Bloober Team, I'm Never Going To Understand You

thegamer.com:

Bloober Team, I just can't figure you out. The Medium wasn't great, but most criticisms come down to the plot. The core gimmick wasn't used as well as it should have been, and the tone felt a little reductive, but without its odd viewpoints on abuse and trauma, it might have been a perfectly solid, suitably spooky horror game. When rumours appeared that Bloober would be working on Silent Hill, the horror studio had fans afraid for all the wrong reasons. During the opening night of Summer Game Fest, those fears were almost realised when Keighley tee'd up a reveal from Bloober, only for that reveal to be Layers of Fears. At this point, I think the studio just likes to toy with us.

I loved Layers of Fear. It was scary in a way few video games are, playing on tension, using simple tricks well, and letting you scare yourself. Because, deep down, Bloober Team just isn't great at making video games, Layers of Fear is best known for a couple of clips that went viral for the wrong reasons. You might have seen the baby running into the wall, for example. If you go into it looking to laugh at how Bloober overstretches itself, you'll find plenty to chuckle at, but if you play it as intended, it will sink its teeth into you.

Related: Here's Everything We Didn't See At Summer Game Fest 2022

I should be happy then, that Bloober is back at it. Layers of Fear was great, and successful enough to spawn a sequel. No, not Layers of Fears, which is what we were shown at Keighley's cavalcade, but Layers of Fear 2, which launched in 2019. Rather than go for Layers of Fear 3 (possibly avoided because 2 is less well-known), we have Layers of Fears, a monumentally stupid name. We know there are multiple fears already - that is implied by the word