Layers of Fear: Inheritance DLC Review (PC)

Layers of Fear was one of the best horror games I have played this year. For those of you who didn’t play, this is a psychological indie horror game with multiple endings. You play as a painter slowly descending into madness alone in his home. As he traverses the ever changing mansion, he is constantly finding things related to his past and the true horrors that were committed in this house.

Title: Layers of Fear: Inheritance
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: Bloober Team
Developer: Bloober Team
Price: $4.99 (After buying Layers of Fear). 

In Layers of Fear: Inheritance, you play as the painters’ daughter returning home after her father had passed. What new horrors will you discover in the mansion? 

Great Ambiance 

As someone who really enjoyed Layers of Fear, I really appreciated the way they used the environment. As you walk through the home, you immediately see that everything you experienced in Layers of Fear was in the painter’s head. For example, there are bookcases with “secret passageways” behind them in the office and paintings with special codes in the first game. In the DLC, you see the toppled over bookshelves with nothing but the wall behind them, and the paintings with codes are torn apart. I thought this was really smart to get the chance to see the house in a somewhat normal light. It provides a new perspective that made me a little more sympathetic toward the painter. 

Another positive note, I felt like it was the perfect length. My playthroughs lasted anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour, but it feels like a lot more. I was able to get all the endings and achievements in one sitting, and it was pretty cool to experience the game in its entirety. 

Is That It?

Unfortunately, I found the DLC pretty lacking. The game just isn’t as scary or intense as its predecessor. I played the game through several times and only remember jumping once. Not only was it not scary, I felt like the story, or lack of story, in Inheritance didn’t do anything to further the story in Layers of Fear.  You experience memories and find notes and drawings that are loosely connected. I felt like maybe there was a bigger picture, but there was a lot of beating around the bush and it was lost on me. Out of the three endings, I didn’t really feel fulfilled by any of them. 

The game is also a little confusing. There is no clear direction, and you just have to explore until a memory pops for you. There are puzzles in rooms that you’ll completely miss, there are times where you’ll die but sometimes you have to die to continue the story, and so on. After my first play through, the game was a lot easier to manage when I had a lay of the land and a general idea of what was going on. The Fablelands were by far my favorite part, and I didn’t realize how much I missed the first time I was there. So my tip would be explore everything! 

*Review copy purchased on Steam