Layers of Fear: Inheritance (Video Game DLC)
Developed by Bloober Team
Available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One
Rated M for Mature
When I first reviewed Layers of Fear back in February, I concluded that it was a beautifully realized vision of tragedy brought down only by a few adherence to convention. It relied a bit too much on things popping out and going “boo!” The monster also felt a bit pointless, adding some tension and scares at the cost of the overall tone and logic. It didn’t ruin Layers of Fear by any stretch. It’s still a gorgeous game that maturely and intensely deals with loss, loneliness, and insanity. It blurred the lines between motivation and consequence, making “good” or “bad” a matter of our own opinion. In terms of quality narrative games, Layers of Fear was art.
I’m surprised to see a DLC pack hit the store almost half a year after the initial release. The indie game market, especially for horror, is as fickle as it is oversaturated. It’s hard to imagine anyone that picked Layers of Fear up at release still playing it, no matter how great the storytelling was. Maybe my opinion is too heavily influenced by multiplayer lifespans, where games can sometimes still have active communities a decade after release. For a strictly single player title, it takes some massive endeavor like The Witcher 3 to make me take notice of a new paid chunk of content.
But hey, I liked the original a whole lot, and it’s only 5 dollars, so what the heck! I expected more of the same, but that’s not always a bad thing. More walking through spooky surreal hallways, more fantastic visual effects, and most importantly more exceptional storytelling. It’s rare that DLC stories are as compelling as the base game, but if Inheritance is even half as good as Layers of Fear, it’s a cut above most.
Hurrah! More creepy art worlds!
What I found in the Inheritance DLC was an experience that—while short—was significantly better than the original in several ways. It fixed almost every problem that I had with the first. There’s no random murder monster to chase you around, far fewer jump scares, and more of the surreal madness that made the most memorable parts of Layers of Fear. It’s focused, with not a dull moment in its entire runtime.
The story of Inheritance is told from the perspective of Layers of Fear’s nameless painter’s daughter. Troubled by the memories of her upbringing, she returns to her childhood home to seek closure. You’ll explore the same estate as Layers of Fear, now long abandoned and in an advanced state of disrepair. In the various rooms, you’ll confront memories of your past, and find crayon drawings from your childhood. Some of these encounters are simple cutscenes, while others are much longer sequences of puzzles similar to the base game.
When I say crayon drawings, I mean the “call CPS” kind, not the “hang on the fridge” kind.
The narrative dilemma is focused on the daughter’s memories of her father’s madness, and questioning if she can ever forgive him and move on. It’s very clear he won’t win any father of the year awards, but solving puzzles will result in subtle changes that color him as either caring or cruel. There’s also a worry that the madness that plagued him might also affect you. This is always subtly looming in the background, but doesn’t take center stage. While there are a good deal of surreal dream sequences, they’re always presented as stylized flashbacks. There’s no indication that she herself believes this to all be real.
To achieve this flashback effect, many of the puzzles and challenges are played through the eyes of a child. During these sequences, you’ll only come up to eye level of a chair. This shifted dimension is effective, but I expect will lead to some division in opinion. Since there isn’t a monster chasing you around and everything is told in retrospect, there isn’t as pressing a sense of dread. You already know that you survive all of these ordeals, so being locked in a closet while your parents fight lacks the punch of being chased by your charred wife through a melting canvas world.
Still hella scary though.
On the flip side, I found the story to be much more relatable than the first. As I said in my previous review, I don’t really know what it’s like to be a tortured painter haunted by the memories of his disfigured suicidal wife. What I can understand is what it’s like to be a child and not knowing why mommy and daddy are fighting. We all live with familial expectations, and when the father yells at you during a flashback to stop using crayons because they are childish, it makes me remember the expectations put on me in my youth. News flash: you don’t become a Dread Central video game reviewer because you lived up to your parents’ expectations.
Seeing the story from another perspective was very effective. Inheritance tackles the same questions of loneliness, loss, and tragedy, and explores how that affects the child. I tend not to like alternate perspective narratives, as they usually just present the same story from a less interesting perspective. I don’t want to hear about Stalin’s life story from the perspective of his next door neighbor. Inheritance gets it right. The daughter’s troubles are unique, and just as crucial as her father’s. Most importantly, it actually adds a layer of depth to the story of the original.
Pound for pound, I found the sequences in Inheritance to be better versions of those in Layers of Fear. Every one of the main segments is wildly different. During a flashback of your father painting your portrait, you’ll be challenged to stare straight ahead while crazy shit happens just outside of your peripheral. During the painting segment in the studio, you’ll put together a painting piece by piece in a style of your choosing. There are a number of samey cutscenes, but each tells a piece of the story that ties together the whole picture.
Never before has staring straight ahead been so compelling.
I attribute a lot of the success to the brisk runtime. Overall, it should only take you an hour or two to beat Inheritance, and maybe another to find all the secrets. It’s short, but it’s also very tight. They didn’t have to pad the runtime with dull filler segments, letting them pack it with their best ideas. Some might feel like it cuts the tension and build, but I like how it gets to the point. It relies on the strength of its set piece moments, and doesn’t dilute them with fluff.
At $5, Inheritance is a no brainer for fans of Layers of Fear. It’s funny, because often the litmus test for good DLC is that it would function on its own. For Inheritance, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The relationship to the original is integral to the DLC. It’s the perfect additional story, adding something to the original without feeling necessary. You don’t need to play Inheritance to appreciate Layers of Fear, but it certainly helps you like it even more. It’s the perfect added bonus, appending the original without eclipsing it. Definitely a must buy.
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DLC
Categorized:Horror Gaming Reviews
