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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.
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Luned: I had the same reaction, but I was able to remember the association. I think it resembles Nosferatu from the old movie of the same name: Nosferatu
Yes, there is certainly a parallel there. Especially as Murnau's take on the vampire is much more rat-like than bat-like.

Still stumped as to where my own feeling of familiarity originates from though.
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drealmer7: well that's wholly disappointing to read

I don't think it was intended to feel you with an actual sense of possibly dying though, it's an adventure game after all, and so a constant threat of death is not usually something they have, just different instances where it's possible you'll die if you do the wrong thing. Did it have any of that? 2 hours? It seems you didn't play it thoroughly as they said it was several hours of gameplay. I'm not sure you can do an accurate review of a game if you blew through it without taking the time to discover what it has.
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omega64: I dunno, I took my time and looked at stuff around me.
Even got stuck a few times.
Unless I'm missing entire chapters somehow I don't see how it could've taken much longer.

Slight spoilers:
Remember the PT woman? Yeah she's in here. She's the only thing that'll kill you. If you see her you walk the other way open a door and walk into the next room.
If she kills you, you wake up in the next room anyway.
I've spent way more than two hours playing and am just up to Chapter 5. (I haven't had much time to play over the weekend). I found opening doors etc. rather awkward with a mouse so I went out and bought an XBox 360 controller and found it much easier. Having said that, I now have to get used to walking around with it!

I'm loving the music, the art and the atmosphere. There's been more than once I've squeaked when something's sneaked up behind me!
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omega64: I dunno, I took my time and looked at stuff around me.
Even got stuck a few times.
Unless I'm missing entire chapters somehow I don't see how it could've taken much longer.

Slight spoilers:
Remember the PT woman? Yeah she's in here. She's the only thing that'll kill you. If you see her you walk the other way open a door and walk into the next room.
If she kills you, you wake up in the next room anyway.
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LynetteC: I've spent way more than two hours playing and am just up to Chapter 5. (I haven't had much time to play over the weekend). I found opening doors etc. rather awkward with a mouse so I went out and bought an XBox 360 controller and found it much easier. Having said that, I now have to get used to walking around with it!

I'm loving the music, the art and the atmosphere. There's been more than once I've squeaked when something's sneaked up behind me!
Yeah, opening stuff doesn't work as well as in Penumbra/Amnesia it's fine though.
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Luned: I had the same reaction, but I was able to remember the association. I think it resembles Nosferatu from the old movie of the same name: Nosferatu
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IAmSinistar: Yes, there is certainly a parallel there. Especially as Murnau's take on the vampire is much more rat-like than bat-like.

Still stumped as to where my own feeling of familiarity originates from though.
I've never actually watched the movie, just seen stills over the years and a short GIF-type clip of Nosferatu walking up stairs, and that was still enough for me to drag up the reference out of my memory bank.
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Luned: I've never actually watched the movie, just seen stills over the years and a short GIF-type clip of Nosferatu walking up stairs, and that was still enough for me to drag up the reference out of my memory bank.
It's a good film, as are most German Expressionist cinema pieces (Metropolis, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, The Golem). I recommend watching Nosferatu, and then watching the movie Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional account of the making of the film.
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Luned: I've never actually watched the movie, just seen stills over the years and a short GIF-type clip of Nosferatu walking up stairs, and that was still enough for me to drag up the reference out of my memory bank.
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IAmSinistar: It's a good film, as are most German Expressionist cinema pieces (Metropolis, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, The Golem). I recommend watching Nosferatu, and then watching the movie Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional account of the making of the film.
I totally agree with all of this~!

Now, I actually enjoy Shadow of the Vampire more than Nosferatu, but, Nosferatu is etched in my brain, so, that is probably why.
Obviously the creators of this game should look at games like Miasmata or Penumbra or Condemned:CO, or Realms Of the Haunting or Outlast. If you're not having something with actually kills you (game over) in some parts of the game, it's not really horrendous, is it? (saw the angry joe review).
I think I need to replay Misasmata soon :-) It would make a good movie.
It also helped that all of the listed games with the exception of Outlast and Realms do NOT have an old spooky (mental institution) house as backdrop. It's too cliche.
It's also better to pull off one thing and that to perfection than mixing all cliches together, especially in a short game. Hey, I've become a critique now and didn't even play the game. I'm an ass :)
As for actual fresh Ideas.. Make "the hillside strangler (2004)" movie into a game, complete with switchable characters between both serial killers, using wisecracking jokes while you cut bitches necks with a kitchen saw. Including slow story progression from just two normal guys so that you wonder by the end of it how did you got there. Throw in a indianajones-style "travel-map" and show the pictures of the real guys at the end-credits, you know, for immersion.That'll get you sleepless nights. Especially because in video games people like to do things they "can not do in real life".
Or in short: If you're doing horror, you need some sick fucks at your storyboard, and a publisher who's in the clear about the adult only rating. But I'll get this spooky game some day. Better than no spooky game.
Post edited February 24, 2016 by AlienMind
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LynetteC: I've spent way more than two hours playing and am just up to Chapter 5. (I haven't had much time to play over the weekend). I found opening doors etc. rather awkward with a mouse so I went out and bought an XBox 360 controller and found it much easier. Having said that, I now have to get used to walking around with it!

I'm loving the music, the art and the atmosphere. There's been more than once I've squeaked when something's sneaked up behind me!
excellent to hear

I'd love a total playtime estimation if you have it once you're done
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AlienMind: Obviously the creators of this game should look at games like Miasmata or Penumbra or Condemned:CO, or Realms Of the Haunting or Outlast. If you're not having something with actually kills you (game over) in some parts of the game, it's not really horrendous, is it? (saw the angry joe review).
Hitchcock would disagree ;)
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AlienMind: Obviously the creators of this game should look at games like Miasmata or Penumbra or Condemned:CO, or Realms Of the Haunting or Outlast. If you're not having something with actually kills you (game over) in some parts of the game, it's not really horrendous, is it? (saw the angry joe review).
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Aspyr-Blair: Hitchcock would disagree ;)
he/his movies are also HIGHLY over-rated and he's an arrogant chauvinist prick

Rear Window is the only movie of his that holds up, imo.

Not that I agree with AlienMind either.
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AlienMind: Obviously the creators of this game should look at games like Miasmata or Penumbra or Condemned:CO, or Realms Of the Haunting or Outlast. If you're not having something with actually kills you (game over) in some parts of the game, it's not really horrendous, is it? (saw the angry joe review).
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Aspyr-Blair: Hitchcock would disagree ;)
Just for the record, I'm glad this isn't one of those games where you're constantly being chased around by some monster. In most Horror games I've played, the encounters with enemies just felt annoying and tedious after a while... I guess you could call that "horrendous". Imho, the best Horror games tend to have a focus on atmosphere and subtle psychological Horror, rather than cheap jump scares and action sequences.
Vertigo was good.A game is not a movie.
CharlesGrey: That's why in the good games, you're not constantly chased by monster. But at parts of it, it's there. Also, I don't need a monster, the environment suffices. But it has to kill you. When in this game, I learn after being attacked by that woman, I find myself in that same room I have to flee to...it gets boring
Post edited February 24, 2016 by AlienMind
awesome game :)
before you buy the game save 10euro for underwear

10/10 would shit myself again
Post edited March 14, 2016 by MadeinChina
Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition has been released on Steam . When this version will be available on Gog ?
Post edited April 07, 2017 by Painted_Doll
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rampancy: Welcome to GOG, Aspyr! As a Mac gamer, I've had a lot of fond memories of your company -- I still have many of your original physical releases of your ports. While I'm not holding my breath, I'm hoping this means we'll be seeing your Mac ports of your Star Wars games soon...
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Aspyr-Blair: Aw thanks! As to Star Wars...I'm working on it ;)
Any chance we'll get that patch/those ports for the upcoming 5th anniversary of this post? :)))))