Your arm jolts forward on the page, the marker soaking through to the desk below. I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO DIE. Thunder booms through the room, the rain pelting against the windows. It won’t let up. HE IS HERE HE IS HERE HE IS HERE. You’ve been drawing circles upon circles again, a neverending loop. IT’S ALL MY FAULT. You glance to the window. He is here. The lightning reflects off of his pale, smooth face. THE TENDRILS THE ARMS THE FACE. It is too late. HE IS HERE HE IS HERE HE IS
Designing a horror game has to be a perilous task. As fans of the genre, we have traveled to decrepit mansions, explored the secrets of the foggy city, and harnessed the powers of a camera obscura to capture spirits. We know a musical crescendo will end in one of two ways – a jump scare, or nothing at all. We want to be frightened but we are growing desensitized. To truly scare us, we need something new.
Following in the loud, echoey footsteps of their previous release – Slender: The Eight Pages – Blue Isle Studios and Parsec Games have partnered together again to bring us exactly what horror fans desire – a new, terrifying experience – in Slender: The Arrival.
Featuring a vastly upgraded visual style from The Eight Pages, as well as four new levels, The Arrival tells the story of Kate, a girl wrapped up in the Slenderman Mythos. The player takes on the role of her friend, Lauren, in her mission to locate and hopefully save Kate from the mysterious and intensely creepy Slenderman.
Slenderman, created on the SomethingAwful.com forums by a user called Victor Surge for a contest in which users had to add paranormal entities to otherwise normal photographs, is an unnaturally tall, skinny, featureless man in a suit who is known to stalk and traumatize people, particularly children. The “Slenderman Mythos” was further popularized by a group called Marble Hornets on YouTube, and has since been adapted into many short videogames, though none come close to the intensity of playing The Arrival.
As far as horror games go, Slender is a fairly simplistic experience. The player, armed only with a flashlight and a video camera, must search locations that Kate had travelled through, locating collectible letters and bits of lore regarding the game world in an attempt to find her.
Using the WASD movement controls typical to PC games, Lauren can focus her flashlight into a stronger beam using the right mouse button. While it may seem like a useless function at first use, the brighter flashlight does come into play in one of the locations in particular. The ability to sprint short distances is also well implemented as Slenderman begins to torment Lauren and the act of getting away becomes paramount.
As the player moves around the environment, collecting Kate’s diary pages and activating generators, visual and audio distortion begin to manifest in the video camera as Slenderman approaches and stalks Lauren. The audio cues in the eerie soundtrack help build an incredible tension and fear, and I found my heart rate increasing as the droning beat of the music went on.
I can’t remember the last time that a horror game affected me so greatly, and going outside to walk my dog after finishing The Arrival was certainly a mistake. The way that the game plays with your perception of objects in the environment and whether they are Slenderman or not bled out into my night-time dog walk in a spine-tingling way. I think it is fair to say I thought I saw a tall, faceless man among the trees once or twice, and that was enough for me to hurry back inside.
I would argue that atmosphere is one of the most important elements in a horror game (or even film), and The Arrival is teeming with it. From the fantastic musical direction to the visual distortion when Slenderman is around, the mood is set as terribly nerve-wracking.
The Arrival‘s only real limitation is in its narrative focus. The story is told exclusively through the collectible letters, and while they are well-written, the lack of a set-up was somewhat jarring. I can’t help but feel that some text explaining the story would have benefited the experience. That said, slowly learning about what is happening was fitting for a game surrounding such a mysterious creature.
For $10, any horror buff has no excuse to avoid this fantastic indie game. With an expected Steam release and the availability on the game’s website, I urge you to play The Arrival. You may not be entirely thankful for the recommendation after your nerves are completely shot, but there is no denying this is an experience for any horror lover. There is only one thing to remember after playing the game: Make sure you close all of your windows and doors.
Slender: The Arrival is available for purchase on PC and Mac at http://www.slenderarrival.com/ for $10.