While it’s easy to spend hours (and hours, and hours) playing video games, you might not always have endless days to spare. Some game releases call for a sick day (I literally called out of work to play Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction #worthit), but if you’re looking for something with bang for your proverbial buck that doesn’t take months to finish, here’s what you’re looking for.

This series, The 15 Minute Gamer, will highlight cheap and/or free-to-play games that are quick, but totally worth playing. You may need to spend more than 15 minutes to finish them, but they are playable (some will be finish-able) in 15 minute chunks of time. Oh, and NO SPOILERS!

Today I am highlighting two games with a similar theme: mental illness and horror. I know mental illness is not a topic to take lightly, and I wouldn’t say either of these games do. I would classify their themes as more of a “descent into madness,” and a creepy, disturbing one at that.

Layers of Fear (and its DLC) grabbed my attention as soon as I saw a teaser trailer for it. As an artist and lover of haunted houses, it spoke directly to me. Like, directly. And it did not disappoint. Adventure games that invest in the smallest of details, like soup can labels, elaborate book spines, and rich environmental textures, are some of my favorites. I want to pick up and read every single sticky note, touch every rusty spoon and discarded pencil. I just love exploring the details and getting a real sense of the world — and you do just that in Layers of Fear. In fact, the whole story, including some very dramatic narration, is told through this exploration.

As spoilers are a no-no here, I will just say this: exploring the decrepit ruin of a beautiful house and the family it housed, you begin to find bits and pieces that tell a larger story. A story of madness, artistic ego, anger, and death. It is haunting, at times scary, and thoroughly disorienting. I was fully invested in the lives I was learning about, and even my apprehension at opening that oozing door, or going back to look at that one painting, didn’t stop me. You’ll start to question what is real and what is… art?

Layers of Fear: Inheritance continues the story, but with a bit of a twist. I consumed both the original and DLC versions of the game within days of purchase, and hope you will as well. Psychological-adventure-horror at its best, Layers of Fear can be found on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. Not free, but usually on sale as a bundle!

A similar, faster (and FREE) game that I recently found is Serena. Like Layers of Fear, it is all about exploration and monologue/narration. In Serena, you find yourself alone in a cabin that you owned with your wife — Serena. But she is missing — what’s happened to her? While you struggle to remember what she looks like and where she could be, pieces of your memory start to come back as you explore the cabin.

I will say that at one point, I thought I had finished the game. I had looked at everything there was, and almost quit. I got a bit bored, actually. And then I decided to look at something again — that’s all I will say here. Just… if you play it, don’t give up. It has a unique psychological twist to it, and the chilling realization that what you saw wasn’t what it actually was. You’ll see what I mean.

Serena can be finished in about 50 minutes or so, so you can take a break or power through. Free to download on Steam. Free, I said! Go get it!

The post The 15 Minute Gamer: Layers of Fear and Serena appeared first on OnPause.