It is very true that when something is unique it is very rarely successful, and what is indeed successful is very rarely unique. Look at all the children Dark Souls now has to drag around, you’d think the only thing Dark Souls would spread around would be an STD and depression. Nonetheless, the earth is not flat and there is not just one pillar standing atop gaming that everyone has been copying for years. There are several, and they are all the wrong thing to copy when making an “[enter genre here]” game.

For example, Layer of Fear is a horror game, or at least it is meant to be. Horror has been doing very few things in video games over the last ten to fifteen years following EA’s mess with Dead Space. Either there is the jumpy-screamy nonsense for YouTube views, a la Dead Space or The Evil Within; or there’s the very weak attempts at when horror was done right in gaming: your Silent Hills 2 and Resident Evil 4 wannabes. Nonetheless, we’re hanging off of the end of October like a sore anal polyp, so let’s dive right in on the copycats.

Layers of Fear comes from Bloober Team, you may remember them from last week; when I defecated onto Observer from a great height. Layers of Fear is just that but in a contemporary horror setting rather than a futuristic one. Get ready for some things to excrete out of wood-paneled walls and for pianos to slam shut, because we’re about to see some walking down at the bottom of 19th century London Thames. That’s to say when the sewage system was the only water in London.

Layers of Fear isn’t horror, or at least what is meant to be horror; it is a game about some jarring sound or lighting tricks being played. You would be better off finding some haunted machine ride nearby and pretending to be a failing artist with a drinking problem. Yes, we’re banging those drums like cliches are going out of fashion. I’d continue that sentence with a bit about the character, but he doesn’t have one; other than getting an O level in art and being a perv over his wife. I don’t believe he even has a name.

The issue with something like this, is how badly it does something others have done long before it. For example, the entire jump-scare nonsense was done better when Paranormal Activity was popular for all of five minutes. Then the better part of the game is about walking around a house, which is assumed to be the player character’s, which twists, turns, and is meant to be scary because the door closed and opens into a new hallway. A trick pulled off way better with Antichamber, to which the labyrinthine maze has a purpose.

That said, it is hard to suggest picking up Layers of Fear, because I just can’t enjoy something that’s standing behind with a torch under its chin, holding a megaphone with a bugle horn attached to the mouthpiece. It has one trick under its arm like a rolled-up newspaper and keeps hitting me with it. I’ve had enough time to read the headlines enough times. If you are a fan of someone yelling at you from across a dim room, this might be for you, but let’s move on to the second game of this double bill.

Next is Q.U.B.E. 2, a game that’s seen someone play ten minutes of Portal, thought they’d make that and then understand anything about it. This is that “unique idea” several other games have tried, the first-person puzzle game where you are locked in a chamber. The twist on this one is to have no humor at all. Whit? Charm? Characters? Who needs those when you can have a dull mystery that’s spoiled by the banner announcing the game was free.

Yes, as I assume with everyone; when the Epic Games Store boots up after a moment of checking for updates, there is a small banner reminding me to pick up free games. Unless you are playing several games on the store or whatever your persuasion happens to be, I doubt you’d forget that. Nonetheless, being blasted with “ancient alien puzzles and psychedelic horror awaits,” kind of spoils the mystery, and tells a lie about the horror.

What’s the gameplay like, have you played Portal? Then you have played this game. Ok, there’s less of an emphasis on the puzzles being something you have to take a minute to solve. This is the issue with playing Portal and playing a game imitating it, the one trying to emulate that style will always be lessened, because you know to apply logic as soon as you enter the room. In the short amount of time I had to play Q.U.B.E. 2, I solved several of the puzzles as soon as I stepped into the room.

The thing is, they aren’t bad puzzles. I just know what to do when I’ve just been given the green block of self-created matter; you don’t want it to be green though, if yours is green phone your doctor. Nonetheless, when you are given the green block or orange/red one you’ll know what to do in the next room because the game tells you how to use it. You aren’t given the time to experiment with your new toy, which is the best part of giving someone Portal for the first time. Give a 50-year-old man a portal gun and watch him look back at himself for hours.

Both Q.U.B.E. 2 and Layers of Fear are free on the Epic Games store right now. Both are free until the 31st of October when we’ll be living through the living hell of people trying to get us curmudgeons happy with Hocus Pocus references and some diabetes. It seems we’re not done with this provocation of the word “horror,” but I’ll be happy with done with them.

Next week’s double-bill will feature Fractional Games’ sci-fi horror game SOMA, and for those of us who don’t care for an indie Alien: Isolation, you’ll want to pick up Double Fine’s Costume Quest. To paraphrase from Daniel Hardcastle’s book on the latter: It’s Halloween night, monsters have kidnapped your sibling, and you must save them. How you do so is by dressing up in costumes; in a robot suit made of cardboard? You are a mech the size of Elizabeth Tower. What’s SOMA? Probably some grimy sci-fi about monsters wanting to kill you.

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