This ending seems to indicate the painter worked through his anguish, overcome his madness, and reclaimed his ability to paint non-terrifying things.Self-Portrait Ending Layers Of Fear Mother And Child EndingThis is the non-selfish ending where you break through the madness but remain fixated on the past. To get this ending, always move towards your wife and trigger every scene involving her, pick up all her mementos, and push the wheelchair found at the end of the game.This time the final painting features both the wife (wearing something different than in the first ending) and her child. The endings seem to be connected, as you'll walk into another room and see a pile of paintings of the wife (similar to the first ending, but without them all having gone skeletal).Overcome by grief and realizing the truth of what's happened, the painter then lights them all on fire and burns alongside them.
IDG / Hayden DingmanThese parlor tricks continue through the entire game, but they gradually grow more ambitious. You start Layers of Fear 2 on an ocean liner, but as with the first game the ship is an impossible Escher space where you exit a room and find yourself back inside, or double back to find a new hallway’s replaced the old. It builds, and at first the constant changes in tone and location seem random. There is a pattern.It takes time, though. All the glimmers of recognition, the moments where you thought you noticed a pattern? You did. Layers of Fear 2 is building towards this moment where you realize it’s all intentional.
Both the iconic factory scene and clock make an appearance, the first time I realized Layers of Fear 2 was borrowing scenes from film history directly. I started to understand around the time I saw Metropolis, or “Mechanopolis” as it’s called on the in-game poster. Or don’t, as may be.And there are so many references to catch. The escalation—the increasing detachment from reality—mirrors the actor’s process, as they lose their identity in favor of digging deeper into the character. A normal suburban kitchen opens onto woods, with a glimmer of opulence in the distance. An elevator opens up onto a city block, skyscrapers stretching into the mists above.
The Trip to the Moon segment adapts the iconic rocket-hitting-the-moon sequence so it also reflects the father’s wartime injury, which left him with only one working eye. As you walk from a sepia-hued kitchen into a facsimile of the Emerald City, the implication is that the actor took refuge in both film and in their own imagination, an escape from their abusive home life. The Wizard of Oz sequence, for instance, dovetails with details about the actor’s bleak childhood.
Layers of Fear 2 lends itself to multiple replays, catching references or visual tricks you missed the first time when you were distracted more by the mechanics of playing it. Caligari or Nosferatu, then there’s a disconnect.Even for those who catch every reference, it’s still something of a challenge to sift through them—especially in the moment, connecting various motifs to the two or three story arcs playing out simultaneously in past and present, and (for the most part) tied to collectible items. The exaggerated shadows of German Expressionism look splendid, but if you don’t understand the parallels between the character’s situation and say, Dr.
Like Observer, Layers of Fear 2 completely commits to a theme—the visuals, the narrative, the audio—and a much grander story is created in the spaces where these elements meet. Then I worry I’m reading too much into it.Layers of Fear 2 is steeped in enough symbolism that these overreaches seem normal though—even encouraged. There’s an extended sequence in the ship’s engine room for instance, and I’m pretty sure some of the machinery was designed to resemble an oversized 35mm camera.
So what if it’s not very scary? There’s more important work to be done. Still, Bloober Team’s rapidly proved itself as a master of psychological horror, using symbolism in ways most games don’t even attempt, let alone achieve. Hell, plenty of people didn’t love In the Mouth of Madness either, especially at the time, but I think it’s one of John Carpenter’s best.The jump scares are a bit overdone, same as the original Layers of Fear, and there’s an abysmal chase sequence in the second act that could’ve been cut completely. I think I might be in the minority on that one, and that’s fine. Bottom lineSo again: Layers of Fear 2 is brilliant.
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