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teaandgames · 5 years

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Layers of Fear 2 Review (2019)

What am I going to do with you, Bloober Team? You’ve done it again. Your last two games, the first Layers of Fear and Observer, fell into the same trap. They each had interesting storylines. Layers of Fear was about an artist descending into madness following his wife’s tragic accident. Observer was a sci-fi story about a cop that could hack into people’s brains. Both great premises for stories that didn’t quite translate into the gameplay. Problem is, stories like that are creepy enough as a premise, but making them actually scary? That’s something else.

Same sort of story for Layers of Fear 2, really. Interesting premise but functionally? It’s a game about opening drawers and running away from weird, glitching men. It sounds like I’m doing the game a disservice, which I kind of am. In spite of the decent premise, which I’ll spend some time praising, I still don’t really like Layers of Fear 2. And it’s a damn shame, the same sort of shame I felt before this. Bloober Team’s imagination is what keeps me coming back time and again but they need to sit down and talk over their gameplay.

Moaning aside, for the moment, let’s talk about the best part of Layers of Fear 2, the premise. A famous actor is invited to take part in a film shoot aboard a cruise liner. The film is helmed by a notably eccentric director, who forces his crew to use method acting. For those that don’t know, method acting is where actors basically live out the lives of their characters off camera. They get into the minds of the character so they can better portray them. It’s a controversial method, not least because of how mad it makes you seem.

It does pose an interesting question, one that Layers of Fear 2 tries to explore. Is it possible for an actor to get so into a character that they lose themselves in the process? It’s a good question, that has a lot of horror potential. You’ve got the breaking down of the self and the replacement of this other, with both sides conflicting. Couple that with the cruise liner setting, which has the wonderful element of not really being able to escape, and you have a lot of potential. Unfortunately though, things start to get muddled as you go on.

Bloober Team love taking things out of order or showing you disjointed metaphors, while letting you put together the pieces. Usually this is a nice move, as it adds to the sense of disorientation, but here it just makes things hard to follow. There are times where it starts mixing in filming techniques with real life, which is great, but it soon starts to delve into out of place film references. I honestly don’t think a Wizard of Oz reference really fits in here and felt a bit like they were trying to flex their film knowledge at times. As a result of all this, things can be a little hard to follow.

For starters, I wasn’t sure, for a good while, who the protagonist was supposed to be playing. There are two possibilities: a boy and a girl who stowed away on the ship. We explore their tragic backstory and go through their relationship together. It’s fairly well pieced together but it doesn’t quite give enough information to really figure out, personally at least, just what had happened to whom. Also, the protagonist wasn’t given a personality at all, so it was hard to take the subtext of losing yourself seriously, even when the ending put a lot of emphasis on it. Much like the middle-of-the-road ending I received, due to the choices I made throughout, the whole thing feels rather muddled and indistinct.

What doesn’t help is that it’s a horror game. Entering your game into that genre comes with a few rules and, in general, the first rule is that it has to be scary. Layers of Fear 2 isn’t but labours so hard to be that it kind of gets in the way of everything else. It has a strange love of mannequins, for example, to the point where it quite literally throws them at you. Mannequins have the potential for a lot of symbolism but it overuses them to the point of annoyance. More interesting, horror wise, is the changing architecture - a staple of the series. It’s used a little more sparingly than the original, which makes it more effective.

It also changes your surroundings depending on where you are in the story. By the end, the cruise ship had sunk and had clearly been sunk for many years. Everything was underwater, grimy and covered in barnacles. It was great. It’s just a shame that exploring this ship is rather tedious. The bulk of it is just walking from place to place, opening drawers and getting keys, while the story talks to you. Broken up by some thoroughly out of place, and uninspired, chase sequences by a monster who has appropriate symbolism but is so (deliberately) glitchy and awkward that it’s difficult to be scared by it. I’m not really freaked out by big, gloopy, glitchy men.

As I said before, Bloober Team have done it again. The usual good qualities are here. It looks great (when it doesn’t push everything into black and white) and, for what little gameplay there is, it’s smooth to play. It’s about ninety percent a walking simulator, mind, and has all the usual problems that a game like that has. It does have a good setting and a nice premise and it sprinkles in some good lore here and there. The backstory of the two kids is suitably tragic and there are some passable metaphors about that. All of this ends in an intriguing ending, even I did end up with the most unsatisfying one.

Unfortunately, the problems with the gameplay mean I’m not too keen on replaying it. It began to feel like a slog; the bulk of the game being fodder between choice segments. These choices are great, as you either follow the director or rebel, and these film segments blend in with the madness. But the abundance of mannequins, used poorly, and the dull - and often frustrating due to the scenery all looking the same - chase sequences pull me out of the game too much. Like I said about Layers of Fear, and Observer, Layers of Fear 2 is an interesting and well thought out premise dragged down by poor execution. As a result, Layers of Fear 2 is like listening to an intelligent, yet rather dull, man give a lecture on film history, while he occasionally stops to slap you round the face. Pros -Nice premise, surrounding a method actor -Some decent lore throughout -Good setting -Looks nice Cons -Overuses the monochrome -Core gameplay is dull -Gets very muddled around the middle -Chase sequences are awful Layers of Fear 2 Developer: Bloober Team Publisher: Gun Media Release Date: 28th May 2019 Play it on: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 Played on: PC

#Layers of Fear 2 #Layers of Fear #Observer #Bloober Team #Games #Gaming #Video Games #Tea And Video Games #Review #2019 #Horror #Survival Horror #Windows #Xbox One #PlayStation 4

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some-dark-side-writing · 6 years

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What Makes Phantom Turn Yandere:

(Tw: self harm)

•He’s expressed interest in you for the longest time. You’d kind of ignored him though compared to other egos. You were polite of course and would involve him in conversations, you had no reason to not be nice, but you always felt that unease when you were in a room with him for too long.

•Many time’s he’d gotten you in a room alone, wanting to tell you everything but you’d always laughed awkwardly before he could get a word out and explained you had somewhere else to be. But one time he wouldn’t give up as easily. His hand whipped out and yanked your elbow to drag you back next to him, nearly toppling you over and he wouldn’t let you shake him off. Leaning in close with darkening eyes he asked. “Why do you hate me? You’ve barely talked to me or even bothered to get to know me above or even at the same level as some of the others. So. Why. Do. You. Hate. Me?”

•You sighed, opening the closet door he’d shut you in a crack so there was some light and it wasn’t a public conversation but you’d feel safe around him. You told him why you felt uncomfortable around him, because he stole souls. He was about to argue he didn’t ‘steal’ them but you cut him off snapping that he knew what you meant and it was something you couldn’t forget it move past.

•Phantom was stuck. Deciding to try explaining for you to understand. “Why should that matter? I love you. I’d protect you and your soul, I wouldn’t even take the soul of someone you cared about.” You cut him off once more, well after getting over the initial fact your stalker who you barely considered a friend and you’d never even hung out with alone had just told you he loved you.

•Against your better judgement you decided to properly look him over. He was a pretty boy. Plus you didn’t know him that in depth. Finally you’d told him you’d only maybe consider it if he returned of all his souls and never took any more ever again. Again he was stuck. And you could see that by the way his mouth was opening and closing with no sound coming out like a fish out of water and it kinda pissed you off. You sighed in frustration, asking “Why can’t you sustain on the fan’s power or whatever fuels the others and make proper business deals?!” Which is when the real kicker came in.

•”I can!” He argued. You groaned, getting fed up but he waved his hands in front of you, stepping in front of the door and closing it. “But because I’m... a smaller ego-“ you could tell it deflated his own ego to tell you that “I’m not as powerful nor able to protect you, so I need that extra power to help me along. You have to understand that Y/N...” You let slide the fact he felt he needed to protect you, what from you had no idea, as something else came forward from his argument, this whole thing turning more and more into a debating match. “Great, power hungry, another turn off.”

•Phantom quickly became enraged you thought so little of him, that after all this time you’d want him to change and lose everything and even then only MAYBE consider??!? Others would crumble and kiss his feet if he offered them an ounce of his time and here you were degrading him, mocking him. His nostrils flared and his hand gripped your shoulder and even though you’d tried to stand him down before you couldn’t hold back your pain any more. “Let. Go... Phantom let go... please! It hurts.”

•Phantom did let you go with a sigh but that’s not all he did. The next morning you turned on the tv in your room and the media was filled with coverage of lost people being reunited with their families from last night, leading police to believe it was the same kidnapper, no one would come forward and say where they had been but there were nation wide celebrations, tearful family members, ill looking parents being reunited with their tear filled children, it almost brought tears to your eyes.

•The cane dropped on your bed and you jumped, turning off the television as Phantom appeared in your room, looking even more pale and sickly than the people he’d just let free, falling to his knees at the foot of your bed and you rushed forward, grabbing his shoulders to stop him from swaying, he grabbed back onto your arms, cane discarded under your covers, as he smiled dizzily at you as he told you “Even if you’re the only person who ever knows I exist I’ll be happy with that.” You couldn’t help but in your excitement press a quick kiss to his cheek and even though that was the happiest you’d seen him up until that point it was the beginning of your nightmare.

•He was sick for about a week after that and after an initial inspection from the doctor egos he only wanted you taking care of him. And in that moment you were more than happy to oblige, he’d basically risked his own existence to make you and others happy. So you’d pat his head with a towel, make him get well foods, and on the night he was healing you fell asleep in his bed. He’d never been happier even though you hadn’t meant to fall asleep but he always thought that was the reason he was back to normal the next day.

•Unfortunately things went downhill from there. And even though you’d both had a pretty okay few months together there were a few things that stopped it from being everything Phantom had hoped for.

•First of all the two of you never had sex. He was honestly fine with that and would never force you into anything of the sort but it hurt him to wonder why you didn’t want to, he was sure it wasn’t the sex you didn’t like the appeal of but the fact it would be with him.

•In reality you still had those guilty and shamed feelings being with Phantom and you could never shake the unending unease with him. Sometimes you thought that you were only in this relationship to begin with because you thought it was bad if you didn’t at least give him a chance for what he’d sacrificed, which turned into going out with him because what if that means he’ll take all the souls back, would that make you a bad person? Was he keeping anyone he obtained from any type of afterlife? He was created to be an evil creature to not kill but be possibly worse by stealing souls. He knew you had a few of those doubts, he just denied their extent as he stalked you and knew you had hour long talks with friends and egos (who he did not like you being friends with) But it was only because of them rationalising things like ‘He was born collecting souls already and you’re making him a better person‘ that he thought kept the two of you together sometimes.

•There were also things you disliked that he did in the relationship of course. He had booked your favourite bands for you, using managerial skills only, and if you didn’t take your eyes off the band the whole performance you lost phone privileges for a week. Your attention should only ever exist majority wise around YOUR senpai he’d explained to you. Oh he also monitored everything you did. If he felt like you were particularly lovey dovey to him that day he may not ask to look at messages but he’d want to know who you were messaging and look at phone bills to see if you called someone too many times, he had spyware on your phone that you didn’t even know about to see if you ever lied to him also.

•But one day you realised you weren’t truly happy and things could be much much better. It wasn’t really his fault. He’d done a lot of nice things, bought you so many gifts, always complimented you, respected any pda boundaries you had but still his favourite thing he’d told you over and over was to hug and kiss you. But you couldn’t stay together for pity or fear. Which is exactly what you told him, and he was not happy.

•You were terrified. His cane had broken nearly all the priceless artefacts he’d gotten you, you were inhaling smoke from the fires you were sure were happening all over your home and he wasn’t letting you leave. “I’ve worked too hard for you. You’re mine. Why don’t you ever understand that kitten?” You cried as the end of his cane which had had a retractable dagger in the entire time dragged down your cheek, in a ‘loving, comforting’ gesture. “Now I’ll make sure you’ll never make that mistake again.”

•Your soul was trapped in his orb.

•After a while he started to get addicted to that extra power again. He re-claimed all his ex victims and started gaining new ones, however they were all in a different orb, you had one of your very own, the one he only placed on the cane when he was alone, and why? Because, as he told you when he lay in bed with it at night “I love you. So so much.”

•Eventually though Phantom began to miss things he couldn’t have with just your miniature. The small details of your body, your laugh, your smile, the way you smelled, your touch... On top of that the egos were definitely getting suspicious, the idiot Chase even had to pull the crazy idiot Anti off of him when he almost pulled that knife right across his throat, burning a hole in his new suit with his glitching, demanding to know where you were! As if he had the right to know! But Phantom would keep you from him, from everyone. So he let you go.

•But something went wrong. You were paranoid! He’d had to jump to cover your mouth with his hand when you came back because you just started screaming, and then thrashing out, and then crying.

•”Y/N shh ssh sssshhhh my sweet It’s okay! Phantom’s here. I’ve got you. You’re in the arms of someone who loves you. There’s no need to fret now. You can have freedom whenever you want when you’re good. I know it’s scary out here, but I’ll protect you.” He started to get worried when you didn’t stop screaming, holding you tighter. “Stop it kitten you’re going to hurt yourself. I’m going to protect you, more than before, I know I let your feelings get in the way of that but I’ll be here for your every move don’t you worry.”

•You had the itching thought that some part of you was still in that orb even though Phantom showed you many times the damned thing didn’t glow anymore, he felt like now wasn’t the best time to bring up his other collections. You still felt he had a hold on you, and physically yes he was rarely ever not touching some part of you, mostly your hand, but you could never trust him anymore.

•Could you even trust yourself? The house wasn’t burnt down, the media was talking about still searching for the missing people, you couldn’t possibly jump to they were retrieved and missing again in this state.

•You’d lost it when you found his other orb that glowed. For you that meant he still could have some part of you. In your distress you took the knife from the base of that cane and slit your arms from your wrist to your elbow, needing to see if your soul was still in there, in your anguish crying loudly when you couldn’t ‘see’ it. Of course Phantom, who was downstairs with the egos who all came together to demand a visit from you, heard this cry as well as the others and he was the first to run upstairs.

•”Y/N?! OH MY GOD Y/N! Shit! Fuck fuck fuck what have you done to yourself?!” Phantom was panicking, he loved you, ripping his waistcoat off to cover both your wrists that were bleeding heavily as Dark was the next upstairs, dragging Dr. Iplier and Schneep past the others and ordering them to fix this immediately.

•You were fixed up and knocked out on pain meds as the egos, who cared about you, were all giving the now fully yandere side murderous looks. He promised the egos he’d returned all of you shoving his dim simple orb in front of them and breaking down in tears. He didn’t understand where he’d gone wrong. But he knew paranoia was not simple to fix.

•Dark offered an alternative. Someone, maybe Host had to take your memories. Phantom got up from where he was curled up in a ball on the floor and it was a discussion which the egos were in favour of because you were too far gone to risk leaving you with the memories of the torture Phantom had put you through, not that anyone dared speak the last part out loud since he could very well already have snapped.

•However they certainly did not approve of Phantom’s plan to completely change your morals on soul taking. In fact Anti laughed at it and Natemare, who he was most jealous of head and head with Dark because of the similarities with himself, told Phantom that you weren’t ever going to know he existed...

(Notes: I left the ending up to y’all ;-) )

#fic #phantom x reader #phantom fic #angst fic #yandere phantom #yandere tw?#yandere au #yandere fic #yandere x reader #bullet fic

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