Lights, camera, action! With no relation to the first installment in the series, Layers of Fear 2 puts you on the set of a movie on board a cruise ship. As you move one of the set’s actors across the beautifully rendered environments, cues keep popping up: dressing rooms, notes, costumes - it’s all there… until it’s not… Voices are heard and landscapes change, emulating the fractured psyche and memories of the protagonist. The story is similarly fractured and you’ll have to piece it together as it slowly takes shape throughout the game’s five acts... often to its detriment.

Layers of Fear 2 is a slow paced game, so much so that I fear it takes too long for the game's intended vibe to settle in with most players. For the actual fear of the game to set in (a spirit-like thing chasing you to death), you’ll have to sink in at least one hour of the game. Before that it's mostly walking around the cruise to have an idea about the universe you're in. This is mostly conveyed via the ever confusing monologues of the movie’s director, which is supposed to set the atmosphere for the game. In addition, certain parts of the game, such as following a path taken by two kids, took me quite a while to grasp. Occasionally these do add some flair to the title but the plot more often than necessary feels confusing for such little additions to make up for it, and it takes too long for everything to coherently condense together.

Layers of Fear 2 relies heavily on environmental storytelling and it does so decently, even if often it’s almost too blatantly so (some guy blabbing over a speaker isn’t the most subtle way to convey a story). For the keen-eyed, more information is scattered around for you to find and flesh out the story as you stroll around the varied scenes. However, the lack of characters is too flagrant; with only voices heard and no NPCs in sight, the lifeless hallways of the cruise ship evoke loneliness.

Your only friend is actually your enemy: the spirit-like thing mentioned before. This spectral apparition is so much clouded in mystery that even finding a way to safely escape from its grasp can take a few tries. The main escape mechanism is to go in the opposite direction, and you can lock some doors to impede its way and find escape routes. Sometimes it requires you to take specific paths in order to escape unscathed and this can get the player to replay sections in order to find the correct path. Failing this, it’s always an insta-kill if you take the wrong hallway and meetup with your good old buddy the mysterious creature.

Of note, Layers of Fear 2 also involves multiple endings (three in all) but how to unlock them isn't entirely clear. For one you cannot replay completed acts (the game’s chapters) and you’ll have to replay the whole game to make different choices. This brings us to the second point: the game does not explicitly offer you choices to make as it is mostly a walk and click game. This can get quite frustrating if you’re looking to complete the game and see all the endings.

The gist of Layers of Fear 2 ultimately revolves around walking around, picking up certain items to play an audio clip related to the current scene, solving some puzzles and expecting a random encounter with the game’s horror monster. It’s all interesting but often too passive and not interactive enough. It does convey the retro horror movie vibe decently enough and taking place on an actual movie set makes for an original game setting.

While it can be compared to a “walking simulator”, rather than a walk in the park, Layers of Fear 2 feels more like a walk in the park with an abandoned graveyard on a cold misty night. With doors that close once you pass through them, randomly falling flower vases and chilling mannequin scenes, all coupled in eerie soundtracks, there is much in Layers of Fear 2 to keep you on your toes. It’s also quite exciting to never know what to expect with the randomly changing scenes, even if you find yourself in a familiar room. However, for me, the game fails to provide a gripping experience with its lack of actual gameplay, and the slow-paced and often-confusing plot sequences.

Layers of Fear 2 Launch Trailer