This year’s installment of the artistic horror series Layers of Fear may have signaled the end, but there’s still one more trick up this sleeve: a new free DLC chapter. Another story of an artistic temperament gone horribly wrong and wrong in the medium of film direction is told in “The Final Prologue.” The unexpected epilogue is a part of a double celebration, marking both the impending Halloween and the November 6th anniversary of the founding of creator studio Bloober Team.
The new Layers of Fear, which has the same name as the 2016 version, is neither a straightforward sequel nor a remaster nor quite a remake, for those who are unaware. The most recent game, however, imagines the first 2.5 games as scenes in biographical novels that The Writer, the new protagonist, is writing. This offers a good reason to revisit The Painter, The Daughter, and The Actor’s stories in updated and revised versions and introduces a fresh framing story that serves to wrap up the trilogy.
Given that The Director was the only name given to the human antagonist of Layers of Fear 2, it is likely that this new chapter will present his perspective on the events of the sequel. The game this year began with a brand-new side chapter to the first title called “The Final Note,” which retold The Painter’s story from the point of view of his wife and foe The Musician. “The Final Prologue” is not the first gaiden installment in the series.
It’s interesting to note that neither The Painter nor The Musician ultimately come across as particularly heroic or villainous in their own or one another’s stories, instead coming across as two people whose marriage has become intolerably strained due to their increasingly incompatible artistic ambitions, which have been made worse by the demands of parenthood and both mental and physical health issues. It paints a fairly nuanced picture—pun intended—of everyone and nobody in a miserable, unfortunate circumstance acting like an asshole.
Although The Actor in their story comes across as a lot more likeable than most others in the series, even though they are still obviously messed up (as is expected of a Layers of Fear protagonist), The Director openly torments The Actor in the sequel. In other words, a chapter from The Director’s perspective promises to either let us fully let loose as the obvious bad guy for once, or to humanize the series’ most unredeemed human character to date. It certainly appears to be the former from the trailer, but I guess we won’t know for sure until later today.