Welcome to The Attic, don’t look behind you.

Slender: The Arrival has been on my “to play” list ever since it was released. A good friend gifted it to me during the Steam summer sale and I can’t tell you how excited I was to check it out. Slender Man has always creeped me out. I know many will point out that the story is nothing more than an urban legend, and while I have no doubt that is true, there is still a part of me that finds the figure extremely unnerving. The Dark Princess loves nothing more than playing horror games while the weather is cold outside. There is something about a crisp autumn day that lends itself nicely to a scary movie or video game. And so recently, as the Canadian weather began to shift into the glorious 40s, I snuggled in with a blanket and started playing.

The game follows the formula of the previous Slender games in that the gameplay is simple; basically all you have to do is survive. There is a chapter where you need to collect 8 pages (because why not?) but there are numerous other chapters too and they all require you to do different tasks. At the most fundamental level, however, it is all about surviving. You really have to keep moving in order to prevent being caught. But there’s more to it this time around…

I always make a point to avoid spoilers, so I’ll keep this part vague: If you go into this thinking that simply moving quickly and not backtracking may keep you safe, you are dead wrong. This game adds a whole other level of fear. It’s not always what’s behind you in this Slender game. So move quickly, but keep your eyes peeled and be prepared to turn around and hightail it out of there at any given moment. There may be more lurking than just ol’ Slendy.

I do have two issues with this game, and as much as I enjoyed this game I can’t fail to mention these problems. First of all, I must warn you that Arrival brings a great level of frustration. I almost rage-quit twice, so eventually I just bumped the difficulty down to easy and started over. Ordinarily I hate doing that but in this case it had to be done. Difficulty in a horror game isn’t a bad thing, but once it gets to the point where you feel it’s impossible to keep playing, that’s when I’ll cry ‘uncle’ and have no shame in playing easy mode. If you’re looking for a challenge, knock yourself out… I, for one, wanted to enjoy the game’s atmosphere and story and be scared silly without wanting to throw my controller against the wall. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, fear and frustration do not have to go hand-in-hand.

Now, my second issue is the length of the game. If you keep dying (aka “normal” mode) then the length wouldn’t feel so bad, but if you play it on easy then you’re looking at a pretty short game. This isn’t too bad if you can get it cheap on sale. Over the last Steam summer sale I think it was around $5, and even $10 wouldn’t be too bad, but I wouldn’t advise spending any more than that.

Those issues aside, I really need to stress how much fun I had playing Slender: The Arrival. It is highly enjoyable and to say I found it unnerving would be the understatement of the century. I found myself pausing a lot to message my gamer friends here at Enthusiacs to send tons of silly messages like “HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT WAS THAT?” or my favorite: “FUCK THIS GAME!!!” Frequent breaks are sometimes needed when playing a horror game… dun judge me, guys. Except for our resident Judge Greg, he can. Friends, I had a blast with this game and you must all play it immediately. Definitely remember to grab the headphones and turn the volume up, as that always adds to the experience.

Stay scared,
Dark Princess