It's been a while since I felt that rising chill as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. A while since every floor boards creak made my heart leap into my throat and stop, waiting for the unknown to bring itself forth. But it doesn't. Not yet.

Layers of Fear is currently an extremely highly polished, almost complete early access offering. It has overtones of P.T. and in some regards the twisting of the visuals surpasses it. A wonderful example of the Unity engine used to the best of its ability. The presentation is beautiful - darkness in very few places the rooms brim with light and colour but this can often make them even more terrifying as you feel like there is nowhere to hide. The sound direction and scant voice acting adds to a feeling of isolation and every sound feels like it has meaning or is a warning.

As you explore the stunning victorian-era house, unravelling your characters sordid, bitter past through notes, art, newspapers and the detritus of his life you start to understand more of what is happening and it tests your empathy as a player and makes the game more frightening - you may not be able to stop this, you may only make it better, or worse and the only way to know is to continue on.

Currently, the completed game is due for release in the first quarter of 2016, though additional content, such as the extra Halloween story, updates and patches are made available regularly and the developers are easy to reach via the forums.

I run a quite high spec rig and had no issues with running this on full high settings at a stable framerate, although some users seem to have issues. It does seem to depend on system setups. Personally, really loved playing this would be happy to consider it an 8/10 as it stands. Completed, I expect that to potentially rise, but we'll see.

It's been a while since I felt that rising chill as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. A while since every floor boards creak made my heart leap into my throat and stop, waiting for the unknown to bring itself forth. But it doesn't. Not yet. Layers of Fear is currently an extremely highly polished, almost complete early access offering. It has overtones of P.T. and in some regards the twisting of the visuals surpasses it. A wonderful example of the Unity engine used to the best of its ability. The presentation is beautiful - darkness in very few places the rooms brim with light and colour but this can often make them even more terrifying as you feel like there is nowhere to hide. The sound direction and scant voice acting adds to a feeling of isolation and every sound feels like it has meaning or is a warning. As you explore the stunning victorian-era house, unravelling your characters sordid, bitter past through notes, art, newspapers and the detritus of his life you start to understand more of what is happening and it tests your empathy as a player and makes the game more frightening - you may not be able to stop this, you may only make it better, or worse and the only way to know is to continue on. Currently, the completed game is due for release in the first quarter of 2016, though additional content, such as the extra Halloween story, updates and patches are made available regularly and the developers are easy to reach via the forums. I run a quite high spec rig and had no issues with running this on full high settings at a stable framerate, although some users seem to have issues. It does seem to depend on system setups. Personally, really loved playing this would be happy to consider it an 8/10 as it stands. Completed, I expect that to potentially rise, but we'll see.