Slender: The Arrival
Last edited Wed Apr 8, 2015, 06:03 PM - Edit history (1)
Available on PC, MAC, PS3, PS4, X360, and XONE. I played the PS4 version.
Genre: First person horror.
Story: You play a woman named Lauren who goes to a new development area in the woods to help her friend Kate sell a house. When you arrive at her house Kate is missing, and you decide to find your friend. The rest of the story is discovered throughout the game.
Gameplay: There is no combat or stealth. You can walk, run, and crouch, though I never found a use for crouching. You can zoom your view, turn the video camera hud on or off, turn your flashlight on or off, and focus your flashlight bean. The game gives you very little direction, but finding out what to do isn't hard, because there isn't much to do. The pause menu gives you a little bit of guidance, such "find some gas for the generator," but it usually just says something like "explore the area." In each level, you wander around, figure out what that level's goal is, such as collect eight notes, and try to avoid Slender Man. He damages you if you look at him or if you're close to him, and I never discovered a way thwart him, but you can usually just run away. He doesn't directly chase you, but he can teleport.
Presentation: I have played many horror games, and this is one of the scariest. Slender Man himself wasn't that scary, but the extremely dark environments, creepy music, disturbing sound effects, and constant threat added up to a very unnerving gaming experience. There is also something else evil and threatening in the darkness.
Replay: You unlock a new difficulty when you beat the game, which has a different ending, and there's a bonus level and a secret level. That's all I know about, and it isn't that much. The game is also fairly short.
Overall: If the game wasn't terrifying it wouldn't be very interesting, but I really enjoyed playing Slender: The Arrival. I hear the graphics are pretty bad on the PS3 and X360, but if the sound is the same it should still be very scary. I bought this for $7 on sale (I think it's normally $10) and I'm happy with my purchase mostly because it's so rare to actually play a game that scares me. If you love horror then you should definitely check it out, but if you don't love horror you should stay away. Other horror games, such as The Evil Within, The Last of Us, and Alien Isolation have a lot more going on to attract non horror fans, but Slender: The Arrival has nothing but scares and a spooky story. There is a demo, but it doesn't do the game justice. Turn off the lights, turn up the volume, and Slender should get your heart pumping.
Here's the official trailer, but the less you watch or read about the game the scarier it will be.
