Brings Back Memories of Phantasmagoria!
I am a big fan of these types of games… I love the combination of mystery, puzzles and very realistic graphics. One of my favorite things is the architecture and time-period in which it takes place. You can almost imagine yourself there and going through the experience firsthand. This feeling is especially enhanced when playing late in the evening in a dimly-lit room wearing a good set of headphones.
Before I get too far in, let me say that I am playing this game on a dual 12-Core Mid-2012 Mac Pro with a 3GB video card and 64GB of physical memory. Sometimes I monitor the vitals while playing this game. I have the graphics set to as high as they will go. The CPU’s run flawlessly… In fact there is so little activity that if I didnt know better I would think I am working in Excel or something. The graphics card spins up quite a bit, but the game has no hesitation running under these conditions and is smooth as silk.
I really like the idea of this game. I was looking for something along the lines of Phantasmagoria from Sierra 1995 and this seems to be as close as I have found yet. Once I started playing LoF I found myself asking where the Save function was. I did a little research and found limited information. Basically it seems that it autosaves and when you start the game next time you are always in the painting room. I got that now and have no issues.
Outstanding graphics and imagination on the part of the developers! I find myself wondering where the inspiration for the paintings etc came from. This brought me back to the days of Phantasmagoria with its beautiful interior and exteriors. As you know, you have to also have outstanding sound effects and music. LoF has done a great job on that… One of my favorite aspects of that is the rain and thunder effects - You can really hear that rain pelting the windows. As I go through the game however it does not seem to be consistent… In areas that you would expect to hear it lightly in the background it is gone. Neat effects though and especially the shadows of the trees that you can see through the window. They also do a good job of doing the ‘stingers’… That is, jolting you with a sound at the right time in order to instill fear.
I feel the game-challenge is only ‘so-so’. One thing that I love about these kind of games is figuring out puzzles. Phantasmagoria for example really makes you work for it! There is a door up on the 2nd or 3rd floor that you need to go in, but cannot because it appears to be locked. (SPOILER) Now you have to go find a key… Well gosh… it could be anywhere in that gigantic castle of a house… OR… it could be outside! When I finally found it… way across town at the real estate agents office, I hurried back up to that door… Nope… Wont work because there is something stuck in the keyhole. Now you have to go find a way to get the obstruction out… Look all over the building if you must, but you will not find it there. There is a nail in the upper frames of the barn… Doesnt really stand out but it is there… You need to get that in order to remove the obstruction. But you cant just pull it out… You will need to find a hammer for that. The story goes on and on. I mention all of this because it really challenges people (and this example was not the hardest puzzle by far). Layers of Fear hands you challenges as well, but so far in the game I feel like they are handing me the answers by keeping the connecting puzzle piece in the same room all the time. I have probably played about 4 hours so far… Maybe this will change, but so far it has not. The game also seems very predictable after a while.
In all, I am happy with my purchase… The developers did a great job. This is still on Version 1, so maybe there will be some updates in the future to fix quirky things like the sound etc. If I had to pick my favorite I would still go back to my 20+ year old classic Phantasmagoria for the challenge, sound and downright spookiness of it. For now though, Layers of Fear is a great game and fun to play!
Wreck-Diver about Layers of Fear
