It wasn’t too long ago now that Bloober made their splash in the horror genre of games with Layers of Fear. We played and really liked it, so it makes sense that we’d be excited to get our hands on an extension of the story.
The base game focuses on the artist and his struggles with pretty much everyone else. We traverse his house while trying to decide if what’s happening is real or merely in his head. While the idea of insanity coursing through the family’s veins is mentioned at the beginning of Inheritance’s narrative, this story takes a different approach. You play through the game as the artist’s daughter trying to come to terms with her past. The way you play will decide whether or not she is forgiving of her family.
The early part of the DLC (first few minutes) involves exploring the house you became so intimate with in the artist’s shoes. The difference being the house has been abandoned and is in shambles. As you explore different parts of the house you’ll experience flashbacks, taking your point of view to almost that of a worm. Everything is distortedly larger and skewed in hopes of a foreign perspective adding terror. At first these events are something you merely watch, but soon you participate as the little girl.
While there are hints of supernatural happenings as the grown woman, there is much more which may be chalked up to the imagination of a child when you explore the majority of this story. There were a few parts that stood out, one of which reminded me a lot of PT. While not a direct rip-off, it was a nice nod to the game. The other parts involve your dad, as he is still very much the main character. The interactions with him, as well as the art world you explore as a child are easily the strongest parts of the game, in both story and gameplay.
Sadly, the game lacks a lot of what made the base game special. Being an addition to a horror game, I anticipated some scares, or at the very least more of the room altering that was so prevalent previously. There was one jump scare that got me, but other than that, I never felt a sense of urgency or dread. If anything, I spent most of my time trying to figure out where I was going as the lighting didn’t seem to help as much this time around. I wandered aimlessly in dark corners much more this time around, which was disappointing.
The game does still offer collectibles to find, and at minimum two playthroughs to see everything the game has to offer, but chances are it’ll take more unless you are using a guide. So while the DLC clocks in at roughly an hour (less after your first play), it offers more if you are willing to put in the effort.
The game also suffers from the same issues as before; expect framerate chugging and shallow character arcs that you’ve seen before. Not necessarily a bad thing on the latter of the two issues, but it’d be nice if there was more of a twist to the character than what you expect.
Layers of Fear: Inheritance does a decent enough job expanding its universe to the daughter of the artist, going into the relationship of father and daughter, even if it seemed a bit shallow. The story shines when you are interacting with your father, but leaves something to be desired in the other portions of the game. For those that want more layers to dig through, it’s a nice enough addition to a great game. It just had the potential to be a lot more.
6 out of 10
Pros
- Father/Daughter Interaction
- A Few Environments…
Cons
- …The Other Environments
- Framerate Chugs
Layers of Fear: Inheritance was developed by Bloober Team and published by Aspyr. The DLC launched on PC, PS4, and X1 August 2nd, 2016, for $4.99. The DLC was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of Layers of Fear: Inheritance, check out the official site.
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