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[Komatsu]

Platforms: Xbox One, SteamOS, PC
Date: August 30th, 2019
Genre: Horror
Price: $29.99 (USD)
Developer: Bloober Team

In 1996, a young boy vanishes without a trace in the Black Hills Forest in Maryland. Ellis, a former police officer haunted by the ghosts of his past, joins the search for the missing child. The woods, however, are not what they seem. An ancient evil and mysterious monsters stalk the darkness as Ellis and his loyal dog, Bullet, delve further and further into their own nightmares.

Source: Metacritic | Click here for additional information​

 

[BLAUcopter]

Great OT. Pity I'm a little bitch when it comes to horror games lol. This looks pants shittingly scary too!

 

[cormack12]

Good job OP!

 

[jshackles]

Excellent OP. Played about 2 hours of this last night and so far it's pretty good. However, I encountered an error on my Xbox where activating the padlock in the bunker in Chapter 4 makes my Xbox crash 100% of the time which means I'll probably have to wait for a patch to continue

 

[Mochilador]

I'm downloading it right now. Let's see if it's scary.

 

[Vasto]

Is it better to play on Xbox One X or PC?

 

[Arachnid]

I'm about 3 hours in. Not a fan. Definitely not scary. IMO unless you get it off gamepass, don't pay for it.

 

[Hendrick's]

Played a few hours. Stuck now not knowing where to go or what to do next. Tired of wandering around the same area in the dark. I'm probably done.

 

[888]

Man I wish the dog would stop barking ALL THE TIME. Its constant.

 

[plushyp]

I checked out the endings on YT and boy... were they a disappointment. There are essentially 2 endings: one where you get possessed and the other where you don't but get killed. There 2 variations of each in which the dog responds differently to you. That's it.

 

[mcz117chief]

Holy guacamole that head bobbing looks insane!
edit: In those gifs I mean.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Nice OP Komatsu

 

[Tiamat2san]

I like this game a lot even if it’s not really scary.
The atmosphere is great and it’s intriguing.
I had a bug where I was stuck between 2 pieces of wood and needed to restart this passage.
Still , it’s a good game.

 

[Hendrick's]

If someone can help.
So I am at the point where you return to the white tree to meet the cops but they are not there. The dude yells at me I think I get attacked a few times...and now what? I have no idea what to do next. There is that broken bridge I can't cross and the padlocked bunker I can't enter.
Also just discovered the cops pickup in the woods.

 

[Arachnid]

If someone can help.
So I am at the point where you return to the white tree to meet the cops but they are not there. The dude yells at me I think I get attacked a few times...and now what? I have no idea what to do next. There is that broken bridge I can't cross and the padlocked bunker I can't enter.
Also just discovered the cops pickup in the woods.

Mess with the pick up

 

[kingwingin]

The framerate is pretty awful. Hope they patch this soon

 

[Shodan09]

I'm about to put my headphones on and play through this now. I'm a huge fan of the movies so I'm hoping they do justice to the lore! I really hope there are some good callbacks to the 2016 sequel too despite this story being set in between. The sequel gets a load of hate but it did some really interesting things.

Wish me luck.

Edit: scratch that, pc version on game pass just crashes to desktop. Any ideas?

Edit 2: Full restart fixed the issues, not sure what the cause was.

 

[Mista]

Friends were playing it last night and all I heard was their screams in the party. That’s when I cancelled the installation and said FUCK NO

 

[MadYarpen]

Friends were playing it last night and all I heard was their screams in the party. That’s when I cancelled the installation and said FUCK NO

Yeah, we are in the same boat. Why would I paly a scary game, I want to relax haha

 

[Kagey K]

Friends were playing it last night and all I heard was their screams in the party. That’s when I cancelled the installation and said FUCK NO

I didn’t make it very far but my gf and I both jumped so we decided to shut it off and go cook supper. It’s pretty fun so far.

You should give it a go.

 

[Badlucktroll]

but does it show the witch?

 

[dok1or]

Great game! Big horror fan here...

 

[Mista]

Yeah, we are in the same boat. Why would I paly a scary game, I want to relax haha

Damn right. 10 years ago I would've cruised through this game but now? Nah, don't have the heart anymore

I didn’t make it very far but my gf and I both jumped so we decided to shut it off and go cook supper. It’s pretty fun so far.

You should give it a go.

Maybe if I build up some courage

 

[GrayChild]

The performance is terrible on my PC, even after the first patch.

On top of that, I encountered a bug where Bullet just froze in one place and couldn't progress further.

I'll probably wait for the next few updates which Bloober mentioned should come soon. Apart from the technical issues, I'm really enjoying the game so far.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Awesome atmosphere so far!

 

[raduque]

This game is pretty good. Atmospheric, creepy, confusing... love it!

Performance is not so good, though. Even on low settings I can't really break 40fps with a Zen2 3600 and OCed RX580.

 

[Shodan09]

I finished it early this morning and enjoyed it.

Spoiler: Story spoilers:

I enjoyed the forest sections way more than Elis' hallucinations/war flashbacks. They were well done and interesting but it almost felt like 2 totally different games going on at once.

I wasnt massively invested in the story and what I really wanted was a chance to wander round some creepy woods because they absolutely nailed those sections.

I'd have preferred if all the scares were from the woods/witches minions rather than bullets or explosions zipping by too.

I was quite disappointed with the house section at the end as the hallucinations meant it overstayed its welcome by a good 20 minutes or so, in what should have been the most suspenseful part of the game.

I got the shit ending too, but at least the dog survived.

One thing I think the game did incredibly well was the way in which you 'see' entities but at the same time dont really get a good look at them. It really captured the feeling of seeing something out of the corner of your eye.

I loved the nods to the 2016 movie too.

 

[Komatsu]

I was not going to play it (I only created the OT as I hate to see games neglected in the gaming forum) but as it's on Game Pass I decided to dive in and take a look.

I wasn't super impressed with their previous offerings (Layers of Fear 1&2), but this games looks so good on the X. Very atmospheric, voice-acting is top notch as well.

 

[GrayChild]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1092660/discussions/0/1635291505033769044/

Dear players! After publishing fix for the resolution settings as well as corrections for Chinese and Japanese language versions - we focused on optimizing the game. The patch is already being tested and we hope to deliver it to you within 24 to 48 hours from now.

We do not stop there, the team will deal with the next suggestions you pointed out to us. There will be more updates.

Thank you for your support. And we're going back to work.

Good to hear.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[Come On Tars]

I finished it early this morning and enjoyed it.

Spoiler: Story spoilers:

I enjoyed the forest sections way more than Elis' hallucinations/war flashbacks. They were well done and interesting but it almost felt like 2 totally different games going on at once.

I wasnt massively invested in the story and what I really wanted was a chance to wander round some creepy woods because they absolutely nailed those sections.

I'd have preferred if all the scares were from the woods/witches minions rather than bullets or explosions zipping by too.

I was quite disappointed with the house section at the end as the hallucinations meant it overstayed its welcome by a good 20 minutes or so, in what should have been the most suspenseful part of the game.

I got the shit ending too, but at least the dog survived.

One thing I think the game did incredibly well was the way in which you 'see' entities but at the same time dont really get a good look at them. It really captured the feeling of seeing something out of the corner of your eye.

I loved the nods to the 2016 movie too.

Ima share my rant on how bomb Blair Witch 2016 was. (spoilers)

I don't get the Blair Witch hate, movie was cash money. It had a lot of dope moments like "why hasn't the sun come up?" tents flying, girls pretzlin. Those scenes really stuck with me. Good plot twists, was an effective introduction to the lore of the character. It made me read some background online, there's more to it than I thought. Great time manipulation stuff. It really put you in their horrifying experience.

When shit was hittin the fan it me think to myself: "This is nuts, they are so screwed, I would hate this." I was there with them. I'm sure there are a bunch of people who loved it like me, I am just kinda perplexed by the overall vibe. Maybe they feel like it's just a bunch shallow shakey cam scares thing, idk, they were a couple grades in quality above that to me for sure. It's very similar in an effective rebootish thing as the new Evil Dead was. Which was another "shit gets real" Horror movie.

I also want to add the acting was top notch. Especially the main girl. Her way of breathing and shaking just stood out to me.



it also had a really cool marketing campaign. Anyone with me?

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

Ima share my rant on how bomb Blair Witch 2016 was. (spoilers)

I don't get the Blair Witch hate, movie was cash money. It had a lot of dope moments like "why hasn't the sun come up?" tents flying, girls pretzlin. Those scenes really stuck with me. Good plot twists, was an effective introduction to the lore of the character. It made me read some background online, there's more to it than I thought. Great time manipulation stuff. It really put you in their horrifying experience.

When shit was hittin the fan it me think to myself: "This is nuts, they are so screwed, I would hate this." I was there with them. I'm sure there are a bunch of people who loved it like me, I am just kinda perplexed by the overall vibe. Maybe they feel like it's just a bunch shallow shakey cam scares thing, idk, they were a couple grades in quality above that to me for sure. It's very similar in an effective rebootish thing as the new Evil Dead was. Which was another "shit gets real" Horror movie.

I also want to add the acting was top notch. Especially the main girl. Her way of breathing and shaking just stood out to me.



it also had a really cool marketing campaign. Anyone with me?

You bring up some good points. I didn't like it because of the horror movie clichés and for over-loring what was a pretty basic yet creepy premise in the first movie, but it had it's moments. Some of the things like being stuck in perpetual night are downright terrifying.

I don't know if this is what happened but it feels like it started out written as it's own thing and then was repurposed as a Blair Witch movie half way through production for marketing purposes.

 

[Shodan09]

Ima share my rant on how bomb Blair Witch 2016 was. (spoilers)

I don't get the Blair Witch hate, movie was cash money. It had a lot of dope moments like "why hasn't the sun come up?" tents flying, girls pretzlin. Those scenes really stuck with me. Good plot twists, was an effective introduction to the lore of the character. It made me read some background online, there's more to it than I thought. Great time manipulation stuff. It really put you in their horrifying experience.

When shit was hittin the fan it me think to myself: "This is nuts, they are so screwed, I would hate this." I was there with them. I'm sure there are a bunch of people who loved it like me, I am just kinda perplexed by the overall vibe. Maybe they feel like it's just a bunch shallow shakey cam scares thing, idk, they were a couple grades in quality above that to me for sure. It's very similar in an effective rebootish thing as the new Evil Dead was. Which was another "shit gets real" Horror movie.

I also want to add the acting was top notch. Especially the main girl. Her way of breathing and shaking just stood out to me.



it also had a really cool marketing campaign. Anyone with me?

I saw it as a kind of alien to aliens move. It's way more intense, and once it gets going it doesnt stop until the end.

I understand they lost the 'realism' of the original but that approach has been done already. It was different and it was good. The time dilation stuff was great, the claustrophobic tunnel scene was brilliant, and I loved the creature.

 

[Lord Malachite]

I'm about to put my headphones on and play through this now. I'm a huge fan of the movies so I'm hoping they do justice to the lore! I really hope there are some good callbacks to the 2016 sequel too despite this story being set in between. The sequel gets a load of hate but it did some really interesting things.

Wish me luck.

Edit: scratch that, pc version on game pass just crashes to desktop. Any ideas?

Edit 2: Full restart fixed the issues, not sure what the cause was.

Knowledge of all 3 films helps a lot and 2016 is not at all neglected. Finished this game last night feel free to send me a PM if you want some deep impressions and spoiler-free overview just let me know where you are so i know what not to reveal.

As for impressions of the 2016 movie, I thought most elements were great especially the way mechanics are revealed but never spelled out. I love this franchise.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[GrayChild]

The new patch does almost nothing for me.

Well, I already played the whole game somehow enduring the 20-25 FPS the game was chugging on Medium settings.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[J-Roderton]

Probably going to wait until October to play any more. Nice to know there was a patch, though.

 

[wipeout364]

I will try it with the new patch but really my issue wasn’t really performance it was more that the game so far ( 2 hours in) is just a bit boring. I felt the same was about observer though so maybe their games are just not for me.

 

[metareferential]

Got it with game pass, might jump in later on to see how it is. I like what I've seen so far, but seeing the perf is hit or miss I might wait.

 

[Cravis]

Looking forward to playing more with the patch. Granted I had not run into many terrible glitches save for one that got me stuck on the environment and I couldn’t move.

I’ve warmed up to the developers past games along with this. I dismissed them as walking simulators. They’re more haunted house simulators to me.

 

[Lord Malachite]

The game is plenty fun IMO but there is an element of frustration in the combat and not always being clear what to do next. Atmosphere is well done and my main complaint was that the final area seemed to go on a bit too long. Definitely worth playing IMO.

 

[raduque]

Is the patch out for the Microsoft Store version?

 

[Nemesis Prime]

The game is worth playing on gamepass. It’s not that scary but it has some very creepy moments and I like the world. The ending has some super scary moments (one part had me freak out) and it isn’t that long.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[nikolino840]

Phisical edition coming soon

 

[Arachnid]

IMO don't spend more than 5 dollars on this game (even that's pushing it). Having beaten it months ago, I really didn't enjoy the experience. I wanted to (huge horror game junkie), but I couldn't.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[VN1X]

So against better judgement I ended up buying this anyway and so far, based on the first 90 mins, I am very much enjoying it! Hope it keeps this level of eeriness up and doesn't do stupid shit like pretty much the entirety of Layers of Fear lol.