Layers of Fear 2

Quite a good game even if not the strongest offering by Bloober (in my estimation). I wasn't crazy about the grey monochrome bits, but I'm in love with the theme. Hope a third instalment is in the plan.

Not nearly as good as the first one but still a solid sequel.

This game, like the first, did an effective job of telling a story- as you progress, the pieces begin to fall into place and everything starts to make sense as you gather the clues and begin to discover your past and your place in the scheme of things. Unfortunately, the story isn't particularly compelling, the setting of a steamship is less effective and interesting than the spooky house from the first game, and the scares aren't particularly scary, unless you're absolutely terrified of fairly benign-looking wooden mannequins. It's not outright bad, but it's disappointing compared to the first game. The New Game+ mode offers a bit of replay value, and was handled a lot better than in the first game, but even going through to collect everything and get the different endings, there's not a lot on offer here. Probably the most interesting part of the game are the numerous visual homages to films like A Trip to the Moon, The Wizard of Oz, Metropolis, The Shining, Alien, and even Fight Club. If you're a film buff it can be fun to try to spot these, and they're a creative way of expanding on the theme of the main character being an actor, but they're not quite enough to make this sequel live up to the original.

Story: 5/5 Worldbuilding: 4/5 Art Design: 5/5 Graphics: 5/5 Sound: 5/5 Gameplay: 3/5