for Windows, Mac, and Linux, DRM-free on GOG.com.

What is art if not a gut-wrenching battle between the established and the proposed, the innovative and the classic, the bold and the conventional. Does the artist captivate his subjects or does he set them free? Does he reshape his surroundings using his paintbrush as a carving knife or do they reshape him, hacking off pieces and peeling back layers until his very soul lays bare? Once you're faced with a blank canvas, all these questions come crushing down on you and you'll have to draw your own exit if you are ever going to reach salvation before you reach the bottom.

Finishing your masterpiece threatens to be your undoing as Layers of Fear keep stacking on your psyche. Your most dependable source of inspiration, the 19th century paintings hanging on every wall, are now turning on you, playing tricks on your fragile mind. The foreboding mansion shifts, spins, and bleeds in the blink of an eye, leading your mind astray with its impossible architecture and walls covered in horrible markings. Horrors that you thought you had buried forever now come shambling out of the woodwork. This is how the mind of a deranged artist looks like. Can you peel back the insanity and unearth the terrible secrets that lie beneath?



Paint your greatest sins in the color of madness and finish your masterpiece before you are consumed by <span class="bold">Layers of Fear</span>, DRM-free on GOG.com.
Posted February 17, 2016
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AlienMind: How many layers are they?
you must play to find out, I imagine

and even then, probably layers unseen or not yet discovered or thought of
Posted February 17, 2016
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Carradice: There are more kinds of sims in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in business or flight

Er, I mean, Leroux :)

Simulation is more about the detail. Think about wildlife simulation games, just to name an example. More arguably, detailed hunting games are not really just a FPS, right?
Well, those were just two examples. Sure, a game that focusses on mimicking wildlife and hunting can be called a simulation (although I wouldn't tag e.g. games of the Far Cry or Elder Scrolls series as simulation, just because they allow you to hunt). I guess a FPP horror game like Paranormal could be called be a simulation, too, in a wider sense (it randomly simulates paranormal events in changing environments), but to me Layers of Fear doesn't appear to be a game like that, the description explicitly mentions the story as an important element and it's fair to assume that it's closer to the other FPP horror titles I listed above, which are clearly adventure games. One might also argue that all kinds of different games could be called adventure games, because you experience an adventure in them, but that's not what the term is traditionally used for, and therefor it would only lead to confusion. If a genre name can be applied to just anything, it loses its usefulness ...
Post edited February 17, 2016 by Leroux
Posted February 17, 2016
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mrkgnao: MaGog offers this info (obtained from http://howlongtobeat.com/). The info is updated once a week, on Sundays, so this game will get its time data only next Sunday. Looking at HLTB now, the average time (4 reports) is less than two hours.
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CharlesGrey: Thanks, but it would still be nice to have something "official", directly from the Dev and GOG ( not just for this game, but I mean in general ). The problem with these user submitted times is, that many see it as a competition of some sort, and just rush through a game. "10 hours of content?! I completed it in 2, on my first try. Look at me, I'm so awesome! Herp-derp." That sort of thing...
You're right, of course, but what I like about HLTB is that it requires the reporter to identify his play style (rushed, leisure). I usually refer only to the "leisure" number since that is very much how I play (I am a slow completionist). It is my experience that those games that have a fair number of reports have a leisure number that is more or less a fairly good estimation for me. MaGog reports all three numbers (rushed, leisure, average).

And anyhow, I know that if a game has a 2 hour game time on HLTB, it might be a 5 or even 8 hour game, but it's certainly not a 50 hour game, which is also something that's useful to know (and which you can't guess from the GOG page -- at least I can't).

Finally, I agree with you that this should be official information.
Post edited February 17, 2016 by mrkgnao
Posted February 17, 2016
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mrkgnao: Finally, I agree with you that this should be official information.
I know, right? It's long been the standard for music, movies, books ( page count ), but you're rarely supplied with this kind of information when purchasing a game, even though it's just as important. I understand it's difficult to give a precise number, due to the non-linear nature of most games, different play-styles, skill level etc., but surely it's not asking too much for developers to supply potential customers with at least a rough estimate of the total playtime and amount of content in the game. I figure most games go through some kind of ( public ) beta or testing phase anyway, so they could just track the playthrough time of their testers, and use that data as a basis for an average value.
Posted February 17, 2016
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mrkgnao: Finally, I agree with you that this should be official information.
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CharlesGrey: I know, right? It's long been the standard for music, movies, books ( page count ), but you're rarely supplied with this kind of information when purchasing a game, even though it's just as important. I understand it's difficult to give a precise number, due to the non-linear nature of most games, different play-styles, skill level etc., but surely it's not asking too much for developers to supply potential customers with at least a rough estimate of the total playtime and amount of content in the game. I figure most games go through some kind of ( public ) beta or testing phase anyway, so they could just track the playthrough time of their testers, and use that data as a basis for an average value.
I think they probably don't want to scare away anyone by quoting a too large or too small a number.

I remember in the late 1990's or early 2000's there was a bit of commotion when the designer of Vagrant Story (one of the greatest games of all time, IMHO) said in an interview that the game could be completed in 10 hours. What he meant is that it could be completed in 10 hours OF A SPEED-RUN (I managed to do it once in pure ironman mode, i.e. no saving at all), whereas in reality it was more of a 50+ hour RPG. They estimated they lost quite a few sales because of that slip of the tongue.
Post edited February 17, 2016 by mrkgnao
Posted February 17, 2016
Nope, nope, nope.

I will not go back to the frontpage until you make this thing go away.

NOPE.
Posted February 17, 2016
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evilnancyreagan: Nope, nope, nope.

I will not go back to the frontpage until you make this thing go away.

NOPE.
It's almost as scary as your avatar. :P
Posted February 17, 2016
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evilnancyreagan: Nope, nope, nope.

I will not go back to the frontpage until you make this thing go away.

NOPE.
Fun fact, GOG went with that key art because the other key art was "too disturbing". I agreed :)
Posted February 17, 2016
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evilnancyreagan: Nope, nope, nope.

I will not go back to the frontpage until you make this thing go away.

NOPE.
Yes. Those Rayman Rabbids are the worst.
Posted February 17, 2016
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Aspyr-Blair: Fun fact, GOG went with that key art because the other key art was "too disturbing". I agreed :)
That fact brings me little joy or amusement and certainly no amount of comfort.

You sir, have a twisted idea of fun!
Posted February 17, 2016
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evilnancyreagan: Nope, nope, nope.

I will not go back to the frontpage until you make this thing go away.

NOPE.
*looks at your avatar*

...

hrrmhmmmmm

ooo I see it was already pointed out as being slightly ironic:

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CharlesGrey: It's almost as scary as your avatar. :P
hehe
Post edited February 17, 2016 by drealmer7
Posted February 17, 2016
Did someone say Stubbs? Where? <.< >.>

Yes please.
Posted February 17, 2016
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evilnancyreagan: Nope, nope, nope.

I will not go back to the frontpage until you make this thing go away.

NOPE.
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Aspyr-Blair: Fun fact, GOG went with that key art because the other key art was "too disturbing". I agreed :)
I notice that this key art is made up of two of the wallpapers provided as a bonus. I'd love to see what the others were if they're so disturbing! :-)

Also, is the soundtrack available anywhere, or will it be a bonus later?

Incidentally, I just insta-bought this game despite having a personal rule in place that I will NOT be buying anything over, say, £4 due to the backlog I have accumulated in my two years and three days long membership of this site (542 games as of yesterday!) It just looked so damn scary! :-)
Posted February 17, 2016
Gods, I really could not escape buying this. I am a rabid fan of such horror games (only recently stopped playing Amnesia custom stories) but was at first averted by reports of game length of 2-3 hours. Seeing though that taking it slow and paying attention to details (as I tend to do) takes twice as much had me clicking confirm/accept or whatever-is-written-there purchase faster than I could blink.
Posted February 17, 2016
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mrkgnao: Yes. Those Rayman Rabbids are the worst.
Dunno, I always thought that this stare: https://www.gog.com/game/unmechanical
is the creepiest :)
Post edited February 17, 2016 by Thiev
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRelease: Layers of Fear(150 posts)(150 posts)
(150 posts)