The psychological horror game Layers of Fear is free on Steam
Grab it now, keep it forever.
Layers of Fear is a first-person horror game about an artist struggling with fading fame and fortune (and madness) in the wake of great personal tragedy. It's a promising premise that doesn't quite live up to its potential: As we said in our 2016 review, its "a curious but unsurprising narrative" that forgoes psychological subtlety for in-your-face horror tropes. Good but not great—but better right now, because it's free.
To claim the game, just nip over to Steam and click the "Play Game" button to add it to your library. It's not clear how long the game will be free, but if you grab it while it is, it's yours to keep forever. And an awful lot of people appear to be picking it up: From out of nowhere (a peak concurrent player count of 139 last month), Layers of Fear is currently sitting at number four on the Steam Top 100 list. That's probably not going to last, so I took a picture.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.