Layers of Fear: Inheritance (PC) Review

By Thom Compton 18.08.2016

Review for Layers of Fear: Inheritance  on PC

DLC always has a tough job. It has to add to the core experience, and if the core experience has been poorly received, it has to overcome that. Such is the plight of Layers of Fear: Inheritance, the first DLC for a game that was met with mostly tepid reviews. Can it overcome the mistakes of its main experience, or will it be another piece of luggage on this sinking ship?

Layers of Fear: Inheritance tells the story of the daughter of the core title's protagonist, who, much like her father, she too suffers bouts of delirium and madness. Many years after the previous events, she returns to her childhood home to set things right. The majority of the game is about exploring the house and receiving random bits of information through flashbacks. By and large, the gameplay is identical to the core product, though the daughter seems less prone to hallucinations than her father. Also, her story is much more interesting and much more terrifying.

Screenshot for Layers of Fear: Inheritance  on PC

There's something profound hidden here: a story of child abuse and watching the one who was supposed to protect you slowly crumble under the weight of their own madness. This still relies almost exclusively on jump scares, though they are much less frequent. Instead, this is much more unsettling, feeling it's slowly moving its fingers under your skin, before biting down its massive teeth. It's an excellent display of restraint, especially when the story gets very upsetting as it moves on. Everything experienced technically happened to a child, and is still happening to her as an adult - except now it's all in her mind, repeated ad nauseam until she finds a way to silence it.

The fact is that Inheritance accomplishes what the core game failed to. While the whole experience is about exploring the space and hearing the story, it's now easier to empathize. Player's aren't venturing into the mind of a man obsessed with perfection, but a child suffering from that obsession. While the voice acting is still cringe-worthy from time to time, the essence of this tale is much more intact. Even the very look of the house shows the dysfunction and chaos in its most absolute. The broken down shutters, destroyed paintings, and cryptic disarray, are a reminder something happened here. While the original fills those pieces in where the DLC does not, one thing is clear. Whatever happened here was very, very bad.

Screenshot for Layers of Fear: Inheritance  on PC

Cubed3 Rating

7/10
Rated 7 out of 10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Rated 7 out of 10

Layers of Fear: Inheritance will not edify those who found the base game didn't have enough action. However, it's a more honest horror experience. While the original tried to wow the audience with it's crazy hallucinations, Inheritance clearly just wants to remind you there's a person under there, suffering through them.

Developer

Bloober Team

Publisher

Aspyr

Genre

Horror

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  7/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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