Developer: Blue Isle Studios
Publisher: Midnight City, Majesico Entertainment
Rrp: £6.99 (Steam), £7.79 (Gog.com), £8.49 (Humblebundle)
Released: 28th October 2013
Available on: Steam, Gog.com and Humblebundle
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
The Slenderman, the internets own homegrown boogie man. From badly photoshopped images depicting the creature to urban legends that get posted on forums, there is no doubt that the Slenderman has caught the internets imagination. So much so that he (for the sake of ease I’m going to assume that Slenderman is a he) now even has a computer game or two of his very own.
Slender: The Arrival is a first person horror game in which you play as Lauren, who has come to visit her friend Kate only to discover she’s gone missing. This game is somewhere between being a remake of and sequel to Slender: The Eight Pages.
[Please forgive the lateness of this review. I was working at a convention (once again) on the Saturday so couldn’t post anything up. Sorry.]
As you play the Slenderman stalks you, becoming more and more relentless as you go. If you catch a glimpse of him the screen will start to glitch, the closer he is the worse this effect becomes and if you look at it for too long its game over. That mechanic keeps the player on edge, especially when you realise it can teleport.
The game is quite dark, especially in certain areas, thankfully you find a flashlight early in the game. In the normal mode you don’t need to worry about the battery running out, however in hardcore mode not only does it have a finite charge the game also doesn’t tell you how much is left.
Ok, before I start with this bit I just want to state that my complaints only apply to the PC release of this game. Having seen and played this game on a PS4 its clear that the game had a major update for that console. Right, now that that’s out of the way…
The field of view was way too small and made me feel a bit ill after a while. Sadly there isn’t a way to change this in the graphical options menu.
The game is a mess graphically speaking, objects, shadows and textures obviously pop into existence only a very short distance away even on the highest graphical settings. I also had lots of graphical jumps during my playthrough. One moment I’ll walking and suddenly I’ll jump forward a few feet. I find that completely unacceptable for a game such as this as I know my particular rig can easily handle anything this game can throw at it. I know that sounds like bragging but its just a fact, there is no reason that this game should do that unless it was poorly programmed.
Just like Soma you have to left click and drag to open and close doors and windows. This would be fine except that the doors don’t open and close smoothly. In a way they feel like they ‘click’ into position rather than smoothly moving there.
Here’s the thing though, even though I have many complaints about this game (and believe me I could write even more but honestly I don’t feel its worth my time to) it definitely succeeds at what it was designed to do, create a sense of fear and paranoia in the player. I couldn’t help but feel panic when the Slenderman appeared in a hall beside me, forcing me to run away into an area I was unsure of.
The sense of tension really is there, I would actually say this game had me more scared than Soma or Outlast ever did simply because there was no where to hide, all I could do was run.
So final thoughts time.
Well, I found the main gameplay loop repetitive, I quickly grew tired of looking for x amount of objects. I admit it was changed up a little from time to time, but I still felt like I was doing the same thing over and over.
Once you’ve completed the game hardcore mode becomes unlocked, which as you may have guessed is much more challenging. Honestly though, once you’ve completed it once why bother? It’s not like the story has changed.
So is it a recommendation?
Surprisingly, yes it is, but only if you can get it on the cheap.
If this appeals to you
perhaps try;
