Slender: The Arrival being the successor of the original game, Slender: The Eight Pages, has existed since 2013 and offers characters, a story with ten chapters, and letters to collect, compared to its predecessor, where it lacks a story and you find eight pages.
Starting off, the first chapter in Prologue begins in a beautiful forest with a path with the sun beaming down. The graphics were stunning at the time it was released in 2013, but now since Unreal Engine 5 is being used for the 10 Year Anniversary Update, the visual quality of textures and lighting have drastically improved. Blue Isle Studios did a really nice job with the environment, giving off an atmosphere as you can hear trees moving from the wind and hearing the leaves fall and crackle as you step on them. I liked how the sun rose down as you continued the path into Kate’s house, signifying that Slender is coming or something horrific will happen as darkness rises. In fact, Slender is seen outside while you look into the windows of the house.
Hana Dujaka, Slender: The Arrival fan, shares the experiences she played through.
“You’re in a location where you know, home is typically associated with being safe and secure,” said Dujaka.
The character we play as is Lauren who went to visit Kate and help sell the house, only to see a broken window from her room and a loud scream coming from outside.
“I did really like the incorporation of finding the letters to piece that up into the lore,” said Dujaka.
The collectable items you find are cool because they are not only in the form of a letter,but also a document, drawing, or photo. I loved analyzing what characters like Carl Ross (CR) or Charlie Matheson are feeling and what they have experienced. There is a lot of mystery still left to explore or solve.
The next chapter, The Eight Pages, is relatively short. You had to collect eight pages that had unsettling drawings while facing an entity: Slender. It is a tall figure wearing a suit, but has no face, and his skin is white. I liked how as you collect the first page, you hear a sound that resembles Slender coming for you. The more pages you get, the more eerie the sound gets. Slender is still intriguing to me because we still don’t know much about him, his motives, and yet has negatively affected people’s lives. It appears to be the strongest entity out of his proxies because of how tall it is, which can represent dominance.
In addition, in the third chapter, Into the Abyss, you learn that you’re not alone with Slender in the Kullman Mines, but with one of his proxies: The Chaser. I was scared of the new entity for a little bit, but she is fairly easy to combat against, and runs relentlessly when she finds you by focusing light on her. For Slender, it felt like he showed up a few minutes and wasn’t active. It tended to show up when I activated 4 or 5 generators out of 6 to power the lift. Proxies are people who have been caught by Slender and become an unrecognizable monster under Slender’s control or heavily influenced by it.
Furthermore, the fourth chapter, Flashback, focuses more about the story. The scenery is beautiful from seeing a massive forest in the distance as you’re on top of a hill with the sun. This segment felt relaxing after dealing with Slender and The Chaser. The music was soothing and relaxing. There was a teddy bear you could interact with that led to the next chapter and two buildings that led to the other three chapters.
Chapter 5 gave insight into how Charlie Matheson got turned into a proxy. I’m confused as the parents like Charles Matheson and the mother weren’t concerned early on as you collect trains that lead into a forest, giving Slender the chance to capture Charlie through tentacles. The parents should’ve not let their child go far off from the beach into a forest, but when Charles screamed Charlie’s name to hear where he might be, it sounded like he genuinely made a grave mistake.
Escape being the sixth chapter is quite short, but tells the backstory of what happened to Kate when you see her room and her window is broken during Prologue. I don’t like how the house was full of open doors and windows, when Kate described in the film that Slender was coming and yet she could’ve been somewhat safe if Slender didn’t have any entry points. The house should’ve been locked up, especially when her own home is surrounded by the woods at night.
“I was really taken aback at the end when [Kate] goes into her room and then she just jumps out the window, because I didn’t think she’d do that,” said Dujaka. “I think that leaves more of an interpretation of what happened to her when she ran into the forest.”
When Kate broke through the window, I was confused as to how she got into a different forest. In The Eight Pages, the Oakside park looks different compared to Genesis (chapter 9), which is a remake of the original game, Slender: The Eight Pages. Oakside has areas you go up and down, while Genesis has a forest with flat terrain. Genesis might be a part of Oakside. My best guess is that the forest in Genesis is still a part of Oakside. I actually liked how Blue Isle Studios added lore to a remastered version of the pre-existing game by letting Slender say “I have plans for you, Kate” when you collect all eight pages.
Homestead is by far the creepiest level for me, because of the cellar that had barely working lights. Sometimes you see a child-like figure revealing Charlie as a proxy. When you grab things like a gas can or a collectable item, he runs past the corridors in front of you. I hated the entity more because as you traveled through the wheat crops, thumping sounds were present and heard sounds of Charlie chasing me. When I opened the gate to the chapel and looked to the left, there were rocks that made a circle and one of the notes pointed towards the fact that Frieda had summoned Slender during a ritual by accident. I was shocked because the rocks were a little far away from the left side of the church, and never noticed. The ending of this chapter got me curious because as CR gets chased by Charlie and drops his camera, someone else picks it up and ends the recording with some glitches which leaves so much speculation to cover such as why these videotapes exist along with Escape.
The Arrival, being the most appalling, shows a forest burning down. A small detail I heard was matches being lit before going outside from the cave. It made me wonder who would’ve done it and what the purpose was. On top of the forest being burnt down, CR burns himself. I feel like it would have to be Slender who constantly terrorizes his victims that the people who are constantly in fear, want to end it. Adding more, I learned that the proxy in the Kullman Mines had been revealed as Kate which is a wild turn of events considering you had to help her sell the house, only to investigate more and find out what happened to Kate.
One of the weaknesses of this game is the length of it.
“I just wish [the story] was kind of longer,” said Dujaka.
It took me about an hour or two of playing through the chapters, and I spent more time collecting all the notes and seeing what I have missed.
Chapter 10: Nightmare, takes the perspective of Charles Matheson before he passed away in his own home, which was burned and abandoned shown in Prologue. I got excited when this level was covering Slender’s potential identity and what he can do power wise. It doesn’t have any facial or body features to indicate what gender it is and makes me question “Is Slenderman an entity or a human.” There were writings on the wall in a hospital referring to Slender as a male such as “his reality”, “he”, and “him”. I was more curious as one of the notes contained information about a drug affecting patients to see hallucinations of a tall man which fits Slender’s description.
The new chapter felt a little lackluster, as it wasn’t like The Eight Pages or Into the Abyss where you had an objective to collect pages or activate generators. I do think Nightmare is intended to focus more on the story to learn new characters and existing ones. The hallucinations were nuts, as Slender would appear and vanish or branches growing and disappearing. Charles felt like he was going insane when at one point, ten or twenty Slendermans appeared one by one and you could hear Charles’ breathing.
The ending of this chapter was another big one because when Charles woke up from his nightmare, a silhouette appeared, most likely Slender because of his physical appearance. This made me curious of wanting to know more about it because of these illusions that occur. These hallucinations also happened in the Eight Pages and Into the Abyss where whispers would be present, you walk extremely slow, and your screen turns gray, luring me more because the cause is unknown or unexplained as to why I can hear whispers.
I would recommend this game to anyone who is interested in the mystery and horror elements of this game. It is priced at $19.99 on Steam, Playstation, Xbox, and any other platforms available. Something to also be aware of is that, Slender: The Arrival, has things contained like self-harm, violence, blood, dead bodies, and is intended for a more mature audience.
“If you’re a fan of creepypastas, and if you want a short but fun game, and also just to get yourself invested in new lore, I would recommend it.”
