Slender: The Arrival is the official re-imagining and expansion of the original game created by Mark Hadley, teamed up with the writers behind the Marble Hornets series and the development team at Blue Isle Studios. Slender: The Eight Pages was a short, experimental first-person game that helped breathe new life into the horror genre through its use of unadulterated tension and fear. Slender: The Arrival is the official videogame adaption of Slender Man, developed in collaboration with Eric "Victor Surge" Knudson, creator of the paranormal phenomenon that has been terrifying the curious-minded around the world since its inception, with Mark Hadley and Blue Isle Studios.īack in 2012, Mark Hadley ( AgentParsec) created a game that captivated gamers around the world. For ten dollars, it’s completely worth it.You're on your own. So do yourself a favour and turn off the lights, put some good headphones in and experience Slender: The Arrival. Reminiscent of the early Resident Evil and Silent Hill games, the feeling of being underpowered contributes to the terror. The entire enjoyment of Slender is not the mechanics, but that it wants you to be a willing participant in being terrified. It’s designed to zone you in, and if you’re not in that mode, it’s the equivalent of trying to poke holes in a ghost story. If you happen to be easily terrified, your own heartbeat, ragged breathing and occasional profanity add to the game’s sound design. Even the unnatural sounds, the pulsating thump, feel part of the environment. The crunch of the leaves beneath your feet, the chirp of crickets that vary from soft to loud. The real panic is not delivered in the sights, but in the sounds. The closer he gets, the less you have control, adding to the panicked experience. He will hunt you and in the new game, trap you in rooms that only have one exit. You see a glimpse, then the “camera” starts to shake and stutter. The Slender Man himself is frightening in how much of him you don’t see. That’s not easy, but when you do, he gets closer. The goal is to feel that you are lost and to find the pages however you can. The point of the game, however, is not to manage your stamina to achieve the goal of finding the pages. In fact, it even slows your walking pace. For example, as you run, you lose overall stamina, which can’t be recovered. The game doesn’t make you think about that management. The environments are busier, which in a game that often requires a tense focus, makes managing your attention more important.
Certain objects look painted-on, but it hardly removes you from the experience. Though light is a commodity, you can tell the graphics are much improved over the original Slender. The Arrival is intentionally dark, wanting the player to constantly move their flashlight to search out the visual truth - to see if what they saw was actually there. Article content LISTEN TO ANAND RAM GET THE CRAP SCARED OUT OF HIM PLAYING SLENDER THE ARRIVAL(warning, he uses a little bit of blue language as he gets more and more scared) null This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Apart from the flashlight’s battery indicator and a tiny reticle, it doesn’t feel very much like a game. The view is first-person, through the lens of an old-school video camera. Armed with only your trusty flashlight, it’s time to page hunting. After that, you’re taken to the remade forest setting of the first game.
There, you learn the mechanics of the game and the beginning of the mystery you need to unravel. It starts differently, with the investigation of your friend’s house. The first part is a kind-of remake of the original forest level in The Eight Pages. The creators have taken what terrified players in the first game and improved that experience, while still keeping in line with its basic roots. Now, with The Arrival, the game boasts better graphics, incredible sound design and additional levels and story. Much like the videotape in The Ring, it was something truly viral. In that simplicity was a breakout hit that made the rounds because people wanted to share it.
In a dark forest, the player must find 8 pages before a lanky, faceless (albeit well-dressed) creature catches them.