Layers of Fear, the horror remake from Bloober Team, is getting a playable demo on 15 May.
Bloober Team’s oil painting-based horror adventure, Layers of Fear, is getting a free demo on Steam. Available from 15 May, the demo will give you a sneak peak at the game’s opening few minutes.
Layers of Fear is a somewhat unusual beast, in that it’s a remake, remaster and compilation all at once. Taking in the 2016 game of the same name, its sequel, as well as its Inheritance DLC, the new Layers of Fear is fully rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5.
That Layers of Fear is getting a tantalising demo is also appropriate, given that the game took inspiration from P.T. – a hugely influential demo for a Hideo Kojima-directed Silent Hill sequel that never happened.
Layers of Fear soon moved on from its P.T. inspiration, though, telling the story of a doomed artist who makes the mistake of returning to his old studio to complete an unfinished painting. As the artist dabs and daubs away at his canvas, his mind drifts back into the past – which, as the player soon discovers, is a particularly murky place to visit.
As you can see from the cinematic intro video above, Layers of Fear takes full advantage of Unreal Engine 5’s new tech, with some spectacularly realistic textures and lighting – check out the waves roiling around that lighthouse, for example. Those lovely visuals come at a cost, though, and as Layers of Fear’s recently-unveiled system requirements (thanks, Games Radar) prove, you’ll need a pretty powerful PC to play the game on its recommended settings.
Layers of Fear’s demo will be available on Steam until 22 May. Bloober Team hasn’t announced a firm release date for the finished game yet, but it’s currently penciled in for June on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5.
Read more: P.T. | The lasting influence of Hideo Kojima’s lost horror game
