Are you a fan of atmospheric horror games that look so good you forget you are playing a game? If the answer’s yes, welcome to Layers of Fear, one of the best narrative-focused psychological horror games from recent times. Taking a bit more of an artsy touch, this first-person game creates an environment that’s hard to escape. You explore a Victorian mansion covered in artwork as the Painter’s daughter, trying to understand what made her father go insane…
With the game recently adding support for the Mac, we’ve tested it thoroughly to find out whether it’s worth playing on the platform.
Can you play Layers of Fear on Mac?
You can absolutely play Layers of Fear on Mac, provided you have a Mac with an Apple M1 chip or later. Featuring native Apple Silicon support, Layers of Fear offers better performance for ARM-based Macs but no support for legacy Intel-based Macs.
Layers of Fear also takes full advantage of the Metal graphics API, giving you access to features such as MetalFX upscaling, which is akin to NVIDIA’s DLSS and can noticeably boost your frame rate even further.
Layers of Fear on macOS
Layers of Fear Mac System Requirements
Here are the official Mac requirements for Layers of Fear:
| Minimum Specs | Recommended Specs | |
| OS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Processor | Devices with Apple Silicon | Devices with Apple Silicon |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 8 GB |
| Graphics | Devices with Apple Silicon | Devices with Apple Silicon |
| Storage | 20 GB | 20 GB |
Can You Run Layers of Fear? Benchmarks & Performance
These are the macOS benchmarks for Layers of Fear we have gathered so far, in collaboration with our friends from MacProTips:
| Device Name | Resolution | MetalFX / Graphics Settings | FPS | Source |
| MacBook Pro (M3 Max) | 1440p | MetalFX Quality | 50-55 FPS | MacProTips |
| MacBook Pro (M3 Max) | 1440p | MetalFX Performance | 60 -70 FPS | MacProTips |
| MacBook Pro (M3 Max) | 1080p | MetalFX Quality | 70 FPS | MacProTips |
| Mac Mini | 1600×900 | MetalFX Performance Mode | 42 FPS | iBelvee Gaming |
On the M3 Max MacBook Pro, we were hoping for a better framerate compared to what we got. At 1440, our expectation was to hover around 60 FPS with high graphics. However, sadly, with high graphics and metal upscaling at Quality, we had 50 FPS. While the frame rate was stable, it wasn’t locked to 60 as we hoped.
If you switch to Performance mode for MetalFX, you’ll immediately notice the FPS going up to 60-70, which means that MetalFX upscaling certainly works wonders. Plus, you won’t really notice the difference between both settings until you look fairly granularly, which makes keeping the settings to Performance mode all the more worth it.
If you scale down to 1080p, you are still met with a respectable 70-80 FPS but can now keep MetalFX on Quality. If you do turn MetalFX down, just to see how much its contributing, our FPS dropped down to the low 50s, which means that having MetalFX to Quality on 1080p was netting us around +15-20 FPS, which is quite a significant sum.
It is clear that the developers have put a lot of work into the game to make sure it runs optimally with MetalFX. And, even though this is an Unreal Engine 5 game, which tends to not be the smoothest in platforms other than Windows, it runs very well on Apple Silicon and is therefore a great pickup for anyone who is interested in the psychological horror genre.
Note: Layers of Fear also supports HDR and 4K resolution on compatible monitors.
Layers on Fear on MacBook: Can it run on a base M1 MacBook Air?
You can definitely run Layers of Fear on the base M1 MacBook Air. However, it won’t be the most optimal experience. Since Layers of Fear is a narrative-based horror game, you don’t have to worry much about FPS. But it won’t be running at 60 FPS but will instead be hovering around 35-40 FPS for most of your gameplay.
The Verdict: Is Layers of Fear Worth it on the Mac?
Layers of Fear is worth it on the Mac. It is one of the best horror games out there, and it’s a pleasure to play it on the Mac. The game retains its atmosphere even though it was released in late 2016 and continues to give everyone the spooks to this day. We recommend playing the game with headphones for the most optimal experience possible.
Layers of Fear Mac reveal, WWDC 2023
Download Layers of Fear on Mac
You can download Layers of Fear for Mac on the Mac App Store. Alternatively, you can also purchase it on Steam. While the Mac App Store has its benefits, namely its ease of use and full macOS integration, the Steam version does give you the Windows version of the game too.
Before you go…
Looking for other recent macOS blockbusters? Don’t miss either Resident Evil 4 or Dave the Diver, both available on Mac.
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