Bloober Team brings the fear with 2023 release of Layers of Fears

I have personally said for many years that few can do psychological suspense like Bloober Team can. Even though they have stepped out into slightly newer territory with Blair Witch and Medium (whose success is debatable), Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2 remain two of the scariest and most mind freaker-y games we have ever played. The rumor mill around Bloober Team has been churning lately about something new on the horizon and they finally dropped some information today at Summer Games Fest. Coming in 2023 is Layers of Fears.

For those of you unfamiliar with the idea behind the first two games, while they run along the same vein, they feature two very different stories. Layers of Fear follows a painter trying to create his “magnum opus” painting of his wife. As he collects the pieces he needs to complete the painting, the player experiences the memories and eventual psychological spiral the painter experiences until the painting is finally complete.

In Layers of Fear 2, you play as an actor on a ship in the middle of the ocean. The voice of a mysterious director instructs you to certain tasks while exploring the ship and you can choose to obey or defy the direction, which will change the ending you get. When the character was younger, they were on a similar ship with their sibling as a child which ended in an unfortunate accident. As the player explores the ship, memories are unlocked and secrets are revealed.

The premises between the two games are relatively simple but, while the stories are very interesting and engaging, it’s the gameplay and mechanics that will hypnotize players the most. Bloober Team has a special way of showcasing the decline of the games’ subjects with visuals and the environment. An example being that the player will walk into the room one way, turn around and everything has changed. The effects go from subtle to nauseating and it’s just fantastic. That level of mastery was missing in Blair Witch and Medium, but it’s back with Layers of Fears.

There wasn’t a lot of information offered for Layers of Fears. The easiest guess will be a remake of Layers of Fear, Layers of Fear: Inheritance (the DLC) and Layers of Fear 2, but I think that Bloober Team is more creative than that. Perhaps this will be a re-telling of the stories with new scenes, new stories and more mind-bending animations. Perhaps Layers of Fears will connect all three tales together somehow. For now, we don’t know for sure. As we get closer to its release date sometime in 2023, there will be more information offered. Layers of Fears is being developed on Unreal Engine 5 so the only thing we know is that it’s going to look amazing.

If you were disappointed that Blair Witch and Medium only released on Xbox at first, don’t worry. Layers of Fears is releasing on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC in 2023.