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Are you ready to crap your pants? Layers of Fear has graduated Early Access to become a full member of the horror club.

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About the game
Layers of Fear is a first-person psychedelic horror game with a heavy focus on story and exploration. Players take control of a painter whose sole purpose is to finish his Magnum Opus. The player must navigate through both a constantly changing Victorian-era mansion and ghastly visions of the painter’s fragile and crumbling psyche.

Note: Copy personally purchased.

Some thoughts
I tested the game on SteamOS with a Steam Controller, and here’s what I thought.

First of all, the loading time when you first boot the game up seems to take forever, but after that it’s pretty smooth sailing loading wise. The initial loading screen is completely black, so just leave it for a few minutes.

I'm genuinely very impressed with the visuals in Layers of Fear which are actually fantastic. It’s a gorgeous game which really helps with the horror genre. It is very sluggish on High settings on the 970 in my SteamOS box, so I had to dial back a few options to make it nice and smooth. It still looks pretty good on lower settings, but on Linux it really needs a good GPU which is a negative mark, as to get the most out of this game you need the graphics.

The only other negative mark is that it saves in chapters, so you will need to restart certain parts if you have to go. I’m never going to like checkpoint saves.

The name is quite appropriate really, as you go through many different rooms each with a new layer of fear to hit you with, and some of it really does make you jump. There’s over one hundred different rooms in the full version, so there’s something for everyone I’m sure.

What I like about the game is the presentation. Generally horror games while scary, are easy enough to sort-of guess what’s going to come to a certain extent, and I felt more uneasy in Layers of Fear than many others in the horror genre as I couldn’t work out what was coming.

It’s very much a walking simulator though. There isn’t much action, as most of the interaction is walking from room to room reading notes, doing a thing and then moving on. It’s not bad, but I feel I should point that out.

I’m going to be completely honest here, at one point I got cold chills all over and the words “oh fuck me!” audibly came out of my mouth moments later. The only other game to ever be able do that was Alien: Isolation.

If you like a good guessing a game, a few jump scares, really great visuals and trying to figure out a story yourself then go grab a copy. It’s really quite good, but I honestly don’t think it’s a game you would play through more than once.

I highly suggest the use of headphones and having them set at a good volume. I found it quite scary even in a well-lit room.

You can find Layers of Fear on Steam and GOG right now. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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8 comments

Loondogiv Feb 17, 2016
Thanks for the write-up, guys! We at Aspyr were super stoked to be able to bring this new game to Linux. We hope you enjoy it!
Beamboom Feb 17, 2016
It's way way waaay too scary for me.


I'm still gonna buy it though. I just don't know why. It must be the sadist in me. Plus, I dig Aspyr.


Last edited by Beamboom on 17 February 2016 at 10:44 pm UTC
PublicNuisance Feb 18, 2016
I was very happy to see this hit GOG. I had been following it for a couple months but figured it would be Steam only at first.
Eike Feb 18, 2016
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Quoting: LoondogivThanks for the write-up, guys! We at Aspyr were super stoked to be able to bring this new game to Linux. We hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the coding-up, guys!
Skully Feb 18, 2016
Quoting: LoondogivThanks for the write-up, guys! We at Aspyr were super stoked to be able to bring this new game to Linux. We hope you enjoy it!

Thank you for all your hard work on this and other titles. You guys always do a wonderful job. Definitely my favorite porting company. I just wish to see more games more often from you.
Plintslîcho Feb 18, 2016
Must be me but I don’t find this (video) one bit scary. Only highly irritating; and absolutely meaningless. *shrug*
loggfreak Feb 19, 2016
i think the game could use some anti-aliassing, looks great nonetheless, will probably buy in the near future
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