Bloober Team are teasing a return to the Layers Of Fear series
Back to the painting board
October's here, so it's time to start putting on a few extra layers. Of clothes, sure, but maybe some extra layers of spooks too. Layers Of Fear developers Bloober Team have just released a new trailer teasing a return to their series about creatives types in frightening locales. The next of the series, from the looks of it, might be headed back to the drawing board—or the canvas perhaps—with another story about a painter.
The original Layers Of Fear followed the trials of a painter in a large, empty house. Its sequel rides along with an actor beset by mannequins on cruise ship. Based on the teaser trailer down here, it looks like they'll be picking up the paint brushes again.
"Check out this Unreal Engine 5 teaser trailer for clues on what this new, yet-to-be-titled project could be," they say. I suppose Layers Of Fear 3 would be a fair guess, but perhaps it's not so straightforward as it looks.
Bloober have done their fair share of horror at this point, usually leaning into the psychological side of things. In RPS's The Medium review for their latest, Alice B says it "has a strong, unique premise, and tells a complex story very coherently," but doesn't really deliver on scares.
As for their seabound actor, our Layers Of Fear 2 review says that "It’s full of genuinely compelling metaphors that could have been expanded on, potentially moulding tired clichés into memorable, unsettling moments. The game is thick on foreboding atmosphere, with phantom figures materialising and dissipating just as abruptly, and mannequins appearing out of nowhere, but still mostly subsists on recycled tropes."
Perhaps a return to the Layers Of Fear series will effectively mix the two, though it's tough to say just from a quick teaser.
By the by, Bloober Team announced a "strategic partnership" with Konami earlier this year. We don't know yet exactly what'll come of that, though naturally folks think it's Silent Hill becasue of course they do.