We are here with the Nintendo Switch version of the psychological horror/thriller game prepared by Bloober Team, which previously developed the Observer and the first Layers of Fear games, and published on other platforms in 2019. Let's examine both the general state of the game and its performance on the Nintendo Switch platform together.
In Layers of Fear 2, we play a Hollywood actor preparing to star in his new movie. The director of the movie is a name known for both successful films and strange requests. The director, who wants us to take on our character in the movie, creates a special area on the ship only for the film crew. While navigating the ship following the director's instructions, we also witness the story of two children playing pirates.
The story, which is reinforced by the memories we live through the notes we find around and various items, is actually quite well written. Both the director's speeches and the adventures of the children who escaped from the ship and play pirates are presented with a successful voiceover. Events gradually merge with our story and begin to move in a different direction than it seems.
Actor Must Live the Character You Call
The story of Layers of Fear 2 proceeds in a similar way to the first game. In the first game, we are playing with a painter who is visiting his house to complete his masterpiece and reliving his memories, this time we are experiencing a similar adventure on the ship we are on as an actor. We fill in the details of the story with notes and objects we find around. Just like the first game, Layers of Fear 2 offers the opportunity to choose at some points. The choices we make affect the ending of the game.
Pros
+ Voice Over
+ Story
+ Good performance
+ Graphics
Cons
- It repeats itself
- Uniformity not broken
- Too many jumpscares
- No sense of exploration
Platforms
Nintendo Switch - PC - PlayStation 4 - XBox One
The story isn't bad, even up to a point, it feeds the sense of wonder well. But it's a bit uninspiring compared to the first game. In order for the story to be completely understandable, you have to search every corner and combine the information from the various notes and photos. I would have expected the game in the style of walking simulation, the biggest event of which is to tell a story, to tell the story better. The jumpscare scenes, which become monotonous after a while, become "let's scare and go" rather than impressive, which also damages the atmosphere.
Actor of the Sinking Ship
Layers of Fear 2 is a walking simulation game. It has similar gameplay to the first game that was successfully hosted in our homes, inspired by Hideo Kojima's P.T demo. This time, we are traveling not in a house, but on a huge ship, searching for clues and advancing the story. There are a lot of rooms on the ship, but most of them are locked, so we don't have many options for exploring.
The puzzles in the game are prepared in a way that we will not have too much difficulty in order to break the uniformity. While searching around to find the password of the door, there are puzzles such as lifting your head up and seeing it written on the wall, projecting the door picture on the wall with slides and passing through the door in the picture. Of course, if you ask if they can break the uniformity, they did not. It's nice that the game breaks the vase behind us at the beginning and creates tension with little jumpscare moments, but it repeats so much that we start to guess beforehand that "this door will slam in my face".
There is also a chase part in the game. We are being chased by a silhouette, a light, or a different entity. If the entity after us catches us, we die and it's game over. Fortunately, the game's checkpoint system is merciful and we don't have to go back too far. They're not as funny or tense episodes as they should be. There's also a difficulty level that enemies don't chase if you want. The enemy scares you and then minds his business. A nice option for those who play for the story. It's also funny that the enemy appears in front of you and then minds his own business.
Performance of Fear
The Nintendo Switch version of Layers of Fear 2 is visually pretty close to the other versions. I liked the visual quality of the game, which I tried both hand-held and connected to the screen with the dock. Overlays look decent, there are no shoddy images to prevent you from seeing the surrounding details. The biggest problem you may experience while playing handheld is that when playing during the daytime, the light shines on the screen and makes the dark game completely invisible. Since the screen is slightly smaller in the Lite version, you may have trouble seeing the surroundings.
Layers of Fear 2 also does a good job on performance. We have the chance to play the game with 30 FPS or "No Limit" options. There is no FPS limit in "No Limit" mode. While this mode generally runs smoothly, I saw it hit rock bottom in a chase or two, so I went back to 30 FPS mode.
The main place where the star of the game shines was the voiceovers. The voices of our main character, the director and the children are quite good. The director's performance was particularly impressive. It's also pretty good that the game uses sounds to keep you on the alert (and scare you with jumpscare shortly after). Even the game itself suggests using a headset. Of course, being able to use headphones while connected to the screen may be a bit difficult if you don't have a device such as a capture card. A good sound system will also help with this.
Result
Layers of Fear 2 has been successfully ported to Nintendo Switch. The game, which we can play both handheld and connected to the screen, generally offers a smooth performance. If the review was only on the Switch performance of the game, it could have received a very good score. Of course, we also examine the content of the game and there are problems in this part.
The game repeats itself a lot after a point and the conclusion part of the story bothered me a bit. There are 3 different endings but it didn't exactly give the effect I wanted. Layers of Fear 2 seems like it wanted to offer more of the first game and didn't know how to do it. You can still give the game a chance.
I can recommend the Nintendo Switch version, especially if you want to take it with you and play during long waiting times.
