Slender: The Arrival is a survival horror indie game that was originally released on March 26, 2013, for Steam, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It got a port for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One a while after it was initially released. More recently on October 18, 2023, a remake of Slender: The Arrival was released for Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, the game was given a complete graphic overhaul, reworked game mechanics, a new level along with a rewritten, ever-expanding storyline. All these changes are welcome with open arms with the core game remaining the same, so what makes Slender: The Arrival so memorable?
Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil
The core gameplay of Slender: The Arrival is simple: the player must complete a certain objective for the level to proceed forward in the game, rinse, and repeat until you beat the game. It might sound simple and repetitive on paper, but once the player plays the game, it’s anything but. The first non-scripted level named “The Eight Pages” is where the player must collect eight pages in a park while avoiding the main antagonist of the game: Slender Man himself. Sounds simple enough but there’s a catch: with each page collected, the more aggressive Slender Man becomes in trying to stop the player. He’s the perfect monster to scare the player.
Slender Man makes no noise whatsoever. He can teleport anywhere around your area as he pleases, and there’s zero indication that he’s nearby or not until you look in his direction and make visual contact. By then, it’s usually too late. There’s no way to fight back, all you can do is turn and run away. The level “Genesis” has the same layout on a different map, “Into The Abyss” requires the player to go into the mine and activate six generators to progress. Not only are the mines pitch black without the flashlight, but also Slender Man, along with a new threat to halt your progress, is there.
He’s Not Alone
Along with Slender Man, two new threats join his crusade against the player: Kate and Charlie. Known in lore as his “proxies”, people have fallen under a curse due to the Slender Sickness. Kate joins Slender Man in the “Into The Abyss” level to help hunt down the player. She works differently than Slender Man. Unlike him, looking at her directly won’t affect the player’s health. She’s still a threat on her own merits, as she chases down the player by running directly towards the player, only stopping when temporarily blinded by the player’s flashlight. She may also lose track of the player but that rarely happens.
Kate attacks the player physically by clawing and punching the player until either the player manages to shake her off or Kate kills them. Her rapidly approaching footsteps along with her loud grunts and screeches put the player on edge about where she could be. She can’t teleport but she can run extremely fast, which along with the presence of Slender Man can easily make it the most stressful and scariest level in the game. Charlie doesn’t show up outside of scripted sequences, which is great for first-time players but loses immersion and the horror factor quickly when going back to it.
The Untold Stories Lost to Darkness
It’s not just the gameplay in Slender: The Arrival that does a great job of immersing the player but also the story and lore of the game. The player plays a character known as Lauren, a friend of Kate who went to Kate’s house to help her sell the house and move following the death of Kate’s mother. Lauren finds Kate’s home broken into, with Kate nowhere to be found. After investigating her room, Lauren hears Kate’s screams outside the house and heads towards the sounds of the screams at the nearby park where Lauren is targeted by Slender Man.
After encountering Kate as a proxy, Lauren heads to the radio tower on the mountain that is constantly hinted at throughout the game as probably the only safe place from Slender Man. After Lauren reaches it and seals herself inside a room with scribbles on the walls, she finds the charred remains of a corpse and a broken video camera to which she learns the dark truth. Charlie breaks in and knocks her unconscious, and Lauren wakes up in an abandoned and decaying house. After some investigating, Lauren finds Kate. After approaching her, Kate knocks Lauren out, dragging her away from the dying camera to an unknown fate.
More Clues Are Yet to Be Found
There are many collectibles to be found throughout Slender: The Arrival, many of which reveal the deep-rooted history of Charlie’s family and Kate’s family. It shows how they’re both connected to Slender Man and why Slender Man is after them and why he turned them into monsters. It also shows why characters like Lauren, Charles, and CR get caught in the crossfire. With more content on the way for the game, who knows how deep the rabbit hole can go? This is for certain, no matter what comes next, the player must be ready to face the wrath of the Slender Man
Departing Thoughts
Slender: The Arrival still holds up to this day thanks to the Blue Isles Studios and Eric Khudsen AKA Victor Surge for creating such a vibrant horror story that can last generations of gamers. It’s crazy to think that all of this came to fruition from just a couple of creepy edits of photographs for a contest on 4chan. It wouldn’t have taken off without the help of the Creepypasta community creating many aspiring stories based on the Slender Man mythos, they are eager for what the future holds for the Slender Man.
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